Shattered Illusion: You Were Just His Shadow

During a live interview, the host threw out a trending question. [ What is your partner's getoutofjailfree card? ] I leaned into the mic. "His face." I trended on Twitter that very night. [ CoraUltimateSimp ] The whole internet knew I was the official girlfriend of Silas, the untouchable heir to the Zhou empire.

They all knew I was pathetically obsessed with him. Even when the paparazzi caught him making out with an Alist actress on the beach.

Even when they tracked them to a luxury hotel for the night. I still played the desperate, loveblind fool. I dropped a public statement right away. "We are not breaking up!

I would die without him!" I kept this act up for five years. And finally, Silas cracked. He cleared out his entire rotation of side pieces.

He knelt on the cold marble of his family's private chapel for three days and three nights straight.

He looked his father in the eye and swore he would rather strip himself of his billionaire inheritance than lose me. He was going to marry me. The internet ate it up.

Everyone praised the ultimate badboy redemption arc. Right up until someone snapped a photo of me visiting a cemetery and leaked it online.

In the photo, I stood in front of a heavy granite headstone.

A single line was carved into the rock. [ Here lies my late husband, Nolan. ] The faded memorial portrait attached to the stone showed a man's face. A face identical to Silas's.

That night, the realization finally hit Silas. He was nothing but a cheap standin. A body double. He nearly threw himself off a highrise rooftop.

Chapter 1 When I first met Silas, he was fresh out of a breakup with his high school sweetheart. "I'm the main character of my own life.

I don't need your toxic money." Mia shoved her finger into his chest. Then she packed her bags and flew to Paris for a master's program.

Silas ran into me right outside his company's headquarters. I had that innocent, girlnextdoor look. The exact same vibe Mia had when she first broke into the industry.

Silas stopped me in my tracks. He asked exactly three questions. "Name?" "Single?" "Want to be my girlfriend?

You can have whatever money and industry connections you want." At first, his trustfund circle ripped me to shreds.

One of them flicked cigarette ash near my shoes. "You only slipped in because Mia took off.

You actually think he takes you seriously?" Mia's fanbase tore me apart online. [ Homewrecker.

The second our Mia comes back, Silas is kicking you to the curb! ] It was all because Silas had pulled every single endorsement and movie role he'd lined up for Mia and handed them to me.

Mia couldn't handle it. She posted a passiveaggressive subtweet. [ Some standins shouldn't get too comfortable.

What isn't yours will eventually have to be returned. ] The internet grabbed their popcorn. [ Billionaires don't do real love.

She's definitely going to drain his bank account and run. ] But five years passed. I never asked Silas for a single dime.

When he caught a nasty flu on a business trip, I dropped my entire schedule and flew overseas to stay by his bedside. By the time his fever broke, I collapsed from exhaustion.

Whenever the paparazzi caught him with some Instagram model, I didn't even demand an explanation. I just dropped a public statement. "I trust Silas.

I will always stay by his side." Slowly, the narrative flipped. Everyone started believing I was madly in love with Silas. Even his arrogant friends changed their tune.

They started calling me their sisterinlaw. "Man, you should just settle down with her." One of his friends clapped Silas on the shoulder. "If I had a girl treat me like that, my life would be set." That night.

We stood by the floortoceiling windows of his Bel Air mansion. Silas wrapped his arms around me from behind.

He pressed his lips against the tip of my ear. "Cora, why don't we…" Why don't we get married? He never finished the sentence. A sharp ringtone shattered the quiet.

Mia's voice crackled through the speaker. She sounded like she was choking on sobs. "Silas, I regret it. Is it too late?" Silas didn't answer her.

He just dropped his arms from my waist and sprinted out the front door. He didn't even bother to take off his house slippers.

In the middle of the night, Mia dropped a new post. [ Lost and found. ] The photo attached showed two hands, fingers tightly laced together.

On Silas's hand, the matching couple's ring I bought him caught the light. Mia had hit a brick wall during her years away from Silas.

Her auditions dried up, her brand deals vanished, and some sleazy producer had nearly backed her into a corner. She finally figured out how brutal the real world was.

She wanted to crawl back into her safe, little billionairefunded bubble.

The second she got back together with Silas, she came straight for my contracts. "You are Silas's official girlfriend right now. Technically, she's the other woman!

What gives her the right to act like this?" My manager, Valerie, paced the room and cursed for a solid hour. I knew Silas didn't love me. But that was fine.

I never wanted his love in the first place. A few arrogant producers in the industry decided I was about to be tossed out.

During an industry dinner, they cornered me and forced shot after shot of liquor into my hands. Silas caught wind of it.

He kicked the private room door open and beat those men until their faces were a bloody mess. I stared at his face. The room blurred.

Hot tears spilled over my lashes and tracked down my cheeks. Silas immediately dropped his fists and pulled me into his chest.

His hand rubbed soothing circles into my back. "Don't be scared, Cora," he whispered. "No matter what happens, I'm never going to abandon you." Chapter 2 I had a rough start in life.

I grew up throwing punches in alleyways just to survive. A few sleazy executives weren't going to make me shed a single tear.

But watching the man in front of me bloody his knuckles for my sake… he looked exactly like the ghost that haunted my dreams.

Silas's friends clustered around me, trying to run damage control. "See, Cora?

Silas is dead serious about you." "Mia is just an old itch he needed to scratch." For a split second, I actually thought Silas had fallen for me.

But the very next day, he flew off to a private island with Mia. The paparazzi caught them acting like a couple of teenagers in the honeymoon phase.

They locked lips on the beach, walked handinhand into a fivestar resort, and didn't step outside until the next morning.

My comment section was flooded with hate from Mia's fanbase. [ Stop playing dead, Cora! Say something!

Just thinking about how pathetic and jealous you must be right now gives me life! ] [ What you stole from someone else, you eventually have to give back. ] [ First loves always win.

She just has to stand there and she takes the crown, while some pickme girls could spend a lifetime kissing ass and still lose. ] Silas's secretary called my cell.

He ordered me to run interference and handle the PR crisis, just like always. "Fine." I tapped my fingers against my desk. "Tell him to enjoy his vacation.

I'll handle the fallout." But this time, the leaked video was a smoking gun.

Even though I was willing to lie through my teeth, the internet wasn't buying it. [ Girl, are you seriously still defending him?

Do you think we're completely blind? ] [ Oh, right, totally normal friends. Just a platonic makeout session.

They totally went to that hotel room and gossiped under the covers all night.

Sure. ] [ Cora, if you don't dump him right now, we're going to start canceling you too! ] Pushed to the edge of the PR storm, I dropped my official statement. "We are not breaking up!

I would die without him!" Silas cut his private island getaway short and flew back to throw me a massive birthday bash.

He clamped his hand around my waist, his chest vibrating against my spine as a dark, triumphant laugh rumbled in his throat.

He leaned in, his breath hot against my neck. "Baby, are you really that obsessed with me?

Huh?" Earlier that afternoon, during the live broadcast, the other guests had asked me the exact same thing. I had lost a party game and picked truth.

The host shoved a mic in my face. "What is your partner's getoutofjailfree card?" I was hooked up to a lie detector machine. I couldn't fake it.

I looked dead into the camera with absolute sincerity. "His face." The host choked on his water, hacking and coughing offcamera. "…Excuse me?!" But the machine stayed perfectly silent.

It was the truth. It was an open secret in the industry that the heir to the Zhou empire had the bone structure of a runway model. He had gone viral for his looks before.

The public just assumed I was a superficial simp. The incurable kind. The guest sitting next to me was Claire.

She was an Alist veteran, an absolute powerhouse in the industry known for having zero filter.

Under the viral photos of Silas and Mia kissing, she had actually left a comment from her official account. [ They deserve each other. ] Followed by a throwingup emoji.

The internet had retweeted it into oblivion.

Now, sitting next to me on set, she looked like she wanted to shake me until my teeth rattled. "Cora, are you really that blindly in love with him?" I just smiled.

With the cameras rolling, I let the topic die right there. After we wrapped up the shoot, Claire invited me over to her place for dinner.

Years ago, I had played her daughter in an indie film. It only took half a month on set for Claire to see right through my sweet, girlnextdoor facade.

She saw the absolute chaos burning underneath. She never called me out for faking it.

Instead, she praised me. "Good." She had poured herself a drink. "I like that stubborn streak in you.

You remind me of exactly who I used to be." Chapter 3 Claire's penthouse was right in the heart of Manhattan. On the living room wall hung a faded, vintage photograph.

A much younger Claire leaned her head against the shoulder of a handsome man, a shy, radiant smile on her face. I knew the rumors. She had a fiancé back in her twenties.

A car crash took his life three days before their wedding. I had lived through the exact same hell.

I couldn't even begin to fathom how she had survived decades of pulling herself through those endless, suffocating nights. "Claire, how did you make it through all these years?" Claire took a slow sip of her bourbon.

The rims of her eyes flushed red. "When the pain hit the hardest, I wanted to end it all. But I still had my parents. I couldn't afford to be that selfish.

I tried dating other men just to force myself to move on. I even almost eloped once." She swiped a thumb under her eye, her voice dropping to a hollow whisper. "None of it worked.

The more people I let into my life, the more it hit me. He was him. Nobody could ever replace him." I let out a heavy breath, my fingernails digging into the fabric of my skirt.

My phone screen lit up on the coffee table, flashing yet another gossip notification about Silas.

A man wearing the exact same face as my husband was out there playing the billionaire playboy, turning me into a massive joke for the entire world to laugh at. Silas wasn't him.

And he could never replace him. The thought of walking away finally clicked into place. The day before my birthday, Manhattan hosted its biggest annual charity gala.

Mia hadn't even made the guest list. But the second she whined that she wanted to go, Silas pulled his strings and secured her a VIP pass.

He even shadowed her the entire night, acting like she was too fragile for the red carpet. When the camera flashes hit them, Silas bent down and smoothed out the train of her gown.

They locked eyes, practically radiating couple energy. "What the hell is this? I've never seen a cheater and a homewrecker parade around this shamelessly!

Do they not believe in karma?" Valerie slammed her fist onto our table.

I swallowed the dry lump in my throat and let out a quiet laugh. "They aren't going to get hit by karma." Men with Silas's level of money and power didn't face consequences.

The public would just brush it off as a billionaire having his fun.

Half the men in the city were probably insanely jealous that he was getting away with keeping two women on the hook. As for Mia, she had the Zhou empire backing her every move.

The internet could tear her apart all they wanted, but it wouldn't put a single dent in her career. She was already snatching up better scripts and brand deals by the day.

The world was just rigged like that. My assigned seat was right next to Silas. By the time I walked into the ballroom, Mia had already claimed it.

I pointed toward the back of the venue. "Your seat is back there." Mia rolled her eyes and stared straight ahead, playing deaf.

For the first time in five years, my stubborn streak flared up. I planted my heels and stared down at her. "Don't play dumb. Get up." The tension at the table thickened.

Silas reached out and tugged at the fabric of my dress. "Cora, be good. Just let her have it." "And what if I don't?" Silas's brows snapped together.

He dropped his voice. "Stop acting like a brat. If you want to throw a tantrum, do it when we get home." I couldn't even understand my own reaction.

I had swallowed every insult and betrayal for five years, but today, over a stupid chair, my chest felt like it was caving in.

I forced down the tightening in my throat. "Silas, this is the last time." I ripped my dress out of his grip. I turned my back on him and walked straight to the rear tables.

The gala dragged on for hours. Silas kept twisting in his seat to look back at me.

The press barely got a single clean shot of his face for the rest of the night—just the back of his head. Mia hated every second of it.

The moment the event wrapped, she clutched her stomach and complained about cramps. Silas ended up sitting in a hospital room with her all night long.

Chapter 4 The next morning, Silas's friends blew up my phone. "Cora, you have no idea how much effort Silas put into your birthday bash.

He even had your dress custommade by dozens of French artisans." "Just let last night slide. He knows he screwed up.

He's going to make it up to you today, I promise." That was classic Silas.

Whenever he knew he was dead wrong but his ego wouldn't let him apologize, he sent his friends to do his dirty work. I took a cab to the party venue.

But the second I walked in, I noticed everyone staring at the floor, looking completely uncomfortable. "What's going on?" I followed their gaze up to the secondfloor balcony.

That spectacular, custommade gown was currently draped over Mia's body. Silas walked down the stairs. He rubbed his jaw, avoiding my eyes. "Mia really liked the dress.

Just let her have it. I'll buy you an even better one later—" "Silas." I cut him off, staring dead at him. "Is this your idea of making it up to me? That is my dress!

Why the hell should I give it to her? I won't do it!" "Keeping two women on the hook—you make me sick!" "No, wait. You two deserve each other.

You're both trash." I had played the sweet, obedient girlfriend for five straight years. Silas had never seen me snap like this.

He had certainly never been cursed out by me in public. He choked on his words, his face flushing with embarrassment. "Are you serious? It's just a dress.

Are you really throwing a fit over a dress?" "It's your birthday, Cora. Just be happy, don't get mad," his friends rushed in to play peacemaker. "Yeah, Silas, come on.

Apologize to her." I stood glued to the floor. I didn't say a single word. I just stared at Silas's face for a long time.

Then, I let out a dry laugh. "Don't bother apologizing." I looked right into his eyes. "Silas, we're done." The entire room went dead silent.

It took a full minute for the words to process in Silas's brain. "…Done?" "Are you breaking up with me?" "Cora, say that one more time.

I dare you." Mia finally trotted down the stairs when she heard the yelling. She kept her eyes glued to the floor, playing the victim. "Cora, I am so sorry! I grew up poor.

Nobody ever spoiled me. This was the first time I've ever seen such a beautiful dress, and I just wanted to try it on. Please don't be mad.

I'll take it off and give it back right now—" "Keep it." I unzipped my purse and pulled out a pair of crafting scissors.

I grabbed Mia by the collar of the dress and hacked the silk into literal shreds. "Anything you wear belongs in the trash!" Silas's pupils blew wide open.

He violently shoved me back. "Cora! Are you out of your mind?!" Mia collapsed into his chest, clutching her heart and sobbing like a wounded animal.

A sharp sting sliced across my palm. I had cut myself with the scissors. I curled my fingers into a tight fist, hiding the blood, and turned on my heel.

I walked straight for the front doors. "Cora, wait—" His friends tried to step in. Silas pointed a shaking finger at the door. "Let her walk!

If anyone tries to stop her, you're dead to me!" I went back to his estate and packed only my essential documents. I bought a sameday train ticket to a gray, rainy town upstate.

The scenery blurred past the window. Listening to the wind howling against the glass, I felt completely hollowed out. For years, I had been nothing but driftwood.

Every time I caught a glimpse of happiness, fate dragged me right back to the bottom. It was pitch black by the time the train pulled into the station.

You couldn't catch a cab in a town this small. I dragged my suitcase from the station all the way to the cemetery. I walked in the freezing rain for two straight hours.

I just missed him. I needed to see his face. Chapter 5 "Kid, nobody visits graves in the dead of night.

Aren't you scared of ghosts?" The old groundskeeper at the cemetery gates tried to wave me off. The dam holding back my sanity shattered. I buried my face in my freezing, wet hands.

A ragged, ugly sob ripped through my throat. "I wish ghosts were real!" If I could just see Nolan one more time, I would pay any price. [ Silas's POV ] Cora actually walked out.

She had always been the girl with the perfect temper. She smiled at everyone. She was so obedient she barely seemed real.

But today, she had completely snapped over a single piece of clothing.

One of my friends finally broke the suffocating silence in the room. "Silas, you really crossed the line this time.

You can't just bully her because you know she's obsessed with you. Stop acting tough. Go after her and apologize." "Apologize?" I scoffed. "Are you kidding me?

She's the one who can't live without me. Not the other way around. Did you see her completely lose her mind today? She acted like a total psycho.

I spoiled her way too much." Right in front of the whole room, I pulled out my phone and blocked Cora's number. "None of you are allowed to contact her for at least a month," I ordered. "If I don't ice her out for a bit, she's going to think she runs my life." With the birthday girl gone, the dinner atmosphere was dead.

My secretary hesitated for a long time before stepping forward. He kept his voice low. "Boss… there was blood on those scissors." My breath caught.

I sprinted up the stairs to the second floor. I snatched the scissors off the carpet. Fresh, wet blood stained the metal blades. My tough act evaporated in exactly three seconds.

I dialed her number like a madman. It went straight to voicemail. I ripped her out of my blocked list.

I bolted out the front doors, firing off voice memos one after another. "Baby, I messed up! I'm so sorry!" "Where are you hurt? Why didn't you tell me?!" "Just text me back, please.

Don't scare me like this…" Behind me, my friend rolled his eyes hard enough to see his own brain. "Not allowed to contact her for at least a month, huh?

Typical." It hit me right then. I didn't know a damn thing about Cora. I didn't know where her hometown was. I didn't know the names of her family or friends.

I had zero clue where she would go after leaving the city. I put my entire security team on tracking her down. For the next few days, I couldn't stomach food. I couldn't sleep.

With her gone, this massive estate felt like a freezing icebox, the silence ringing in my ears. Mia showed up at the house.

The second she walked through the door, she threw her arms around my neck. "Silas, the dead weight is finally gone!

We can officially start over!" Something twisted violently in my gut. I shoved her away. Mia froze. "…What is that supposed to mean?" I couldn't even explain it myself.

At some point, without me realizing it, Cora had stopped being just a standin. I liked the smell of her shampoo. I liked the way her eyes crinkled when she smiled.

I liked the intoxicating, desperate devotion in her eyes whenever she stared at my face. I was the only heir to the Zhou empire.

Since I was a kid, I had been swimming in money, privilege, and people kissing my feet. I never lacked love. But Cora's overwhelming, drowning affection had slowly worn me down.

It had softened me. If someone forced me to choose between Mia and Cora right now, I knew exactly where my heart leaned.

Chapter 6 [ Silas's POV ] My security team finally tracked down Cora's location. I was right in the middle of a board meeting. I didn't care.

I shoved my chair back, walked out of the room, and sprinted for the airport. It had only been five days, but the withdrawal was clawing at the inside of my chest.

Love was a terrifying thing. It had shattered my pride inch by inch, turning me into this pathetic, desperate mess.

Living without Cora was like getting cut off from my own oxygen supply. I couldn't breathe. [ Cora's POV ] I wasn't surprised the moment Silas showed up at my door.

With the Zhou empire's endless resources, they were bound to find me eventually. Silas snatched my hand, his thumbs rubbing frantically over my skin.

He only let out a ragged exhale when he saw the cut from the scissors had already scabbed over.

He dumped a truckload of frantic apologies on me and insisted on wiring fifty million into my bank account right then and there to make up for it. "You don't have to do this." I pulled my hand out of his grip.

My voice was completely flat. "We're done, Silas. Let's just leave on good terms. We can still be friends." Silas stared at me for a long second.

Then, a low laugh rumbled in his chest. "Alright, baby. Let's stop saying things we don't mean. I screwed up. It's all your husband's fault.

I swear to God, you will never see Mia or whatever her name is again. I only want you. Come back to the city with me.

We are getting married the second we land!" I let out a heavy, exhausted sigh. "Stop acting crazy.

I'm not marrying you." "Why?" "Because I don't love you." The amusement in Silas's eyes only deepened.

He closed the distance in a single stride and clamped his arm around my waist, trapping my body against his.

I shoved at his chest, but he didn't budge an inch. "Don't you blush when you lie right to my face?" he murmured, his breath brushing my cheek. "I know what this is.

You're just scared my family won't accept you. Relax. I'll handle them.

All you have to do is get ready to be my wife." I ended up finding out exactly how he "handled" it through the entertainment news.

The second Silas stepped foot in the Zhou family estate and demanded to marry me, his father dragged him into the ancestral hall. They beat him until his back was a bloody mess.

He knelt on the cold stone floor for three days and three nights straight until his body gave out. He caught a massive fever.

When he woke up, he refused all food and medication, turning the entire billionaire estate upside down.

He kept repeating the exact same threat on a loop. "Strip me of my inheritance. Kick me out of the family. I don't care! I am marrying Cora! And don't even think about touching her!

If she gets a single scratch on her, I'm putting a bullet in my own head!" Silas was the absolute last male heir in his generation. The family finally caved.

The moment the news leaked, the internet's narrative did a complete 180.

The exact same people calling him a cheating scumbag yesterday were suddenly writing essays about his absolute, undying devotion. [ A bad boy's redemption is priceless!

Cora is so lucky. I'm insanely jealous that a man that powerful loves her that much. ] [ She waited for him for five years.

Even a solid rock would melt eventually. ] It felt like the world always handed out unlimited free passes to men with money and power.

They could play women like disposable toys, but the second they showed a single ounce of real emotion, everyone worshipped them.

For the next few days, paparazzi caught the young billionaire all over Manhattan.

If he wasn't at a highend jeweler looking at diamond rings, he was in elite bridal boutiques picking out wedding gowns.

He was in such a good mood he actually took selfies with random fans on the street. But Silas's good mood didn't last long. Because a viral video of me blew up the internet.

In the grainy footage, I was kneeling in the mud in front of a grave, sobbing so hard I was choking on my own breath.

I looked like my entire world had been ripped apart, crying out all my grievances to the person buried beneath the dirt.

Carved into the heavy granite headstone right in front of me was a single line. [ Here lies my late husband, Nolan. ] And the faded memorial portrait attached to the stone featured a man's face.

A face identical to Silas's. Chapter 7