"Are we even together?"

Helen was much cooler about it than James. She didn't even get angry, she just pulled onto the blanket so that it covered her. Nodding, she said, "I'm sorry, I seemed to have forgotten that I sold myself for fifty thousand, but since you have used me for seven years, I'm sure I've made up for it, so let's end it here Mr. Williams."

She was always able to shut him up, he thought in frustration. In the end, he decided to be a scoundrel. "Whatever, do you think I care? I've slept with you for seven years, I'm already sick of it."

He left the bed and put on his clothes before slamming the door shut when he left.

He had always had a mild temper, but somehow, on that day, he was in a bad temper. Standing near the door, he realized that he had forgotten to take his wallet and wanted to enter the apartment once more, but gave up, posting onto a group chat, [Didn't bring my wallet.]

He knew that she had always been monitoring his chats, so he waited for a long while, but she still didn't reply. In the end, he could no longer keep it in, sending a text over. When no one replied, he called her, realizing that she had blacklisted him.

The anger that he had suppressed started to climb back up. He entered the elevator and headed toward his car.

He remembered that he had sped, fury clouding his mind. He had wanted to numb himself with the high speed.

When he reached the underground tunnel, he had aggressively steered to the side to avoid a white car that he was heading towards. In that instance, his car crashed right into the tunnel wall.

Before he had gone unconscious, his entire mind was filled with Helen. When had she become so important to him? So important that he could get into a car accident for her... He was still wondering if she would be upset over his death...

But the truth had shown that she didn't have many emotions in her, how could she be upset?

He was in a coma for nine whole months but the moment he had woken up, she hadn't sent him anything. He had tried to call her only to realize that he was still blacklisted...

As he reminisced about the past, he looked back at her. She seemed oblivious of the turmoil in him, and his reasoning snapped. Without even thinking, he dragged her into the bedroom in which they had seven years of memory before pressing her onto the bed...

He could admit to himself that he had fully intended to torture her that night. He had wanted to vent all of his frustration on her, but even if he had treated her violently, even if she was clearly in pain, she still had a nonchalant smile on her face.

He didn't feel a tinge better the next day. When he woke up, she was no longer around, that was when he found out that she had gone over for work...

She didn't bother informing him that she had left, so he naturally didn't bother asking.

Weren't they just both wasting each other's time? They were just waiting for the other to snap. But in the end, he was still flying over... Because she was going to be around for "Heaven's Sword" opening ceremony.

They touched down, reaching it at 8 pm.

"Heaven's Sword" would start filming the next day, hence the director specifically got the entire cast together for a dinner.

Isabelle arrived there the latest. By the time she came, the dinner had already started.

"Heaven's Sword" had a few actors from "Alluring Times", so everyone treated her warmly when she arrived, running over to greet her. Jake even personally pulled the empty seat beside him out so that she could sit down.

Isabelle walked to her seat, toasting the crowd to apologize for being late before sitting down.

Alexander was already there. He sat beside Isabelle, leaning backwards casually with a hand on the table and another holding a glass of wine. He remained silent as the table in front of him brimmed with conversations.

Isabelle was the female lead for the drama. She was pretty, so the investors and directors contentiously toasted her and even tried to talk to her.

Every time it happened, Alexander would frown slightly in irritation.

After she had rushed over, she had barely eaten but had already downed at least seven large cups of alcohol. Alexander saw the director walking over once more and frowned, he placed the wine he held down on the table before speaking faintly, "The ceremony will be at seven tomorrow, and after the ceremony, we'll have to change locations which takes about eight hours. Let's end this early so that everyone can rest."

Alexander waved for the waiter to settle the bill.

It wasn't even 9 pm and it was a rare opportunity for many of the actors to have a meal with the producer and director, so they weren't willing to end so early, but since Alexander had already made the order, no one dared to object. Unwillingly, they started to drag themselves up to bid farewell to the directors and investor.

Isabelle had drunk quite a lot. Before leaving, she took a trip to the restroom. But the moment she closed the cubicle door, she heard a conversation between several people.

"Who's the female lead? Why don't I remember her?"

"You met her in the restroom before, so you might not remember. It was the one that arrived the latest, I think she's called Isabelle? She's quite pretty and was the second female lead in 'Alluring Times'."

"Oh yes, the one that acted alongside Alexander! He seemed to be promoting her quite aggressively lately, assigning many advertisements for her, and they're all top tier. He had even gotten into a conflict with the board members, but he didn't say a word. In the end, he just said 'I just want to promote her, what can you do?' before leaving.

"After that, he assigned her the female lead role of the most invested movie of the year. By then, no board member dared to voice their objections."

"Oh, it reminds me, the female lead for "Heaven's Sword" was originally meant to be filmed somewhere else but it has been changed to here. I heard that one of the main cast has altitude sickness, so Alexander had specifically gotten the director and screen writer to make the changes last minute. Do you think the actress with altitude sickness is Isabelle?"

"But that's the treatment for big stars, she only filmed two dramas, isn't she just a newbie..?"

The conversation stopped and the whole lot left the restroom.

Isabelle was already done but she continued to sit in the cubicle with no intention of standing up, her mind still on thee conversation.

She was also a part of Global Entertainment, but it was the first time she had heard the news.

Recently, Alexander had indeed contacted her often to tell her about updates in her schedule, but she had naively believed that it was the company's decision and never thought more of it. She certainly would have never guessed that he had even quarreled with the board just so she can have the advertisements.

As for finding a stunt double, she was completely unaware of it, but they had indeed guessed correctly about one thing, the person with altitude sickness was her.

She had been there in the past but at that time, she wasn't in contact with Alexander, so he couldn't have known about her altitude sickness. But when they were filming "Alluring Times" and had spent a large amount of time together, she had tried to find a topic so that they could talk.

Just then, there was an advertisement about that city, and so, since she couldn't find any other topic, she had casually mentioned that it was a horrible place and that she would never go there again, the altitude sickness had nearly killed her.

At that time, he was busy, but when he heard her, he raised his face with doubt in his eyes. He had asked her nonchalantly if she had altitude sickness there.

She didn't think much of it and had nodded, before slightly elaborating on her condition. At that time, she complained that the place had made her lose five kilograms in three days.

He didn't react much, simply acknowledging her words with an "oh" before returning to work.

Afterwards, when she had gotten the script and realized that they would be in that city filming for at least half a month, she had been scared out of her wits.

Three days were able to take half a life, if they were to film for half a month, would she end up dying there?

But they couldn't just change the filming location because of her, so she did some research to help mitigate the problem.

In the end, she had received a new script the very next day. The new script has several changes but the biggest one was the location.

At that time, she didn't think that it had anything to do with her and was instead just glad that everything ended up this good.

But now that she had heard their conversation, she was quite sure that Alexander had done it for her.

Sometimes, words that were casually said would be forgotten instantly.

But she would have never expected that he would actually remember.

Recently, Alexander had been treating Isabelle well... From small things like buying sanitary pads with her to big things like changing the filming location... From things she knew to things she wasn't aware of...

When he had arranged the work for her, he could have gotten his assistant to inform Camila or he could have given her a call, but sometimes, he would let her know personally. There was even once when he had informed her with a bag of desserts.

Before that, she had casually commented [Helen, I want some too!] when Helen had posted a photo of herself eating desserts.

When she had saw him with the desserts, she knew that he must have seen her comment on that post.

She was touched but had struggled desperately to ignore her feelings.

Because love wasn't so easily forgotten, but there were just some things she couldn't forgive.

She didn't want to let herself get hurt by him in any more ways, the baby was her last straw.

Loving someone could cause her to lose herself, but she didn't want to do it without any dignity.

She stayed in the cubicle for a long while, taking in deep breaths, trying to calm her thoughts and emotions before leaving the restroom.

~*~

Helen opened the door, when she saw James standing outside, she didn't respond.

Her manager, who was in the other room, asked as he stuck his head out, "Helen, who is it?" When he saw James, his expression turned careful. He politely and formally greeted him, "Mr. Williams."

James didn't bother acknowledging his presence, his gaze fixed on Helen.

Helen ignored his gaze, turning back to look at her manager. "You should go back to your room."

Her manager nodded before brushing past James on his way out.

Helen didn't look at James, she turned and entered the room. James closed the door, following after her.

Before he could say a word inside, Helen removed her dress and laid on the bed while looking at him. "Come."

James was confused by what she was doing, he stood still, dazed.

Helen lifted a brow, her lips curving slightly. "Mr. Williams, didn't you come for this? I have to be up early tomorrow, so get it done quickly!"

James's senses returned instantly, a vein popping on his forehead from the suppressed anger. In a furious voice, he shouted, "Helen, what's wrong with you?"

Helen looked straight into his eyes. With a calm expression, she continued to undress herself. She looked back to rush him. "Don't you want it now?"

James gritted his teeth and took large steps to the sofa. He grabbed her dress and tossed it onto her naked body before glaring down at her. With unstable breaths, he turned and stormed out unsteadily.

Helen waited till he slammed the door before she picked up her clothes to put them back on. Walking to to a window, she looked down and waited. Not long later, she saw James storming out of the hotel into the distance.

James left in a cab while Helen looked into the distance, not moving.

This was the second time she had infuriated him so much. The first time, he had gotten into a car accident.

She never could understand why he was so angry, wasn't she supposed to be the one that was infuriated ?

For fifty thousand, she had sold herself for seven years... What a cheap sum, if it wasn't because she loved him, how could she have followed after him without a title for so many years.

Yes, it was without any title.

For the past seven years, she was his mistress. She had never seen any of his friends and they had never acted like a normal couple, never holding hands on the road.

Initially, she had been fine with the idea and thought that in these seven years, he could fall in love with her, but it never happened. Instead, he had told her that he was going to get married.

But she wasn't the bride.

Before, she was just a mistress, but now she was going to become a mistress and a third party?

She could never forget that day when she had finally woken up. It was through a phone call.

"We're around the same age and its about time I got married... I intend to marry this year... Remember to bring me a present... You're talking about the woman I bought for fifty thousand? We're still in contact... Whatever, I'll just continue on after I marry... You can't expect me to marry her, right? You should know that I need someone of equal social status..."

Equal social status, those words hit her heart deeply She could never forget the pain.

In that moment, she realized that a common girl like her would never be a Cinderella and would never be able to marry a prince.

Even if she had endured seven years, she was still not able to stand beside him in public.

Seven years of hiding in the dark was enough, she was tired.

If they couldn't end up together, she would rather end it.