Betrayed by the Superstar I Loved

1: 1

An elite heiress crash-landed in the entertainment industry, stole every resource I had, and climbed to the top by stepping on me.

My boyfriend of three years, the one I'd been dating in secret, went on the same dating show as her to get payback for me.

The day the show ended.

What I got instead was their whirlwind marriage announcement, and eleven wedding photos going viral across the internet.

Marcella Gilbert's caption read:

Years of secret love, and I've finally married my high school desk mate!

Reuben Barnes reshared it within a second.

He posted two red marriage certificates.

Through wind and rain, together for life.

My head buzzed, and with shaking hands I called Reuben.

What I got instead was Marcella dragging me online.

"Madeline Winfield, you've gone insane wanting to be famous. Call and harass my husband again, and don't blame me for what I do to you!"

Overnight, the whole internet turned on me. My agency benched me. No roles, nothing.

It wasn't until word got out that I was going to livestream my retirement.

That Reuben finally called me.

"Maddie, don't overthink this. You're the only one in my heart. Everything I've done is because I love you. Marcella's set on marrying me now. When the day comes, I'll leave her at the altar and marry you."

I knew he was lying to me. Again.

Reuben, this time I don't want you.

Every ounce of strength drained out of me, and I sank to the floor.

For a long time I couldn't come back to myself.

Not until Reuben, who'd vanished for a month, suddenly appeared in front of me.

His voice was urgent.

"Maddie, Marcella's an elite heiress. If you go live right now, public opinion will turn against you. I can't just stand by and watch you get torn apart."

"Be good. Go abroad for a couple of days to lie low. Once the heat dies down, I'll bring you back home, okay?"

I'd heard all of this before.

For Marcella, he'd used his own promo accounts for the first time, personally pushing the sweet moments from the dating show.

For Marcella, he'd missed my birthday and our anniversary.

For Marcella, the man who used to reply in seconds took longer and longer, three days, five days, sometimes a full month of silence.

Every time I confronted him, he explained it was all an act, just to throw Marcella off.

But it was Marcella who had stolen him from me.

One word from him.

And Marcella could already have been ruined.

Yet he kept dragging it out, all the way to a wedding.

My chest tightened. I gripped his arm and pleaded softly.

"Rue, let's forget the revenge. Don't marry her, okay?"

As long as he said yes, I could give up everything. Even if I had to carry all the blame myself, I just wanted this to end.

But his tone was irritated.

"Maddie, when did you get so selfish?"

"I've already tricked her into agreeing to marry me. What more do you want? You can't even wait two more weeks?"

Tears spilled down my face, my body shaking uncontrollably.

"But I never asked you to get revenge!"

Reuben froze for a moment. It was a while before he spoke.

"Maddie, don't say things you don't mean. I'm doing this because it hurts me to see you like this. As long as I can punish Marcella for you, I can make it right for you."

But he didn't even notice it himself. When he mentioned Marcella, his cold voice went unusually soft.

"So taking her home to your family, that's getting payback for me too?"

Reuben's eyes flickered, and he said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"If I didn't do that, how would Marcella think I valued her? How else would she be willing to marry me?"

I went still. Something heavy pressed against my chest, and it hurt.

So it turned out he did know what valuing someone meant, too.

But for three whole years, I'd clung to him countless times to take me home to his family, and he always had a reason to put it off.

On his father's birthday, he said there hadn't been time to tell me, that he was already back home.

When his mother was in the hospital, he said the paparazzi had the place surrounded, and he was afraid our relationship would get out.

At New Year's, I'd bought the tickets, and then he turned around and took his whole family on a trip abroad.

I'd thought he was just cold by nature, that he needed time to let me in.

But with Marcella, in only the third month of knowing her.

He gave her exactly the title she wanted.

He was supposed to be punishing Marcella to get payback for me.

So why was the one who lost everything.

Me.

2: 2

I stared blankly at the medicine sitting by his hand.

Reuben seemed to catch how harsh his tone had been, and softened it.

"Marcy isn't feeling well. Buying her medicine was the only excuse I had to slip away and see you. I have to head back soon, or she'll start crying again."

Hearing the pet name roll off his tongue for Marcella, I felt every drop of blood drain out of me.

He and I were the ones who were actually together, out in the open, by every right.

And now we were the ones who couldn't see the light of day.

"Reuben. You've fallen for her, haven't you?"

He thought I was still throwing a tantrum, and his patience finally ran dry.

"Madeline, don't think I can't see through you. All that scheming for a retirement livestream, it's just so you can expose our secret relationship."

"I've gone against my own conscience for you, putting on an act in front of Marcy every single day. And what do you do? Just sulk and get jealous."

"On that, you don't hold a candle to Marcy."

I clenched my fist, nails digging into my palm.

So this was what he really thought.

From start to finish, all Reuben had ever cared about was Marcella finding out about the three years we'd shared.

In his heart, I didn't measure up to her.

I gave the corner of my mouth a faint tug.

"In that case, let's break up."

His expression changed.

"Madeline, do you really have to make a scene with me!"

I laughed. "You're the one marrying her. I'm letting you two have your happiness. Aren't you glad?"

He gritted his teeth, his face uglier than I'd ever seen it.

"You're only saying this to spite me because you know I love you. I still haven't signed the papers with her, and it's all so I can give the marriage to you instead, yet you spend every day imagining things!"

"This time, I'm not going to indulge you."

He was furious when he left.

We rarely fought, and even when we did, I was always the one who chased after him first to smooth things over.

This time, I didn't chase. I didn't smooth anything over.

Not long after Reuben got back, he posted something new.

A photo of two people holding hands.

The ring on his finger was the birthday gift I'd given him two years ago.

Engraved with both our initials.

Now it was clasped around another woman's hand.

And the three years of love I'd guarded so carefully came down to one last text.

"Ning, all you have to do is apologize to Marcy on the livestream, and I can pretend none of this ever happened. Once it's over, I'll make it up to you properly. This is the most I can do for you. If you won't take it, then there'll be nothing left at all."

For a moment, a bleak emptiness washed through me.

If I really did apologize, the first thing to hound me to death would be public opinion.

There'd be no place left for me in this industry.

Something that simple, how could Reuben not understand it.

He just didn't care about me.

But still.

Reuben, of all the people you could have loved, why did it have to be Marcella?

Back in high school, my brother had his hand and leg tendons cut by the kidnappers, all to save Marcella when she'd been taken.

And Marcella turned around and threw him away for being a cripple, breaking up with him the very next day after it happened.

She deleted his contact information without a second thought.

My brother, who should have been the rising star of the surgical world, became a man who couldn't so much as lift a pair of chopsticks.

After that he only wanted to die, hurting himself day after day.

My mother went to beg Marcella to show a little mercy, to help talk him into staying alive, and had an accident on the way there.

Marcella happened to be driving right past and could have saved her. Instead she cast one disgusted glance at my mother lying in a pool of blood, muttered something about bad luck, and drove off.

In the end my mother missed the window for rescue, and drew her last breath before she ever reached the hospital.

I'd once told Reuben all of this, holding nothing back, and he had held me with such tenderness in his eyes.

"Ning, it's all in the past. From now on you have me."

When he said that, I believed him without a shred of doubt.

Now he was telling me he and Marcella had known each other all along.

And he wanted me to apologize to her?

Looking at that laughable message, the bitterness in my chest nearly rose to the tip of my tongue.

After a long while, I replied.

"I won't apologize."

3: 3

This apartment was the home I'd spent three years building.

Back then, watching it fill up piece by piece with mine and Reuben's things, I'd felt so happy. Now that same memory only mocked me.

Packing what I needed and burning everything tied to Reuben took less than thirty minutes.

But when I wheeled my suitcase back inside, I found the place in ruins.

My brother was sprawled on the cold floor, his fingers locked around his overturned wheelchair, dried blood packed under his nails.

Marcella glanced back at me, her eyes full of contempt.

"Madeline, you're finally home. See what your brother's come to? All thanks to his darling little sister."

I dropped the suitcase and threw myself down beside him, only to touch the soaked fabric of his pants.

My tears hit the floor all at once as I stared her down.

"He did it to save you. How could you treat him like this? Are you even human?"

Marcella laughed.

After all these years, she was still just as brazen.

"You've got it wrong. You're the one who did this to him. All these years you kept Piers so well hidden. If someone hadn't told me, how would I ever have found this place?"

Reuben.

No one else knew my brother lived here.

Seeing me freeze, Marcella's smile turned even smugger.

"Why do you look so betrayed? Rue is the father of my child. Was he supposed to help you, an outsider, instead of me?"

"Madeline, you might've been content to follow Rue for three years with no title to your name, but I'm the eldest daughter of the Gilbert family. I don't have your kind of shamelessness. And Rue would never let me and our baby suffer that indignity."

"Him making you apologize was actually my idea. I mentioned it in passing. I won't have my child born under a scandal, so of course I'm covering the bases early. And funny thing, Rue thought exactly the same."

Every word landed on my ears like it was draining the blood out of me.

Marcella patted my pale cheek.

"I'm marrying Rue in a week. I'll give you two days. Announce publicly that you were the one harassing him, then apologize and retire."

A week.

Reuben had told me half a month.

No wonder he'd urged me to go abroad.

He'd meant to deceive me from the very start.

He'd never once thought of running from the wedding.

Marcella's smile turned mocking.

"You wouldn't want a video of Piers wetting himself going viral, would you?"

"Once a genius of the medical world, now a useless invalid who can't even take care of himself. Your brother used to be so aloof and cold. I'm sure plenty of people would love to see how far he's fallen."

Looking at how wretched my brother looked, my heart clenched.

After a long moment, my throat was dry.

"I understand. Get out."

After Marcella left, I forced my shaking body to lift my brother onto the bed and changed him into clean clothes.

But in the few short minutes I spent cleaning the living room

when I pushed the door open again, I found him lying in a pool of blood, a shard of broken ceramic in his hand.

I lunged over like I'd lost my mind, trembling as I grabbed my phone to call 911.

With his last breath, my brother smiled at me.

"Don't save me, Maddie."

"My Maddie deserves better. Let go of Reuben. Please."

I shook my head desperately, trying to stop him, but his eyes kept going dim in front of me, little by little.

By the time the ambulance came, he was already gone.

"I'm sorry, Miss Winfield. We did everything we could. My condolences."

I held him and called out for him, over and over.

But he couldn't hear me anymore.

The only person in this world who loved me was gone too.

I moved through the paperwork like a walking corpse, but when it came time to pay, the clerk said my card wouldn't work.

Panicked, I pulled out my backup card.

This was the money I'd scrimped and saved for three years to pay for my brother's leg. Not even the company knew about it.

But the clerk still said no.

Only Reuben knew about this card. He'd frozen this one too?

"Maybe you could borrow from someone? It isn't good to leave the body sitting out. The weather's too hot."

But who was I supposed to borrow from?

All these years my life had been nothing but filming and revolving around Reuben. I had no friends, and even my agent wouldn't take my calls.

Looking at my brother's pale hand on the stretcher, my eyes burned, and everything inside me went hollow.

Just then, a Porsche pulled up in front of me.

Inside, a man held out a business card.

"Madeline, Reuben isn't the only man in the world."

"Call this number if you ever need to."

I clutched the card tight.

"Could you lend me two thousand?"

4: 4

In the end, I carried my brother's ashes and pushed open the door in a daze.

And the first person to come toward me was Reuben Barnes.

"Maddie, I finally found a doctor who can cure your brother. He's overseas, but I've already booked the plane tickets."

"Take your brother there tomorrow. Don't worry about a thing. I'll cover all the costs."

Watching him lie to my face without so much as a flicker, my stomach turned. All I felt was sick.

"Were you the one who gave this address to Marcella?"

Reuben didn't notice how pale my face had gone. He just assumed I was picking a fight over nothing.

"If I want to earn Marcella's trust, of course I have to be completely open with her. What are you throwing a tantrum about now? Sure, Marcella's a little spoiled, but she'd never be as unreasonable."

So everything I'd done these past days, in his eyes, was just being unreasonable.

And Marcella, who had taken everything from me, who had destroyed my family, was only a little spoiled.

Reuben, if it's Marcella you love, why did you come after me in the first place?

I wanted to demand it of him, but every word felt lodged in my throat.

"Maybe there was some misunderstanding back then. Maddie, give me some time, and I promise I'll help the two of you clear it up."

"You'll be the best of friends again."

Two lives were gone. Whether it was Marcella and me, or Reuben, all that was left between us for the rest of this life was blood debt.

I let out a soft laugh.

"Is she even worthy?"

Once Reuben saw the mockery at the corner of my mouth, he couldn't keep up the act any longer.

His face darkened. "Madeline Winfield, everything I've swallowed at Marcella's side, I did it all for you!"

"But you, over one little fit of jealousy, wouldn't play along. Fine. And then you wanted to use that livestream to go public with our relationship. How did I never know you were this calculating!"

"Marcella was right. You're a scheming person. You've been using me from the very start!"

With that, he flipped the table over.

The tea set on top shattered across the floor.

Even the ceramic cat I'd made for my brother with my own hands broke.

Reuben snatched up that ceramic cat before I could, grinding his teeth.

"So this thing you'd never let me have, it turns out you gave it to that useless brother of yours."

He squeezed a shard of it, blood seeping from his palm.

Anger drained the color from his face and brought it back again.

Before, I would have panicked, hunted all over the place for a first-aid kit for him.

But now my heart stayed perfectly still.

"He's the brother who loved me most. He's not useless."

Reuben was still waiting for me to come dress his wound. When I didn't move, his brow knit together.

Quietly, I dragged my suitcase out of the room.

He thought I'd caved. He didn't even notice that I no longer cared about him.

In a good mood, he said,

"Pack your brother's things too. No need to rush, though. I'll drive you over tonight."

Before, the moment he gave me a way out, I'd take it obediently.

Now I only shook my head, my eyes settling on my brother's urn.

"That won't be necessary."

Fallen leaves return to their roots.

I was taking my brother home.

Reuben was about to say something more when Marcella's call came in, urging him to go try on wedding gowns.

His eyes slid away from mine.

I gave a soft laugh. "Go be with her. I can leave on my own."

Reuben thought I'd finally come to my senses, and he smiled with relief.

"Maddie, don't worry. I'll make it up to you properly from now on!"

Watching him rush off, not even minding the cut on his palm.

My face was blank.

But Reuben, there is no "from now on" for us.

The next day, Reuben was celebrating Marcella's birthday on a yacht, and everyone was waiting for me to livestream my apology.

But I never showed up.

Reuben wasn't worried in the least. No one knew better than he did how much my brother meant to me.

A penniless person, and one he'd arranged to send overseas.

A stranger in an unfamiliar place. Where could I possibly go?

He had his assistant contact me.

But over the phone came the assistant's terrified voice. "Miss Winfield never boarded the flight."

Something dropped out of Reuben's chest. He smashed his glass all at once, and yesterday's cut split open again. Blood ran across the floor, and he didn't care.

"Where could Madeline Winfield go? A woman alone, dragging a useless brother, where could she go!"

The assistant didn't dare look at him at all.

"Word came from the hospital. They said Miss Winfield's brother"

"passed away the day before yesterday."