Edward's POV
“Edward!” Liana suddenly raised her voice, her gaze sharp and unfamiliar. “Know your place!”
But her words stunned even her.
I froze, disbelief tightening in my chest. “My place? Are you saying I don’t know my role as a senior in this industry? Or that I don’t know my place as your boyfriend of ten years?”
“Edward, I…”
For a second, she seemed to realize she had said too much.
But slips like that cut the deepest because they revealed what someone truly thought.
“Relax, Edward,” Samuel cut in, chin lifted, arrogance radiating from him. “Don’t treat me like some homewrecker you need to compete with. I don’t play those childish dominance games. We’re men, not gossiping women.”
He gave a short laugh, then added bluntly, “Let me be straight. Miss Carrington is my type. And I happen to be someone who loves boldly and hates openly. That’s all.”
He then waved the black card in front of my face and said, “This is the card she tried to give me earlier, but I didn’t take it. It's because I go after what I want on my own. Unlike you, I don’t care about her money. Rich or broke, it doesn’t matter to me. I like her herself.”
After that, the card slapped against my face before dropping to the floor, and he turned to leave.
But Liana’s eyes flicked toward her men, and they immediately blocked his path.
“How could I let you just walk out?” she said softly, rising to wrap her arms around his waist.
Then she suddenly ordered her men. “Take Edward’s nomination off the list. Give it to Samuel.”
“Liana!” I snapped.
“And another thing,” she cut me off, tilting her face up to Samuel, her eyes full of affection. “The money I spend is my business. It has nothing to do with you. You’ll never be a kept man to me.”
“Tsk.” He clicked his tongue, pretending to struggle before finally giving in. As he pulled her into his arms, his eyes flicked toward me.
Just for a moment, I caught the smug triumph flashing there.
By the time I got into my car, rage was boiling through me. I slammed my fist into the steering wheel.
I never even cared about becoming Best Actor. At the start, I only entered the entertainment industry to earn enough money for Liana and me to get by.
I’d always been too proud to flatter anyone, but for the sake of even a minor role, I forced myself to bow and scrape.
Somewhere along the way, though, I fell in love with the work. Even after Liana rebuilt her empire and tossed tens of millions at me to keep me from “wasting my time,” I refused to quit. That was when she should have realized that I had already become an actor in my own right. From then on, I wanted support, not chains.
But when I stumbled home that night, still reeling, I found strangers moving around inside.
“Take this. And that. All of it, move it out,” Samuel ordered a team of movers, pointing at my crystal figures and pure gold miniatures.
“Put those down! Who gave you permission to break into my home?” I barked.
Caught off guard by my sudden shout, Samuel actually jumped back a couple of steps before his face twisted in annoyance. “What are you yelling for? Miss Carrington personally registered my fingerprints here in this house, so I can come and go as I please."
"Hey! Take that one too. Move everything to the new place she got me!” His finger pointed toward a small gold chain sitting on my desk.
It weighed less than five grams, worthless compared to the watches I now owned that cost eight figures. But it was priceless to me. Back then, when we were broke, Liana had eaten instant noodles for three straight months just to buy me that chain. She swore she’d give us a better life, even if she had to fight the world as a woman alone.
With that, I slammed my hand down, stopping the mover mid-reach. My lips curled into a bitter smile as I asked, “Mr. Reid, weren’t you just preaching about how money doesn’t matter to you?”
