I Broke Up with My Boyfriend on the Day I Won the Best Newcomer Award

: Living Expenses

The day I won the Best Newcomer Award, I broke up with my boyfriend.

With red-rimmed eyes, he swallowed his pride and begged me, "Please don't leave me. I swear I'll start getting acting jobs!"

I said nothing, simply turning and getting into a Rolls-Royce.

Later, he shot to fame online, thanks to his superb performance in a web series. He proposed to me in public, vowing to love and pamper me just like he had before.

After we were married, he forced me to watch him film every single scene. I would sit behind the camera, watching him and his rumored love interest embrace and kiss, completely lost in each other.

I knew he wanted me to suffer. What he didn't know was that the web series that launched his career was a role I secured for him by donating a kidney to a powerful tycoon's unforgettable past love.

And now, that same kidney is failing. I don't have long to live.

1

Cole Alastair seemed utterly absorbed in his kiss with her. It didn't look like acting at all.

She was Jenna Ivory, a rising starlet. Just like her name suggested, her skin was as smooth as cream and as radiant as light. She was the second female lead in the show and Cole Alastair's rumored girlfriend.

In the span of a single year, Cole Alastair had already taken on two projects that featured intimate scenes with Jenna Ivory. They had even trended online together several times. Many fans were shipping them hard, saying they were a match made in heaven.

It seemed they had all forgotten—forgotten that Cole Alastair still had a wife, a non-celebrity like me.

Cole Alastair called and told me to visit the set.

As payment, he offered me $75,000. I readily agreed.

I had no choice. I was desperate for money. With my kidneys failing, my other organs were also being affected. I needed that $75,000 to stay alive.

It couldn't cure me, but it could buy me more time.

The moment I arrived on set, the first thing I saw was Cole Alastair and Jenna Ivory filming an intimate scene.

He didn't seem to notice me. I stood off to the side, watching by myself.

The young women nearby began to whisper as they looked me over.

"Who is that woman? How did she just walk onto our set?"

"She has good features, but she's way too thin. And she doesn't seem to put any effort into her appearance."

I heard their chatter but just let the corners of my mouth lift in a slight smile. I didn't acknowledge them or offer any explanation.

The scene finally wrapped.

Beaming, she linked her arm through his and made small talk with the crew.

"Great work, everyone!"

He didn't pull away.

Suddenly, her smile froze the instant she saw me.

This was the first time we had met. From the look on her face, she seemed to recognize me, which I found a little surprising.

But she didn't remove her hand from Cole Alastair's arm.

Cole Alastair noticed me then, too.

With his eyes half-lidded, he gently tugged her hand, pulling her arm tighter against him. The two of them looked even more intimate.

He never once looked me directly in the eye.

Jenna Ivory put on a troubled, pitiful expression and looked at Cole Alastair. "Saozi won't mind, will she?"

'Her name shouldn't be Jenna Ivory. It should be scheming innocent.'

He seemed completely oblivious to how manipulative she sounded.

"She's very magnanimous; she won't mind," he said. "The only thing she minds is whether I've sent her living expenses on time."

His voice was warm, as gentle as a placid spring pool.

There was a time when I, too, was the recipient of that tenderness, but that was long ago, back when we were young.

After he became famous, he started scattering that tenderness in every direction, bestowing it upon various other actresses.

Now, after a year, I was finally meeting his legendary rumored girlfriend.

This rumored girlfriend seemed different from all the others.

Ever since the rumors about her and Cole Alastair started, I hadn't seen his name linked to any other scandals.

And you have to understand, Cole Alastair was a well-known Player King, both inside and outside the entertainment industry.

But his fans didn't mind. They even joked that his image could never be ruined, because he was already a train wreck to begin with.

'For a Player King to finally settle down... he must be serious this time.'

I looked at the two of them without a hint of displeasure on my face. In fact, I even wore a faint smile.

"That's right, I don't mind. I'm just here to pick up my living expenses. Cole, if you ever decide you want a divorce, just let me know. I'm on call, and it won't cost you a thing."

The words had barely left my mouth when my phone buzzed with a text message: a deposit of $75,000.

'Mission accomplished.'

I looked up at Cole Alastair, smiling.

"Thanks! I'll be going now."

With that, I turned and walked away coolly, without a single glance back.

It seemed I hadn't followed the script Jenna Ivory had in mind. She just stood there watching me leave, stunned into a long silence.