Chapter 2

The thumbnail showed Samantha wrapped in a passionate embrace with a young boy under the aurora borealis. She was tilting her head, kissing him deeply.

I stared, blinking hard, hoping my eyes were playing tricks on me.

I furiously zoomed in on the photo, desperately looking for any sign of photoshop.

Nothing.

It was a crystal-clear, high-resolution original shot taken with a professional camera. Untouched. Real.

Samantha was truly out there, kissing another man beneath the green glow of the northern lights.

Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes filled with an intense, tender gaze—a look she had never once given me.

She had never held my hand with such gentle, peaceful devotion either.

Why? Weren't we husband and wife?

A sharp, suffocating ache bloomed in my chest, making it nearly impossible to breathe.

"Ethan!"

Chloe cried out softly, rushing over to steady my trembling shoulders.

Before I could even gather the shattered pieces of my emotions, Chloe and I had to rush to a prime-time talk show taping that very evening to promote our series. I put on my best smile and powered through the first half of the segment.

Yet my mind kept drifting away.

Where was Samantha right now? Still standing beneath the aurora with him? Did she even spare a single thought for me? The photo was etched into my eyelids.

Halfway through the show, the producers announced a surprise guest was joining our couch.

Chloe and I were laughing over a question when a familiar figure entered my peripheral vision.

It was Samantha.

Completely blindsided, I watched as Samantha walked onto the stage, holding tight to that college boy's hand. As they walked, his fingertips provocatively grazed her open palm.

Instantly, the spotlight shifted to her.

The talk show host caught the subtle hand-holding, his eyes lighting up with gossip. He sized them up before swinging his microphone directly at me.

"Ethan, you and Samantha made your Hollywood debuts together over a decade ago."

"Everyone used to bet on you two ending up together. Who would've thought our Oscar-winning queen would be the first to find someone? What are your thoughts on this?"

Samantha let out an airy chuckle. "Ethan and I are just good friends."

My fingernails dug so deeply into my palms they almost broke skin.

Good friends.

Over ten years of enduring the stormiest days of our lives together, reduced to two hollow words in front of millions.

"There was never a romantic spark between us, let alone marriage," Samantha smiled effortlessly at the cameras, her words driving another dagger into my chest. "Besides, Ethan is quite a bit older than me... the generation gap is real."

The host nodded eagerly, praising Samantha for her "refreshing honesty."

I forced a hollow smile.

The conversation revolved around Samantha for the rest of the segment.

She began recounting her recent trip up north, gushing over the adventures and sweet moments they shared.

She made sure to highlight every intimate detail.

Like how they shared drinks from the same cup.

How they huddled inside a single sleeping bag in their tent, slipping their cold hands under each other's coats to stay warm.

And how, when the boy caught a fever, she stayed up all night nursing him back to health.

It was so intimate, so domestic, they looked like the real couple of the year.

What was I to her? Sometimes, whether someone loves you or not is screaming at you in the tiniest details.

I desperately tried to tune it all out, but the host wouldn't let me off the hook, tossing pointed questions my way every two minutes, asking for my commentary.

Samantha's fans' venomous comments from over the years began echoing in my ears again.

No matter what I said or did, in their eyes, I was always in the wrong.

“Ugh, that aging has-been needs to stop riding Samantha's coattails. Queen Sam is thriving alone!”

“Lmao, look at him, she won’t even look in his direction. He looked like an eager puppy carrying that birthday cake to her set last year.”

“All he does is leach off her clout. Samantha is probably sick to death of him!”

“They debuted at the same time, but she’s an Oscar winner and a girl boss. Who is he? Just an opportunist trying to suck her dry!”

My knuckles turned white as I balled my fists, my lips clamped shut, my body trembling slightly. I fought with everything I had to keep from breaking down on camera.

Chloe noticed.

Under the glare of the studio lights, she reached over and laced her fingers through mine. She looked directly at the panel with a sweet, disarming smile. "Host... Ethan is my on-screen partner today, you know."

"If you keep bringing up his past while I'm sitting right here, I might actually get jealous."

"And Miss Hayes, with all due respect, perhaps you could save that overflowing desire to share your private life for a different platform?"

Chloe's voice was like honey, but the barb underneath was razor-sharp.

She was reminding them who the real headliners of this promo junket were.

The host froze for a second before flashing an obsequious grin, quickly changing the subject.

I turned to look at Chloe, meeting her bright, protective gaze.

For the rest of the taping, whenever a loaded question came my way, Chloe jumped in like an armed guard. She dismantled every rude insinuation with polite, devastating charm, leaving them entirely speechless.

When the clip aired, our shippers lost their minds all over again, calling it the ultimate act of devotion.

Samantha cast a long, unreadable look in my direction, but I kept my eyes firmly averted.