"Miss Anderson, your body-freezing plan is scheduled to launch in one month. What is the ultimate result you’re aiming for?"

Ashlyn pulled her coat tighter around herself and replied with difficulty, "The plan stays unchanged."

"Then..." Finn Prescott, the project leader, hesitated before continuing, "What about the child you’re carrying? The baby wasn’t accounted for in the plan. Please consider this carefully."

"I will get rid of the baby. It’s my womb and I have the right to make my own decisions."

Ashlyn finally made up his mind after she took a brief glance at her phone, which had just lit up with a message. The words on the screen read, [Dear, rest early tonight. I need to review the script first here.] The message stirred her emotions.

Suppressing her wandering thoughts, Ashlyn trudged toward the bus stop in a daze.

A massive advertisement loomed ahead, making her heart clench.

——

On the screen, the celebrated star Davis Miller was down on one knee, holding a large, heart-shaped diamond ring with both hands. The bold, illuminated words "Marry Me" dominated the poster, stabbing at Ashlyn’s eyes and heart.

That handsome face had been with her for ten long years and she had poured the best years of her youth into this man.

"Excuse me, Miss, could you move aside? You’re blocking our photos and check-in spot!"

Ashlyn blinked, realizing that the "miss" the two girls in wedding dresses were addressing was her.

"My idol said he’ll collect 10,000 photos of fans while wearing wedding dresses and organize a massive wedding event for us all. Oh my gosh, how can he be so romantic?"

The two young women, dressed in strapless wedding gowns despite the late autumn chill, posed enthusiastically in front of the poster. They were utterly captivated by Davis’s charming smile.

They did not know the truth, that Ashlyn had been the one to discover and nurture Davis. They did not know that she had orchestrated this extravagant "Weddings of a Thousand Dreams" campaign with the D family’s most luxurious jewelry.

To secure the endorsement deal, she had exhausted her connections and drunk herself into a bleeding stomach.

What she had not anticipated was that the man she had supported through ten years of relentless self-discipline and helped rise to the pinnacle of the entertainment industry would do something as ridiculous as holding a "harem selection" under the guise of a fan event.

Three days ago, Ashlyn had discovered she was pregnant. She had been overjoyed, so she had planned to set the photo of the positive pregnancy test, the two stripes, as his phone’s screensaver. It was meant to be a sweet surprise for him to see when he emerged from his shower.

However, everything shattered when she accidentally uncovered a hidden dual system on his phone and there was an unfamiliar chat application within it that she had never seen before.

There were photos of girls selected from his fan club, accompanied by explicit messages that made Ashlyn’s entire body tremble.

[Big breast.]

[Waist: 52 cm. Hips: 84 cm.]

[Voice during…]

He had written down every detail of every experience!

The video footage felt like an overwhelming tidal wave, churning Ashlyn's already fragile stomach.

Pinned at the top of the chat software was a message accompanied by a selfie of a woman with heavy makeup and a sultry figure. The photo had been sent at 10 PM the previous night.

At the same time, Ashlyn had received a message from Davis, showing him taking a selfie in the crew room while holding a script. [Nite nite. I'm going to sleep after finishing the script. Babe, get some rest. See you tomorrow. My love for you can’t be summed up in a thousand words omitted.]

Ashlyn wiped away her tears and then hastily used a private account that concealed her identity and randomly added a few accounts before adding a comment, [High-priced commercial shoot, immediate contract.]

To her surprise, the account named Behind The View quickly approved her request.

The first post she saw in the account’s feeds revealed a painfully familiar scene. The background was unmistakably the bedside of the hotel where Davis’s crew was staying.

In the lower right corner of the photo, the edge of a small umbrella that was half-used was clearly visible.

The sound of the bathroom door opening snapped Ashlyn out of her trance. She hurriedly returned the phone to its original position just in time.

Davis emerged from the bathroom, a bath towel loosely wrapped around his waist, exposing his chiseled mermaid lines. Water droplets clung to his lean muscles and the heat of the steam still lingered around him.

"Honey, your future husband misses you so much. Come on, give me a hug…"

Ashlyn felt a wave of nausea rise and quickly pushed him away. "I don’t feel so well today, so let’s not."

"Baby, I only have time tonight. I have to go back to the set early tomorrow morning. Don’t you understand how much I’ve missed you?" Davis’s face darkened as he reached to untie his bath towel.

"Davis, don’t force me," Ashlyn said, her voice icy and resolute.

Davis was always wary of her anger, so he awkwardly retied his towel and softened his tone to coax her.

"Okay, okay, little princess. If you don’t want to, how could I dare force you? Come on, I’ll just hug you to sleep."

Relieved, he lay down. He was exhausted from the previous night, so it was good that we did not have to do anything tonight.

Within just two minutes, he was sound asleep.

Ashlyn, however, spent the night on the sofa. The thought of sharing the same bed with him was unbearable.

"Is he really worth it?" Looking at the girl in the photo and thinking of the chaotic scenes she had uncovered, Ashlyn could not help but murmur bitterly to herself.

"Miss, who even are you? If you’re not going to take a photo, why block the way? If you’re not a fan, you wouldn’t understand what it’s like to have mutual devotion! I suggest you take the bus home early and change the baby’s diaper."

The aggressive words stung and Ashlyn bit her lip, tears welling up in her eyes.

Ten years had passed and while Davis had risen to fame as a high-quality idol, she had faded into the background as an unnoticed assistant, her sacrifices unseen and unacknowledged.

Not far away, a Rolls-Royce pulled up and stopped in front of her.

"Ashlyn, the doctor is ready. Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Lindsey, an assistant, asked with a pleading look in her eyes.

As a woman, she understood the weight of Ashlyn’s decision. It was not easy to conceive a child, especially for Ashlyn. Three years ago, she had unknowingly fallen pregnant. While tirelessly managing Davis’s business, a drunken fall had led to a devastating miscarriage.

Every endorsement he secured had been paid for with Ashlyn’s sweat and blood.

After the dilation and curettage surgery, the doctor warned her about her thin uterine wall and told her to stay cautious about the chance of carrying another pregnancy.

"Let’s go," Ashlyn closed the car door firmly. There was no hesitation in her voice.

It was only after the "harem selection" event that she discovered her pregnancy. At the time, she had severe abdominal pain and could not go for a proper check-up. In the end, she learned the sad news that she was also suffering from ALS.

Her body was as rotten as her love. How could she even nourish a new life like a child?

Leaving the child was, perhaps, her only release.

As the Rolls-Royce sped through the streets, every bus stop displayed the glaring image of Davis proposing with a diamond ring in his hand.

Every time they passed by, the sight cut through Ashlyn’s heart like a knife.

In their ten years together, Davis had proposed to her 31 times.

The last proposal was the scene framed by this huge poster.

Photography allowed him to express his true feelings. It was when he pulled Ashlyn over and said. "Marry me." with genuine tears in his eyes. The sincerity had moved even the staff to tears.

He proposed two or three times a year. During his travels, after winning luxury endorsements and after blockbuster movie successes.Each time, he had professed undying love.

"Marry me, Ashlyn Anderson. I will only love you in this lifetime."

This proposal made the 28-year-old Ashlyn’s heart fluttering. She had grown weary of their secret romance and no longer wanted to only see Davis's bright future alone.

She longed for a family and a child.

The wedding sponsors had already been chosen and once the pre-wedding photos were taken, the long-awaited ceremony would follow.

Davis had once assured her that even if he fell from the peak of his career to the very bottom, he would not regret it. He would make everything public the day they received their marriage certificate.

Yet, Ashlyn could not understand how a man who had professed such deep love, who claimed he was willing to sacrifice his future for her, could now orchestrate something as humiliating as a "harem selection" thing?

Was he truly tired of her, or had he simply succumbed to the allure of fleeting temptations from the outside world?

She could not help but think back to the darkest days when she and her mother needed to earn money for her teenage brother, who was diagnosed with ALS in high school.

It was Davis who, during his work-study program, borrowed money from his family and poured his heart into winning first place in the district's art performance competition, all to save up for her brother's medical treatment. Later, his talent was noticed by an entertainment company and became a star.

In those early years, every penny he earned was handed over to Ashlyn without hesitation.

He once said that her brother was also his and he would do his best to make sure he survived another day.

From the moment they became a couple, Ashlyn had made a solemn vow to herself that she would be his for the rest of their lives, to love, protect and never abandon him.

No matter how murky the waters of the entertainment industry became, Ashlyn trusted him without question. She dedicated herself fully to being his manager.

Yet, the greatest pain she endured was not the nights of drinking until she vomited or the heartbreak of losing their child. It was watching him achieve fame while maintaining the facade of being single, crafting a public image built on secrets and carrying the weight of a hidden "stain" he could never speak of.

Six months ago, Ashlyn’s younger brother became completely paralyzed. In an act of devotion, she assigned several of Davis’s assistants to help care for him.

But despite her efforts, her brother could not hold on. On the day of his cremation, Davis was nowhere to be found.

Ashlyn had also discovered in the past few days that Davis, who claimed to have stayed up late filming and had no free time, had been intimate with the woman he connected with through a friend request just the previous night.

Ever since this woman appeared half a month ago, her posts on social media had frequently overlapped with Davis's activities.

The places they met were unsettling, such as before the makeup mirror late at night on set, in the privacy of a luxury RV, or, most disturbingly, in the very "home" she and Davis shared.

ALS was incurable and the quality of life in its final stages would plummet to almost nothing.

Ashlyn could not bear the thought of remaining trapped in this suffocating house, waiting until she could no longer move any part of her body except her eyes.

She contacted her old friend, Finn Prescott, who was a medical student she met at university. She found out that he was now involved in the research of "frozen human". This experimental program had become a final refuge for many suffering from terminal illnesses who were caught between waiting for a miracle and accepting the inevitability of death.

Without hesitation, Ashlyn signed her name onto the program.

That night, she would end the pregnancy and there was still one month left before the procedure.

Regardless of whether freezing offered any chance of revival, Ashlyn had made up her mind as she simply wanted to leave the jerk.

Maria Hospital was known for its exclusive services to premium clients. Even in the dead of night, the procedure was carried out as scheduled.

Three hours later, Ashlyn awoke, her body emptied of the child she could no longer bear to carry. As part of their agreement, the hospital preserved samples of the child for her.

She signed a strict confidentiality agreement, ensuring the medical records would only show information of a routine physical examination and the removal of intestinal polyps.

By noon the following day, Davis arrived in a rush with his bloodshot eyes.

"Baby, you're not feeling well, hmm? Why didn’t you tell me to come with you? No matter how critical the filming schedule, nothing is more important than you."

Ashlyn remained silent. Seeing her unresponsive, Davis grabbed her hand and pressed it against his chest. "It’s my fault, all my fault. You said you weren’t feeling well that night and I didn’t insist on taking you to the hospital. I was wrong, baby!"

Ashlyn nodded faintly, her face still drained of color.

"Thankfully, it was just intestinal polyps. You’ll be discharged in two days. Once you’re better, I’ll take you somewhere nice."

His red-rimmed eyes and solemn demeanor gave the illusion of a man deeply heartbroken.

"Go back to the set. Don’t delay everyone else because of me." Ashlyn did not want to see him for a minute now.

"I’m not leaving. I’ll stay with you tonight. I bought you some soup. Be good and let me feed you."

He carefully scooped the soup, blowing on it to cool it down before offering it to her lips.

"Baby, take care of yourself. Once you're healthy, we’ll get our marriage certificate. After that, let’s try to get a child. I’ve already quit smoking for you," he whispered softly in her ear.

Outside the room, a group of young nurses passed by, stealing glances and whispering among themselves.

"Is that really Davis? I thought he was single. He actually has a girlfriend?"