Chapter 6

But neither of them ever explained anything. They just tore into each other with the sharpest words they had, ripping each other's wounds wide open without any mercy.

As I hid in my room, that was the moment something inside me broke. Whatever I believed about love, it fell apart right there.

The next day, they sat at the breakfast table together like nothing had happened. But I knew the truth. The affection I was seeing now was real, and so was the hatred from the night before. Love and the absence of it could apparently switch places in an instant, with no logic to any of it.

I told Elena about all this once. She looked at me like her heart was breaking, wrapped her arms around my waist, and comforted me softly.

"Owen, I love you. We're going to be together forever. My love for you will never expire."

When she said the word "forever", I believed her in that moment.

Around New Year's, the whole city lit up with lights and every family gathered together. But I didn't have a family. I sat alone in my rented apartment, eating some simple meal I threw together for myself. Spending the holiday alone was lonely in a way that was hard to describe.

Then, someone knocked on the door. Somehow, I already had a feeling and scrambled to answer it. Elena was standing outside, holding a food container, smiling at me.

"You've got me now. I'm not going anywhere."

I admit that my heart skipped a beat, even knowing it might all be a lie.

That night, we curled up together on the couch and watched TV. As we watched the glamorous celebrities on screen, she turned her head and studied my face carefully with her hand on my cheek.

"Owen, you should be a star too."

I assumed she was just joking. "I don't have the connections for that. You know how messy the industry is."

But she looked at me seriously, no joke in her eyes at all. "You handle looking good on camera. I'll be the one running things behind the scenes. I'll hand you every resource I have and make you the biggest star in the country. Nobody will dare mess with you."

Her eyes were practically glowing when she said it.

After that, she really did work harder than ever, rising above her siblings until she successfully took over the family business. And just like she promised, she threw everything she had into launching my career.

The night we started our film and television company, she had quite a bit to drink. When I carried her home, she kissed me and said, "Owen, let's get married."

She had once loved me passionately. That love was real. I've always believed that. But now, I had to accept the truth of not being loved anymore too.

When I first started out, my looks got me a decent amount of attention, and I was trending online for a while. On my agent's advice, I made a social media account. The first thing I ever posted was a selfie at home, and my fans immediately started calling me their husband in the comments.

Elena saw it and stayed jealous for a while. It took me forever to smooth things over.

Looking at the flood of comments of everyone calling me their husband, she said smugly, "Good thing I locked you down first. You're my husband. They can call you that, but they'll never have you for real."

That was back when we loved each other the most, back when neither of us could stand the thought of anyone else having the other. Even when I was forced into some fake celebrity couple pairing for publicity, she'd get upset and jealous over it.

It was a shame. Whatever sweetness we had back then, it was exactly as bitter now.

We got married, but never made it public. I brought up announcing it more than once, and every time, she shut it down, always telling me the same thing.

"Owen, you're a public figure. It's not a good time to go public about our marriage. Once you're the top actor in the country, we'll announce it then. I want everyone to know you belong to me."