Chapter 11
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When James and I broke up five years ago, I had promised Yasmine I would never appear in his life again.
The three of us had been high school classmates.
Later, James and I went to UCLA together, and Yasmine followed. In Los Angeles, we met Lucas.
Lucas was instantly captivated by Yasmine.
To pursue her, Lucas befriended me.
Lucas had a genuine personality, and eventually, we became close friends who told each other everything.
So close that I eventually asked Lucas to help me leave James.
While Yasmine was technically struggling in LA like us, her reality was completely different. Her family owned a successful business with extensive connections and considerable wealth.
Once she decided to settle in LA, her parents bought her a condo in a prime neighborhood.
When she entered the entertainment industry, her family paved her way.
Her privileged background was worlds apart from James and me.
Lucas was slightly better off – a Los Angeles native with property and family
connections.
James and I came from poverty.
My father was a gambling addict who lost everything, even tried to sell my mother. When I was in eighth grade, my father was beaten to death by loan sharks.
My grandmother raised me, but she died shortly after I started college.
James never knew his father, who died in a car accident. His mother remarried and had another son.
She invested all her energy into her new family, essentially abandoning James. For a long time, I believed James and I belonged together because we understood each other’s pain.
We both came from broken homes, so we understood each other and wanted to
heal each other with love.
That’s why Yasmine couldn’t come between us for years.
Despite her obvious interest in James.
“I told you years ago you’d only hold James back,” Yasmine says when I remain silent. “Five years ago, James couldn’t advance in his career because of you. And now, five
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years later, are you going to make him repeat the same mistakes?” Yasmine is right.
If not for me, James would have risen in Hollywood much earlier.
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Fresh out of college, he was discovered by a talent scout. He had reservations about acting, but compared to regular jobs, entertainment seemed the faster route to financial security. We’d never afford Los Angeles real estate otherwise.
But after signing with his agency, James only landed tiny, insignificant roles for a long time.
Initially, I thought James was simply underappreciated – his face alone, with minimal styling, was magnetic.
Later, when James was injured during filming, Yasmine revealed the truth: James had turned down numerous “networking opportunities” because of me, and his striking looks had actually become an obstacle.
Many investors took one look at his face and developed inappropriate intentions. When he refused them, they deliberately sabotaged his career.
For two years, with barely any income, James supported us by performing dangerous stunts for lead actors.
One mistake sent him falling from a six–foot platform, nearly breaking his leg. That day in the hospital, Yasmine slapped me hard across the face, then immediately fell to her knees, begging me to leave James.
“Just leave James, and I’ll find investors to support him,” she pleaded. “With the right backing, he’ll become a superstar.”
“To leave James, name your price. I’ll give you whatever you want, everything I have.”
I asked her: “You’ll only help him if I leave?”
Yasmine was unequivocal: “I’m not a saint. I’m not that selfless.”
I looked at James, bandaged and sleeping in the hospital bed.
I thought about how he humbled himself before everyone on set for my sake.
How for years, he endured that freezing basement apartment just to be with me… He could go so much further without me.
I agreed.
I refused Yasmine’s money at first.
But she eventually gave me a million dollars anyway.
That money, ironically, later saved my life.
Six months after leaving James, I was diagnosed with leukemia.
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:
Lucas always thought my illness was why I left James.
I never corrected him.
I didn’t want to destroy Yasmine’s image in Lucas’s eyes. Over time, I even became grateful to Yasmine. She truly helped James succeed.
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