"Honey, your future husband misses you so much. Come on, give me a hug…"
Ashlyn felt a wave of nausea rise and quickly pushed him away. "I don’t feel so well today, so let’s not."
"Baby, I only have time tonight. I have to go back to the set early tomorrow morning. Don’t you understand how much I’ve missed you?" Davis’s face darkened as he reached to untie his bath towel.
"Davis, don’t force me," Ashlyn said, her voice icy and resolute.
Davis was always wary of her anger, so he awkwardly retied his towel and softened his tone to coax her.
"Okay, okay, little princess. If you don’t want to, how could I dare force you? Come on, I’ll just hug you to sleep."
Relieved, he lay down. He was exhausted from the previous night, so it was good that we did not have to do anything tonight.
Within just two minutes, he was sound asleep.
Ashlyn, however, spent the night on the sofa. The thought of sharing the same bed with him was unbearable.
"Is he really worth it?" Looking at the girl in the photo and thinking of the chaotic scenes she had uncovered, Ashlyn could not help but murmur bitterly to herself.
"Miss, who even are you? If you’re not going to take a photo, why block the way? If you’re not a fan, you wouldn’t understand what it’s like to have mutual devotion! I suggest you take the bus home early and change the baby’s diaper."
The aggressive words stung and Ashlyn bit her lip, tears welling up in her eyes.
Ten years had passed and while Davis had risen to fame as a high-quality idol, she had faded into the background as an unnoticed assistant, her sacrifices unseen and unacknowledged.
Not far away, a Rolls-Royce pulled up and stopped in front of her.
"Ashlyn, the doctor is ready. Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Lindsey, an assistant, asked with a pleading look in her eyes.
As a woman, she understood the weight of Ashlyn’s decision. It was not easy to conceive a child, especially for Ashlyn. Three years ago, she had unknowingly fallen pregnant. While tirelessly managing Davis’s business, a drunken fall had led to a devastating miscarriage.
Every endorsement he secured had been paid for with Ashlyn’s sweat and blood.
After the dilation and curettage surgery, the doctor warned her about her thin uterine wall and told her to stay cautious about the chance of carrying another pregnancy.
"Let’s go," Ashlyn closed the car door firmly. There was no hesitation in her voice.
It was only after the "harem selection" event that she discovered her pregnancy. At the time, she had severe abdominal pain and could not go for a proper check-up. In the end, she learned the sad news that she was also suffering from ALS.
Her body was as rotten as her love. How could she even nourish a new life like a child?
Leaving the child was, perhaps, her only release.
As the Rolls-Royce sped through the streets, every bus stop displayed the glaring image of Davis proposing with a diamond ring in his hand.
Every time they passed by, the sight cut through Ashlyn’s heart like a knife.
In their ten years together, Davis had proposed to her 31 times.
The last proposal was the scene framed by this huge poster.
Photography allowed him to express his true feelings. It was when he pulled Ashlyn over and said. "Marry me." with genuine tears in his eyes. The sincerity had moved even the staff to tears.
He proposed two or three times a year. During his travels, after winning luxury endorsements and after blockbuster movie successes.Each time, he had professed undying love.
"Marry me, Ashlyn Anderson. I will only love you in this lifetime."
This proposal made the 28-year-old Ashlyn’s heart fluttering. She had grown weary of their secret romance and no longer wanted to only see Davis's bright future alone.
She longed for a family and a child.
The wedding sponsors had already been chosen and once the pre-wedding photos were taken, the long-awaited ceremony would follow.
Davis had once assured her that even if he fell from the peak of his career to the very bottom, he would not regret it. He would make everything public the day they received their marriage certificate.
Yet, Ashlyn could not understand how a man who had professed such deep love, who claimed he was willing to sacrifice his future for her, could now orchestrate something as humiliating as a "harem selection" thing?
Was he truly tired of her, or had he simply succumbed to the allure of fleeting temptations from the outside world?
She could not help but think back to the darkest days when she and her mother needed to earn money for her teenage brother, who was diagnosed with ALS in high school.
