A Night of Desire

Faye Jennings ran without stopping until she reached a large tree on a grassy patch of the film studio lot, where she finally came to a halt.

She was miserable. Truly, deeply miserable. She had secretly loved Seth Quinn for five years. For five years, she had watched him in secret, thought of him in secret, felt joy and sorrow for him in secret. Everything was a secret.

Ever since Autumn Shelby had run out on their wedding and Seth Quinn had found Clara Grant, she hadn’t wanted to hide in the shadows anymore. She wanted to love him openly. ’What woman doesn’t want her love to be out in the open, under the sun?’

But she never expected this to be the result of her bold confession.

It would have been one thing if Seth Quinn had simply not accepted her love, but he had embarrassed and hurt her time and time again!

Faye Jennings couldn’t understand it. Five years ago, Seth Quinn hadn’t treated her like this at all!

Her thoughts drifted back five years...

Five years ago, her father had developed a gambling addiction and racked up a massive debt. The creditors then set their sights on her, making it clear that if he couldn’t pay, they would take her as collateral.

Unbelievably, her gambling-addicted father had actually agreed to the creditors’ terms, selling her off without even batting an eye.

The creditors tried to force her to "entertain" the powerful and influential people they wanted to curry favor with. Unwilling to submit, she took a chance when no one was looking and escaped from her hotel room, running right into Seth Quinn, River Sterling, and their group.

She remembered it clearly. She had tearfully begged them to save her, and just as she’d hoped, Seth Quinn had agreed. She would never forget the words he spoke to the men who had chased after her to drag her back, nor the expression on his face and the tone of his voice as he said them.

He was like a king surveying his domain, radiating an overwhelming aura of command. He pointed at her and declared, "Her. I’m taking her. From now on, she’s my person!"

Perhaps that was the moment she fell in love with Seth Quinn. She had never forgotten his words: "From now on, she’s my person!"

For a long time after that, she fantasized about turning from a Cinderella into a princess. She kept imagining that Seth Quinn would slowly fall in love with her. ’Isn’t that how the plot always goes in idol dramas? The female lead is in danger, the male lead falls for her at first sight, rescues her with an assertive flair, and then they naturally fall in love.’

So, she had always believed that when Seth Quinn said, "She’s my person," he truly meant that he considered her his woman.

But it turned out that when he said she was his person, he simply meant that she was his employee, an artist under his banner.

Because even though he had paid off her debts, brought her into Aegis Pictures, and spent the next few years heavily promoting her, there seemed to be nothing special in his private feelings for her.

’Maybe I’m too ordinary, my background too humble. That must be why he doesn’t like me.’ So she worked incredibly hard. Every time she achieved something or made progress, she was overjoyed, because she felt she was one step closer to Seth Quinn.

But before long, she learned about Seth Quinn and Autumn Shelby’s story—a standard case of a prince paired with a princess.

Toward Autumn Shelby, she felt a mix of envy and inferiority. Toward Seth Quinn, she felt a mix of longing and inferiority. With this complicated mindset, she buried her love deep in her heart.

But she still strove to improve and grow, because at the very least, it allowed her to imagine herself standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Seth Quinn.

In the end, she lived up to expectations. From a complete novice with no acting experience, she leaped to become the pillar of Aegis, its undisputed number-one actress.

Now she finally had the status to match his, but he had chosen the ordinary, unremarkable Clara Grant. How could she not be driven mad with jealousy!

Just as Faye Jennings was wallowing in self-pity and seething with jealousy for Clara Grant, she suddenly heard footsteps approaching from behind.