She teasingly called me materialistic, but her eyes were full of bright ambition.To produce her first album, I sold the only property my parents had left me.To secure her an opening slot at a music festival, I drank with investors until I ended up in the ER with a bleeding stomach, my assistant rushing me there in the dead of night.When she arrived at the hospital, her eyes were blazing red. She gripped my hand and said, “Alex, I’ll never let you suffer like this again.”Looking at her then, I felt it was all worth it.
Every single sacrifice.I thought we were bound by destiny, each other’s only support.I poured all my resources and heart into paving her way to stardom, every single step.I taught her how to face the cameras, how to handle the media, how to package herself into the perfect idol for her fans.She learned quickly, and she succeeded.So she became bigger and bigger, and we moved into the most luxurious office building downtown. Our little studio grew into a full-fledged company.But our relationship, too, subtly shifted.She started complaining about my controlling nature, saying my schedule was too packed, leaving her no time to create, longing for some “purity.”Liam Reed, a younger man she called her “junior,” appeared around this time.He became the embodiment of her so-called “purity.”I confronted her about it once, just a month before the concert.
“Sera, we’re business partners, and we’re lovers. I don’t want anything jeopardizing the foundation of our partnership,” I said, cutting straight to the chase.She sat opposite me, scrolling dismissively on her phone. “You’re overthinking it. Liam is just a friend, someone I can talk music with.”“I’m the one handling all your music,” I reminded her.She snapped her head up, a look of pure loathing and defiance in her eyes that I’d never seen before. “That’s different! That’s commercial! That’s a product! Don’t you get it? All you understand is business!”“With Liam, I feel like a living, breathing person, not just a commodity in your hands!”
That was the first time I realized she was no longer the Sera Hayes who’d fought by my side.She was just a successful product I had created.And now, this product had developed its own thoughts and wanted to break free from me.I chose to handle it with a cold shoulder back then.I thought it was just her ego inflating from fame, that once the concert concluded smoothly, and our relationship was solidified by a grand proposal ceremony, everything would go back to normal.I was wrong.I was wrong to treat her like a controllable pawn, ignoring the most uncontrollable betrayal of human nature.
