Chapter 4

Preston was silent for a long time.

"...Okay. Good night."

When I woke up the next morning, there was an extra document on the nightstand.

A notarized asset transfer agreement.

Preston had already signed it.

The comments went mad.

[Holy crap? The male lead really gave the villainess all his assets?]

[It's fine. Legally, he can get them back. A marital asset agreement can be revoked during divorce.]

[He must be spending so much time with the heroine lately that he's afraid the villainess will make a fuss, so he's just pacifying her.]

For a second, I almost let myself be moved.

I put the agreement back where it was.

Then I opened my lawyer best friend Rachel Price's chat.

Help me prepare a divorce agreement. Split the property according to the law.

That day, Diane called me into her office.

"Mara, there's a big job. The client specifically asked for you."

"Who?"

"Lucas Rhodes."

I froze, thinking I had heard wrong.

"R-really?"

Diane tossed the contract to me with a smile.

"Really. He looked at your portfolio and requested you specifically."

My fingers trembled as I opened the contract.

Lucas Rhodes.

My idol since middle school.

In college, I once scrimped and saved for his concert ticket until I fainted from hunger in class and became the joke of the whole campus.

When Preston found out, he lost his temper at me for the first time.

"Are you crazy? What's so great about him that you'd risk your life?"

After Preston became a billionaire CEO, he worked with Lucas several times.

But he had never helped me get even one signed photo.

After leaving Diane's office, I instinctively wanted to share the good news with Preston.

But when I remembered his attitude back then, my finger paused above the screen.

In the end, I only sent one message.

I'm going on a business trip. About a week.

More than ten minutes later, he replied.

Okay. Don't let anyone mistreat you. You've got me.

I looked at that phrase and suddenly found it ironic.

Had him?

Soon, he would belong to someone else.

The shoot was at the beach.

I arrived at four in the morning.

Setting up equipment, adjusting parameters, testing light.

The wind was strong, and grains of sand stung my face, but I had no mind to care.

My heart had been pounding since the night before and had not stopped.

At seven sharp, a black van pulled up.

Lucas Rhodes stepped out.

White T-shirt, black casual pants, hair barely styled and falling loosely over his forehead.

He looked almost the same as the boy onstage ten years ago.

No, he had changed.

He was thinner than before, his jawline sharper, his eyes holding something more.

Marks polished into him by time.

"Hello, Ms. Linton." He held out his hand.

I shook it. My palm was a little sweaty.

"Hello."

"I've seen your work. Your compositions are bold, and you use light and shadow well. I specifically asked Diane for your schedule."

He smiled. "I hope that doesn't pressure you."

"It won't." I took a deep breath. "I'll do my best."

After a brief exchange, we started work.

Lucas was easy to photograph. His camera sense was excellent, and I barely needed to guide him.

I crouched on the sand to find angles. The sun burned hot against my back, but my mood was strangely bright.

During a break, my phone vibrated.

Rachel had sent the divorce agreement.

You're really doing it?

I stared at the file, thinking of the unfamiliar perfume on Preston and of the comments calling him and Bethany a domestic couple.

Yes.

Rather than wait for him to throw me out, I might as well take some retirement money while he still felt a little guilty.

On the third day of the shoot, I was adjusting my camera settings when the comments suddenly flooded the air.

[Ahhh, the male lead and the heroine went to Northreach! The aurora! It's so beautiful!]