Chapter 3

Over the following days, hospital bills and contract termination notices weighed on me like mountains.

My mother was still in the ICU, burning through cash by the hour.

Desperate for money, I signed onto the most humiliating reality show in the industry, "Extreme Survival".

What I didn't expect was to overhear Sean's voice outside the green room.

"Sean, tone it down," his manager, Rachel, was saying. "Maya is already getting dragged through the mud online. Don't push her off a cliff."

"She brought this on herself. Who cares?" Sean's voice was like ice.

"Her fans and yours still overlap from the PR stunt. Can't you at least play nice for the cameras?" Rachel sighed.

"Play nice with her? Is she worthy?" Sean scoffed. "Six months ago, if the label hadn't forced me into that fake romance and handled all the promo, do you think I would've agreed?"

He sneered. "A woman who'll do anything for fame... Looking at her makes me sick."

Standing outside the door, my fingernails dug so hard into the drywall that my cuticles bled.

"Sean Hayes, you really are ruthless."

Six months ago, when our PR romance started, he hadn’t seemed this cold.

Now I realized: every single sweet message from back then had been typed by his PR team.

My chest tightened painfully. Right then, Shay sent a message.

[Baby, are you tired from work today? I ordered your favorite food to your place.]

I took a deep breath, pocketed my phone, and pushed the door open.

During filming, we were thrown into a mud pit challenge.

Chloe, a rising starlet, intentionally shoved me from behind.

I slammed face-first into the mud, filthy and humiliated.

"Oh gosh, Maya, I'm so sorry! Total accident!" Chloe giggled, covering her mouth.

The director didn't yell cut. Drama meant views.

"Get up. Stop playing dead," Sean called out from the edge of the pit, looking down at me with pure disdain. "Maya, if you can't even handle a simple game, crawl back to Block B!"

Every camera swung to focus on my face.

I wiped the muddy water from my eyes and dragged myself up without a word.

For my mother's medical bills, I could take it.

During the break, I hid in a secluded corner to wipe the mud off my face.

Sean was sitting near his vanity trailer not far away, staring down at his phone.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed.

[Baby, I just had to deal with someone I despise. My mood is completely ruined.]

[But thinking of you makes everything better.]

Instinctively, I looked up at Sean.

His long fingers were tapping furiously across his screen.

What stopped my breath, though, was his hand.

As he typed, his left index finger rhythmically tapped his thigh twice.

It was a subconscious habit.

The exact same habit shown in a video Shay had sent me months ago. Shay had filmed his hands unboxing a gift, tapping his left index finger twice against his leg in the exact same rhythm.

My heart skipped a beat.

"No. Impossible."

"There is no way Sean is Shay."

To test it, my hands shook as I typed a message to Shay:

[Shay, what are you doing right now? Can you sing something for me?]

I kept my eyes glued to Sean.

One second.

Two seconds.

Sean suddenly paused, ran an annoyed hand through his hair, and turned to say something to his assistant.

The assistant immediately hurried away.

A few seconds later, my phone chimed with an audio message.

I pressed play.

"Baby, I'm outside right now and it's pretty loud. Let me sing for you when I get home tonight, okay?"

The voice was run through a pitch modifier, buzzing with light digital static.

Yet that lazy, low cadence matched Sean's real-life tone with his assistant down to the syllable.

I froze on the spot.

The dream boyfriend who had kept me company for two years, checking in on me every single day, trying to wire me a million dollars...

Was the exact same arrogant monster who had shoved me into the mud and demanded three million dollars in damages.

Staring at my phone screen, a silent, hollow laugh tore through me.

Tears mixed with mud dripped down my chin.

"Sean... oh, Sean."

"You hate me so much, don't you?"

"I wonder what your face will look like when you realize the 'baby' you've treasured for two years is the very woman you destroyed with your own hands."