Chapter 2

Yolanda Vance's POV

I didn't know how I managed to walk over to the outside of the VIP suite.

The corridor was empty, with only the pungent smell of disinfectant wafting through the air. Like a soulless puppet, I stood stiffly outside the door.

The suite door wasn't fully closed. From inside came Anna Sterling's unbridled, coquettish whining and complaints.

"Ow, Doctor, gentler! It's all the fault of that beast Julian Foster. He acted like he hadn't touched a woman in eight hundred years. Why did he have to go so hard?!"

"Sweetheart, my bad. I'll definitely be gentler next time. Does it still hurt?" That was Julian Foster's voice, so tender it could melt water—a tone that Yolanda Vance had not heard in a whole year.

Standing outside the door, I felt cold all over. It was a chill that seeped from the marrow of my bones, freezing me so deeply that even breathing made my internal organs ache.

I used to think Julian Foster was just too tired from work, just under too much pressure after winning the award. For him, right after winning Best Actress at the absolute peak of my career, I announced my retirement from the industry to become a homemaker and the woman behind him. I revised scripts for him, entertained investors on his behalf, and managed everything in his wake.

Yet all I got in return was him "going too hard" on another woman.

The suite door was pushed open, and Julian Foster walked out. The tenderness on his face vanished the instant he saw me, replaced by that familiar coldness—defensive and annoyed—that I had grown used to lately.

"Since you've seen and heard everything, let's make things clear." Julian Foster lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled a puff of gray-white smoke. "Yolanda Vance, let's get a divorce."

My eyes were red-rimmed as I stared dead at him, my voice trembling uncontrollably. "Julian Foster, do you even know what you're saying? You want to divorce me for that woman inside?"

I took a deep breath, and tears finally spilled over, rolling down my pale cheeks. "I came to the hospital today because... I'm pregnant! I'm carrying your child!"

Julian Foster's hand holding the cigarette jerked to a halt, his pupils shrinking abruptly. Looking at the tears on my face, he habitually reached out, wanting to wipe the tears from the corner of my eyes.

But the moment his fingertips were about to touch my skin, he snapped awake and pulled his hand back quickly as if he had received an electric shock.

"Get rid of it." Julian Foster averted his eyes, his voice as cold as if he were talking about discarding a piece of trash. "I don't love you anymore."

I stared at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. "What did you say?"

"I said, I don't love you!" Julian Foster suddenly raised his voice, a long-suppressed resentment bursting from his eyes. "Yolanda Vance, do you have any idea what you brought me? Disgrace! Whenever anyone mentions Julian Foster, they say I became famous because of Yolanda Vance! They call me a gigolo living off a woman! Your light was too bright—so bright that it suffocated me!"

He pointed at the suite door, a pathological fanaticism flashing in his eyes. "But Anna is different. She understands me. She idolizes me. She recognizes my talent and capability. She is willing to rely on and love me with all her heart, instead of looking at me with that high-and-mighty, patronizing gaze of yours!"

Hearing this utterly absurd speech, I suddenly burst into laughter. I laughed until my tears streamed down, laughed until my entire body shook.

"So that's the reason?" I demanded bitterly. "You think I'm high-and-mighty? Julian Foster, have you forgotten who stayed up all night revising those garbage scripts with you when you were hitting walls everywhere? Who swallowed their pride to beg for investments? I retired from the industry at the very peak of my career for you, giving up my dreams, and now you have the nerve to tell me my sacrifices were a disgrace?!"

"Enough! Stop bringing up the past! Everything is in the past!" Julian Foster cut me off roughly, his gaze becoming incredibly venomous. "Yolanda Vance, I'll have my lawyer draw up the divorce papers. I want you to give up the assets."

I looked at him in shock, as if looking at a monster. "Are you insane? Most of those assets were earned by me before our marriage!"

"Anna likes money, and I won't let her suffer any grievance with me," Julian Foster said as if it were only natural, his tone even carrying a hint of vindictive pleasure. "Besides, if you don't give up the assets, I guarantee you won't be able to take a single step in the entertainment industry, let alone in this society."

My world completely collapsed at this moment. Looking at the man before me who had once sworn to love me for a lifetime, the love in my heart was crushed piece by piece, turning into bone-deep hatred.

I wiped away my tears, pulled my spine straight, and my gaze turned cold and hard. "In your dreams, Julian Foster. I will never agree to give up the assets, and I will absolutely never let you and that bitch live in peace!"

Julian Foster sneered, tossed the cigarette butt onto the ground, and crushed it hard under his leather shoe. "Fine. Let's wait and see."