Chapter 2

I tapped out a reply to Ethan.

“Those shows are usually scripted. Ava took their money, so she has to follow their instructions.”

He sent back a shrugging emoji.

Everyone knew I had spoiled Ava to the point of losing all common sense.

A month earlier, she had insisted on going to the beach to watch the sunset while I was burning up with a fever.

The night before, she had seen a college roommate post an engagement photo on Instagram.

The couple had kissed romantically by the ocean in the setting sun.

She wanted an identical photo.

It didn’t matter that my fever had reached 102.2 degrees and I hadn’t been able to keep down even a bowl of soup for two days.

“It’s just one picture. We can come home and sleep afterward, okay?”

She clung to my arm and pouted.

She knew that was all it took for me to give in.

And she was right.

But that day, before we could even take the photo after setting up the camera, I heard someone screaming for help from the water.

Ava turned my face toward her and complained that the sun was about to set.

I didn’t say a word. I ran toward the sound.

By the time I dragged the child who had been swept away by the waves onto shore, I was so exhausted I could barely stand.

Ava told me to go back to the car, rest, and change my clothes. She said she would contact the child’s parents.

After I recovered enough to walk, I went looking for her on the beach.

Instead, I found her surrounded by a crowd.

Applause erupted all around her.

She lowered her eyes and smiled modestly.

“No need to thank me. Really, it was nothing. Anyone would have done the same.”

Later, her heroic rescue made the Instagram trending page, and she gained four hundred thousand followers overnight.

At the time, she was lying in my arms, hesitantly asking whether I was angry that she had stolen the spotlight that should have belonged to me.

I didn’t care about any of that. The child was safe. That was all that mattered.

So I scratched her under the chin.

“As long as you’re happy, I don’t care.”

Tears suddenly glimmered in her eyes. She leaned over and kissed me.

Then she smiled.

“I knew I loved you most of all!”

The dating show Ava joined became a huge topic online.

I hadn’t wanted to pay attention to it.

Unfortunately, my friends loved drama and wouldn’t stop sending me clips and screenshots of the comments.

“What? Are you all jealous that I have a successful career and a happy relationship?”

“You’re all going out of your way to ruin my mood.”

I cursed at them in the group chat.

But I still clicked on the links despite myself.

Ava’s persona on the show was incredibly popular.

She had supposedly been destroyed by the man she loved for seven years, yet she still believed in love like an innocent girl experiencing it for the first time.

She was also friendly, thoughtful, and independent—the kind of woman who had once rushed into the ocean alone to save a drowning child.

Not only did viewers adore her, calling her their “daughter” and “favorite girl,” but two of the male contestants seemed interested in her.

I watched Ava flirt with them and call them “big brother” in that cutesy, affectionate way.

I watched them pair off for dates, hugging and touching each other, eating candlelit dinners.

I watched them play games as a group. When one of them lost, he had to kiss the person beside him for three seconds.

Ava blushed until her eyes grew moist.

The man’s ears turned bright red.

The comments flooded by.

“They’re so cute together!”

“I’m shipping them!”

I was the only one sitting there with a pale face, humiliated.

Furious, I called her immediately.

The night filming ended, Ava had taken the earliest train to see me.

She stood outside my door holding a bouquet.

She smiled and said she had come to beg my forgiveness.

I pulled her into my arms and held her tightly, wishing I could freeze time.

I wanted to stay with her forever.