Olivia froze on the spot, then looked up at Orion, who stepped in front of her protectively.
“Do you think everyone’s as dirty-minded as you? I came here with Olivia for an audition! You better go home now and stop being an embarrassment!”
An embarrassment.
Is that all he thought I was now?
Bitterness was all I felt in my heart. “Am I the one who’s dirty-minded, or are you getting angry because I caught you in the act? Since when did script-reading involve hugging each other so closely? If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought you were the love interest!”
Orion couldn’t say anything in response, while Olivia and I noticed the paparazzi following us. She took a big step and stood in front of Orion. “I’m sorry, but you’re misunderstanding our relationship! I’m thankful to Orion for discovering my potential, but I’ve only treated him like a big brother! If you’re angry, you can hit me! I won’t do a thing!” She grabbed my arm and smacked my palm against her face.
Surprised by this unexpected turn of events, I couldn’t help but leave a heavy imprint of my palm on her face.
Orion pushed me down the stairs quickly, and I rolled to the ground like a ball.
My entire body hurt so much that I couldn’t even make a sound, and the paparazzi cameras were practically smudged against my face.
“You’re Grace? The actress, Grace Ellison?”
“Goodness, since when did you become so fat?”
As I reached to push away their cameras, I noticed Orion move, as if he wanted to go in this direction, but was stopped by Olivia.
“Don’t go, the paparazzi are going to take pictures of you. Let’s go!”
Following that, both of them left the scene.
Despite my pain, I stood up and haphazardly pushed the paparazzi aside before entering the building.
Ella was astounded to see me, both by my weight and the wounds on my body. After a while, she said, “You know as well as I do that your current figure will not suffice; I’ll give you a half-year to lose weight, and if you can’t do it by then, you’ll have to go somewhere else.
When I arrived home that evening, I was met with Sophie’s venomous shouting: “How dare you hit Olivia? Honestly, you’re just embarrassing yourself! You look even more like a pig than she does! Why isn’t she my mum instead?”
Then she threw her phone at me, revealing the posts she was looking at.
“Grace Ellison is now a pig with two legs!”
“Orion’s a faithful man who didn’t abandon his wife, while Grace attacked an innocent woman out of jealousy.”
“Olivia’s much more honourable than a viper in the sewers.”
The internet was full of posts slandering my name, which Orion could have easily removed… if he wanted to.
Why didn’t he? He was probably still angry for Olivia’s sake.
I scoffed as I threw the phone back at Sophie, “If you really want to be the daughter of a filthy mistress, go. The door is right there, and I won’t stop you.
While Sophie was stunned by my response, I walked into my bedroom and slammed the door.
Taking out the luggage, I finished packing all of my clothes, leaving out all of the gifts Orion had previously purchased for me, and then I took one last look at the house I had lived in for the past twelve years, the place that held so many of my memories.
Twelve years… I’d spent a third of my life in this house.
