Ten Years of Starlight

"Ms. Ames, who is the child's father?" I had just won Best Actress when my haters leaked an old video of me heavily pregnant.

The ceremony instantly spiraled out of control, and every camera turned on me.

But I looked past the crowd at a stunned Declan and calmly denied it. "I don't have a child." Chapter 1 Before I stepped out of the car for the red carpet, my manager warned me again and again: if I ran into Bianca, I was to act like I hadn't seen her.

Under no circumstances could I clash with her again. Because, of course, Bianca's backer was Declan.

The Westbrooks' studio, agency, and distribution holdings reached into nearly every corner of Hollywood. There used to be a saying in the industry: Want to make it?

Sleep with Declan. The saying was crude, but every woman with any connection to Declan did have an easy ride in show business. Except me.

I was the only one who had dated Declan publicly and ended up nearly blacklisted. Because I had crossed his precious childhood friend.

For the six years that followed, no matter how hard I worked, no matter how widely my acting was praised, I never won a single award.

Losing again and again wore away every sharp edge I had.

I stopped sharing a stage with Bianca, and whenever she had her eye on a script, I turned it down, citing a scheduling conflict.

Maybe my silent peace offerings had finally paid off. Or maybe she and Declan were about to get married and didn't want any more bad luck on my account.

So this time, they had graciously loosened their grip and let a trophy slip through their fingers to me. When my manager got the tipoff, she nearly cried.

She said, "Nora, the hard days are finally over." Declan was finally willing to let me go. Even though the breakup hadn't been my fault, I really was no match for Declan.

I had given up long ago. My manager had barely finished warning me not to clash with Bianca when Bianca went out of her way to invite me to walk the red carpet with her.

Put the Westbrook heir's new flame and old flame side by side, and the headlines practically wrote themselves. I knew she wanted to humiliate me in every way possible.

Not only because she was Declan's new love now, but also because tonight we were both wearing gowns from the same label. Except hers was from the newest collection.

Mine was from last year's.

I could already picture it: in a little while, on the trending list, her fans and my haters would be mocking me mercilessly, laughing at how shabby I looked. But that was fine.

I had never meant to compete with her over clothes. Much less did I hope Declan would come back to me. If she wanted to be the rose, I'd be the greenery that set her off.

But Bianca still didn't seem satisfied. She lowered her voice and asked, "Nora Ames, do you know Declan's coming tonight?" I didn't.

Between Declan and me, everything had been cut off cleanly since the day we broke up. But at the sound of his name, my step still faltered for a beat.

Bianca noticed and smiled with a touch of mockery. "Don't get ideas. He's coming for me.

It has nothing to do with you." "I know." Even though most of Hollywood belonged to the Westbrooks, before today Declan had never attended a single industry event.

Even back when things between us were at their best, he had never once shown up for me.

Then Bianca said, "Declan and I are getting married soon." Chapter 2 I nodded, turned to her, and gave her a sincere smile. "I hope you'll be very happy together." I'd probably come across as such a pushover today that Bianca lost interest in toying with me.

Or maybe she was in a hurry to find Declan. The moment we reached the end of the red carpet, she ditched me and vanished.

I posed for the reporters' photos and answered a few questions. The reporters all seemed to have an unspoken understanding: not one of them mentioned Declan.

That romance had been a whirlwind back then, but it had ended in such an ugly way. Declan, the other half of it, found out from the trending list that he'd been dumped.

Back then, at one interview, everyone had wanted gossip on how things were going between Declan and me.

But I looked into the camera and calmly said just three words: "We broke up." No warning. No reason. Declan called me once afterward.

He didn't explain, didn't apologize, didn't even ask why. He only wanted to confirm one thing. "You've thought this through?" I murmured a quiet yes.

He was silent for a second, then hung up. I'd thought he would be angry. After all, he'd grown up with everyone orbiting around him, and no one had ever defied him.

And yet I had dumped him, and he wasn't even the first to know. The hashtag #DeclanWestbrookGotDumped stayed on the trending list for three days.

Declan never had anyone take it down.

My management company, afraid of offending the Westbrooks, did everything it could to bury it, but less than a minute after it dropped off the list, it was right back up.

That wasn't Declan being humiliated. That was his warning to me. Sure enough, from then on, my career became a rocky road.

Until six years had passed, until Declan's anger had cooled, until he and Bianca were about to get married. The past came back to me so vividly that my mind drifted.

The host had to call my name twice before I came back to the present. Everyone around me was happy for me.

Amid the thunderous applause, I glanced through a gap in the crowd toward the front row. Bianca was sitting there. The seat beside her was empty.

There was no name card on it, but everyone knew it was Declan's seat. He hadn't arrived yet. That was just as well. It would spare us a lot of awkwardness.

But when I stepped onto the stage and looked up to give my acceptance speech, there was Declan, sitting squarely in that seat.

In the years since I'd last seen him, he'd grown steadier and colder. The instant our eyes met, he looked at me like a stranger. Nothing stirred in his eyes.

I steadied myself and began my speech with composure. I was halfway through when a commotion broke out in the audience. Calling it whispering would be putting it too mildly.

Everyone was clearly trying hard to hold back, but the gossip was so explosive that their voices rose in spite of themselves.

It turned out my haters had leaked a video of me heavily pregnant. It was from six years ago, not long after Declan and I broke up.

I'd meant to numb myself with work, but before my next production started shooting, I suddenly found out I was pregnant.

After that, I pulled out of the show and vanished from public view for an entire year. The video was security footage from the apartment building where I used to live.

I don't remember why I'd gone out that day. But I wasn't wearing sunglasses or a hat, so my face was captured clearly.

When I walked offstage with the trophy, my manager and my assistant rushed over at once, trying to shield me and get me out of there. But it was too late.

The reporters were rushing over too. Chapter 3 Cameras and microphones were practically shoved in my face, and everyone was asking the same question: "Ms.

Ames, who is the child's father?" I was trapped in the crowd, unable to move an inch. Not far away, no one dared go near Declan.

If Declan and I were still together, maybe the reporters would have been a little more polite to me. I saw the shock all over Declan's face.

His fingers, resting on the armrest, had clenched tight without his even realizing it. He knew who the child's father was.

That was why he, always so cool and aloof, lost his composure in public for the first time. I didn't answer the reporters' question directly.

Instead, I smiled and denied it. "I don't have a child." There had probably never been a Best Actress winner who left the ceremony in as sorry a state as I did.

My gown had been trampled and dirtied, and I'd lost one of my earrings in the chaos. With a swarm of reporters chasing after me, it didn't look like I'd just accepted an award.

It looked more like I was fleeing a disaster. My manager and my assistant were badly shaken.

Once we were in the car, it took them a good while to recover before they asked me: "What is going on? You have a kid? Declan's? Where's the kid now?" That was a lot of questions.

I gave a wry smile, not sure which to answer first. My current manager and assistant weren't the ones who'd been with me from the start.

So everything they knew about Declan and me, they'd either read online or heard from other people.

In the year I vanished from public view, everyone assumed at first that I'd been blacklisted. Later, I came back to the industry.

Then people said I'd probably been hurt too deeply by that relationship and had gone off to clear my head and heal. What really happened that year, no one in the industry knew.

My current manager and assistant didn't know either. Until they saw that video today and concluded, like everyone else, that I'd gone away to have a baby.

A year was just the right amount of time. My manager even got a little excited. "If Declan comes looking for you because of the kid, grab the chance and get back together with him.

I guarantee you'll win so many awards you'll be sick of them." I shook my head.

My manager froze for a second, then nearly shot up and hit her head on the car roof. "You're not seriously thinking of crossing him again?" How would I dare?

What I meant by shaking my head was: "There is no child." There had been one, yes. I just hadn't kept it. My manager didn't quite believe me.

After all, the oneyear timing was too convenient.

She was about to ask something else when my assistant handed over her phone. "Hilary, look." "Something trashing you is trending?" my manager burst out. "Those scumbags!" She snatched the phone, but after one look, her expression turned strange. "This… what's going on?" There wasn't a single trending topic trashing me, not even one ugly photo.

Even though I'd been an absolute mess when I left the venue just now. This was Declan's doing. It was easy for him to make someone's life hard.

It was just as easy for him to protect someone. My manager looked like she felt a headache coming on. "You really didn't keep the baby?

Then how are you going to explain it to Declan?" Why should I explain anything to him? He didn't love me. Besides, he and Bianca were about to get married.

I knew Declan would come find me. The video had surfaced so suddenly, and it involved a child. He'd want to get to the bottom of it no matter what.

I just hadn't expected him to come so soon. When I got to my apartment building, he was already waiting outside.

Chapter 4 Through the darkness, his tall, lean figure looked exactly the same as it had six years ago.

Except six years ago, when Declan saw me, he would open his arms and wait for me to throw myself into them.

Now when he saw me, he just stood where he was, so cold that no one would dare come near. My manager was uneasy. As I got out of the car, she caught my arm.

I turned back and smiled at her. "It's fine.

If he wanted to hurt me, he wouldn't need to do it himself." "True." My manager sighed, then urged me to have a proper talk with Declan. "You've made it through the hardest part, and it's all good days from here.

Don't go making your life harder again!" I smiled and nodded. Only after they'd driven off did I walk toward Declan. My steps were calm, like I was on my way to meet an old friend.

But only I knew that in those last two steps before I reached him, my heart still sped up beyond my control. After all, I had loved him deeply once.

Because I'd loved him so much, when the earthquake hit and he left me without a second's hesitation to go find Bianca, I nearly lost the will to live.

Declan knew why I had dumped him. But afterward, he never offered a single word of explanation.

What's more, because I'd publicly announced the breakup and embarrassed him, he'd let me endure years of scorn and ridicule in the industry.

Well, he had the money and the power, didn't he? Even now, knowing whose fault it was, I was still the one who spoke first. "Mr.

Westbrook." Declan frowned, his voice low. "I'm still used to you calling me by my name." I used to say his name all the time. [Declan, I'm almost wrapped for the day!

I'm coming to get you for dinner!] [Declan, you've been on this business trip for a whole week.

When are you coming back?] [Declan, I miss you so much.] Six years had passed, and yet the way I used to sweettalk Declan and tell him how much I missed him was still so clear.

A regret I shouldn't have felt welled up inside me. I smiled and shook my head. "Ms. Chalmers said the two of you are getting married soon.

It wouldn't be appropriate for me to call you by your name anymore.

Congratulations to you both." Declan said, "You think I can still get married now?" Even if Bianca were still willing to marry him and happily become an instant stepmom the moment she walked in the door, her family cared about appearances.

They'd never agree to it. I had ruined things for him again. "I'm sorry," I said quickly. "Where's the child?" Declan had finally gotten to the real point of tonight.

That child who had suddenly been exposed, yet whom no one had ever seen.

He sounded displeased, his tone much heavier than before. "Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant back then