At the mansion of Ian Renner

August 2nd, 2019.

Ian was under the dim light of the yellow lamp in his bedroom.

After the day at the office, where they were all discussing the results of Avatar and how it was going, Ian felt tired and heavy.

'Maybe my mind is retiring' he had thought at one point.

Ian also had the luck to share the live audience's reactions while watching the movie.

There were some people literally screaming, crying, and laughing at different points of the movie.

After all, Avatar was supposed to be a journey in Pandora where everyone felt at home, and Ian was successful.

"Now that went really great. Seventy-Seven million dollars, from twenty-four hours. I think this might even earn billions by the end of the year," One of the teammates acknowledged when they were talking about the results.

"Maybe even more. Who knows?" Ian said with a shrug.

One thing he knew was, that the word Avatar was everywhere.

That said, it reminded Ian of the little tactic they had used to put Ian in a tough position with the movie plot.

Yet, he decided to ignore the entire thing as a threat considering how it benefited both of them. There was also another reason for Ian's ignorance, but that's for later.

What's more important is how he wanted to know the public opinion of him and his movie-making.

Which was why he chose his next movie to be 'Marriage Story.'

"Why this? I'm pretty sure there are so many other genres you could have easily worked on, but another romance, drama, and comedy-filled movie?" Mason had asked the first day they talked about the movie script.

Ian had his perfect answer in mind.

"It's an art film."

"For what?" Mason questioned back. His eyes widened in the foreign feeling he got with Ian's answer.

Ian knew what Mason was thinking, and he explained it considering Mason would be the one to be associated with the production.

"With Avatar being released in no time, I wanted to test if I have enough audience to show up for the reason that solely my name is attached to it. With no influence, you know."

The director knew that it was originally a box office flop, but he genuinely wanted to see whether his name can turn that into a hit yet, or not.

Marriage Story was a high-quality movie, which also meant that should it fail at the box office, like its counterpart in Ian's previous world, anyone who would watch it, would not get the chance to point fingers at Ian saying he isn't a talented filmmaker.

Whoever watches the movie in the future, would get to know Ian's filmmaking reputation.

"Yes, I know what you're thinking uncle. It's right, this would not be a commercial movie." The discussion about Marriage Story ended right then and there.

Rolling down to the other side of the bed, he mentally made notes on what to do the next day.

Settling the contracts and everything with the Home Alone crew sounded perfect to him, which also was part of the reason that he didn't want any of the actors to be busy or occupied.

'What if Adam looked way too old for the role?' Ian thought and smiled to himself remembering Adam.

He was a fun kid, but it had been two years. For two years, a kid can grow so much.

With the thought of, 'I'll figure something out', Ian switched off the lamp and thought of going back to sleep.

(.....Somewhere else in California...)

"Shhhh… Don't cry…. Shhhh…. Baby, it's alright…." A lady in her 20s was rocking her baby gently from left to right.

The baby was crying with her face turned extremely crimson.

"It's going to be alright

It's going to be alright

The moon would be right up

It's going to be alright…"

The woman sang a lullaby just above a whisper.

"Shhhh…." Her entire body rhythmically turned from side to side as she tried to soothe the baby from crying.

"Who is even her father, Sarah?" Besides the lady in her twenties, a curly-haired girl was looking at them sympathetically.

[A/N; Yes, the same Sarah in Chapter 01.]

It was Sarah's best friends—best friends who she had known for almost three years now.

They had been there when she had gone through ups and downs, battles of life and death, and everything with not just herself, but a mini human.

If words could ever explain the uncomfortable situations she had to face, her friends would have been writing five hundred pages worth of books.

Not one, a lot of them.

As Sarah's own parents divorced at a young age, financially there was no one to support her. It was she, herself, the three friends, and the baby.

"Sarah, you can't keep doing all of this alone. Lilian is just 11 months, how would you go on like this for years? The more she grows up, the more expensive it is going to be," Natalie said while looking at the kid who calmed down after a lot of loud cries.

Sarah and everyone else were currently at Natalie's apartment. It was the one she had bought for her and her boyfriend but hadn't expected to be a home which ruined her peace of mind every two hours.

She didn't complain at first considering how much she empathized with Sarah, but with time it was unnoticeable.

"Who is the father, Sarah? We have been asking for you for more than seven months. At first, it was fine, you had your uncle to support and everything, but now… I'm worried."

"Why is he not in the picture?" Natalie's boyfriend walked out of the room wanting to know the reason after eavesdropping for a few minutes.

Sarah cleared her throat which made the baby cry again but replied with all honesty, "He just didn't want to be involved in the baby's life anymore. He left."

Natalie put his arms in question, "What the heck? And I think Lilian needs her diapers changed. Just take a look," She said with a frown.

Sarah kept the baby on the bed while removing the diaper to confirm what Natalie said was true.

With the friends' help, they took the baby out of the used diaper.

For the rest of the time, Sarah waddle around, changing the diapers, and the friends kept looking at her in disgust noticing how they had to help with all these things.

"Ian, are you really dating Scarlett? Can you tell us a bit about that?"

"Scarlett! Look this way! Smile…! Nice, perfect!"

"Can you both pose?! Oh... Good! Great! NICE!"

Suddenly, the TV channel that they were watching started casting the movie premiere of Avatar.

While changing their diaper of Lilian, Sarah's attention was taken back by the television with one single name, 'IAN'.

"Whoever the father is, fuck, he is just an asshole!" The curly-haired one said and left the room while the other two girls and Natalie's boyfriend followed her.

Sarah's eyes were focused on the TV for some more time.

Patting the baby's tummy, she just couldn't help but sigh at how good that man, she once used to sleep with, looked on the screen.

Ian's eyes, nose, lips, and everything including his breathtaking smile took Sarah by an unexpected wave of nostalgic feelings.

'How things could have been! Fuck!' She said just above a whisper and stood up to change the T.V. with so much anger boiling in her blood.

She let herself become a playtoy for guys who gave her attention and also cheated on her ex-boyfriend; and to make it much worse, she was cheating on her ex-boyfriend with none other than Ian.

[Back in the day with her ex-boyfriend, Jay]

"I-I'm so SORRY! Please! Please! Please don't do this to us! You know I can't kill her…"

"Sarah! Stop it, please. I told you for weeks that I knew you were cheating. If you don't remember the reason why we broke up, look at your own records girl. I can't take responsibility for this kid who I don't even know is mine. Let's not do this anymore, please." His ex-boyfriend's words and her loud cry in front of her rang in her head over and over again.

She felt weak and pathetic for all she had lived.

Every morning, waking up with regret boiling up in her stomach, and the urge to want a life better than what she was living was not easy to deal with for 365 days.

The tears were streaming down her face without a stop while her thoughts were running wild. With the face she saw on the tv, she suddenly felt as if she couldn't keep doing this anymore.

Wiping her tears aggressively, she took the baby in her hand.

"Lilian, Lilian… Baby, mommy is going to get what we deserve by hook or crook. We'll have a nice life, baby. A nice life." She kissed her daughter's temple.