The Starlet's Fall From My Grace to Her Grave

With my money and industry connections, I poured everything into making my girlfriend a rising star. Yet on our six-year anniversary, she went behind my back and went public with a new romance. She posted that he was the purest, cleanest boy she had ever met. I was furious, but my very first instinct was still to worry about her career. I never expected her to turn around and threaten me: "You don't understand anything! All you care about is profit and status. What's wrong with me wanting to be with someone pure?" "Don't forget, I'm the only star in your agency. The moment I leave, you have nothing!" Chloe hung up the phone without hesitation. I gripped my cell tightly, holding back with everything I had just to keep from smashing it against the wall. The conference room fell dead silent. After a long pause, someone finally asked in a cautious whisper: "Chase, how are we going to issue a statement to clear this up?" Clear it up? I let out a cold laugh. "Is there any point in issuing a statement now?" I asked mockingly. Chloe had just laid down an ultimatum over the phone. She said if I dared to delete her Instagram post, for every one I took down, she would post another. The staff member hesitated for a second before saying nervously: "If we don't clear the air, her fan meet in two days is going to be a disaster." "Her career is on the rise right now. The fans really expect..." Before he could finish, I cut him off: "Then cancel it!" With that, I turned around, left the room, and walked back into my private office. The next second, my phone rang. It was my mother. When I answered, her voice was choked with tears: "Chase, you need to come home right now. Your grandfather's health is failing, and your father is completely useless. Everyone in the family is circling like vultures, eyeing the chairman's seat without showing your grandfather an ounce of respect." "I know you have your own dreams, but the family really needs you right now..." Hearing that, I looked down. A quiet decision formed in my mind, and I simply said, "Okay." My mother seemed ready to beg further, but she froze when she heard me agree. "What did you say?" she asked, disbelief in her voice. "You're actually willing to change your mind?" I knew why she was so shocked. I had always been sharper than my father. As soon as I turned eighteen, my grandfather took me to the company to learn the ropes so he could eventually hand the family empire over to me. In the end, I let him down. Just two years in, I fell in love. Chloe's dream was to become an actress, but she got scammed by predatory agencies. So, I launched a boutique agency just to make her dream come true. To the outside world, I was her manager. In private, I was her boyfriend. Over the years, I used my wealth and my family's clout to secure top-tier gigs for her. I pushed her until she became one of the most sought-after rising starlets in the industry. Chloe couldn't act, and she had no real talent to speak of. Yet her innocent looks and cute, quirky persona won over millions of fans. She had barely tasted real fame. And on our sixth anniversary, she went behind my back to announce a relationship with another guy. When the news broke, I was having dinner with an A-list director, trying to land her a lead role in an upcoming film. My feelings were a mess. More than the sting of betrayal, I had actually been worried about her career falling apart. I never imagined she would say those things to me. Suddenly, all my years of devotion felt like a complete joke. Snapping back to reality, my resolve hardened. I kept my voice calm and dismissive: "It's nothing. I've just had my fun out here, that's all." My mother clearly didn't buy it, but she didn't push. She just told me to wrap things up on my end before heading home. After hanging up, I handled a few more matters in the office before heading home. Aside from Chloe, the agency had a full team of employees. I needed to figure out the best way to handle their severance. Before that, though, I was going to kick Chloe out of my villa. If we had parted on good terms, I wouldn't have minded gifting her the house. Since she chose another man, I wasn't about to be that generous. What I didn't expect was that not only had she announced him publicly, but she had also brought him straight into my home. Rage flared inside me. I opened my mouth, ready to tell them to get the hell out. Before I could speak, Chloe waved at me casually: "Good, you're back. I have something to tell you."My fury was abruptly cut short. I actually walked over toward them. I tried to force myself to stay calm. I thought that at this point, Chloe would at least have the decency to apologize. She didn't. Not only did she show zero remorse, but she also spoke to me in a commanding tone: "I want to join a celebrity dating reality show with Tyler. Set it up for us." I froze for a couple of seconds before letting out a bitter laugh. I looked at her. "Chloe, did you forget you already have a boyfriend?" "So what?" She brushed it off completely. "Chase, do you really think you can live without me?" I closed my eyes, sick of wasting my breath on them. Taking a deep breath, I pointed at the front door. "Both of you, get the hell out!" "Chase, just because I went public with Tyler, you're kicking me out?" She stared at me in pure disbelief. Her reaction baffled me. Wasn't kicking her out the bare minimum? Seeing Chloe on the verge of tears, Tyler quickly stepped forward to apologize. "Chase, blame me if you want, but don't take it out on Chloe." "I never wanted to ruin your relationship, but I missed her so much. If I couldn't see her again, I thought I'd lose my mind!" "If the two of you are fighting because of me, I'd rather just end it all." He spoke with a look of utter agony, acting as if he really might do something drastic. Hearing this, Chloe immediately jumped to Tyler's defense. "What did you do wrong? You just loved me too much! You held back for all these years before finally coming to find me. What's wrong with that?" "Pure love is the most precious thing in the world. It's not like some people, whose love is built purely on profit." She didn't name names, but I knew damn well she was talking about me. I didn't want to engage in this pointless fight. Still, I couldn't understand what I had ever done wrong to deserve this. Why did she hate me so much? Why betray me and insult me like this? I gave her everything, and all I got in return was slander. Thinking about it, I asked her out loud. I never expected her to glare back at me with pure hatred, gritting her teeth: "If you hadn't leaked my news online back then to scare me, Tyler's and my baby would have been born by now!" "All you care about is making money! You never once gave a damn about my feelings!" Her words hit me like a physical blow. My mind went completely blank. Of course I remembered that incident vividly. Back then, Chloe's career had just started gaining traction. Suddenly, rumors leaked that she had gotten an abortion. They weren't just rumors; it was the absolute truth. When I first found out, my head felt ready to explode. In the end, Chloe had held my hand, crying that she didn't know how it happened. She claimed she had no idea how she got pregnant or who the father was. She said she was terrified, which was why she didn't dare tell me and went to the clinic alone. Hearing that back then tore me apart inside. I hadn't known how to process it. She had grabbed my hand, sobbing, "Chase, do you look down on me now?" Seeing how broken she looked, my heart softened. I used every resource at my disposal to suppress the news, making sure her reputation remained untouched. Who would have thought she would turn around and blame me for it today? And what did she mean by "their baby"? Didn't she tell me she was taken advantage of? Didn't she swear she had no idea whose child it was? The only fool who had been played this entire time was me. My head spun as Chloe continued bitterly: "If you hadn't exposed my whereabouts, no one would have ever caught me at that clinic!" "If it weren't for you, I would have never aborted that child!" "What, Chase? You were brave enough to do it, but you're too cowardly to admit it now?"Looking at the disgust etched on Chloe's face, I realized this was truly what she believed deep down. I let out a breathless, mocking laugh, suddenly losing all desire to argue. "Think whatever you want. When you're done talking, get out. Don't dirty my house." "Your house?" Chloe scoffed as if she had just heard the funniest joke in the world. Once she finished laughing, she looked at me with open contempt. "Chase, if I hadn't been making money for you, where would you have gotten the cash to buy this place?" "If anyone's getting out, it's you!" "Take your pathetic agency. Do you honestly think anyone else would sign with you once I'm gone?" She seemed to have completely forgotten that both the agency and this villa existed long before she ever became famous. When people climb too high, they tend to forget where they started. She had probably forgotten why she wanted to become an actress in the first place. She forgot that without me, she would be nothing. It wasn't her success that made me; it was my resources that made her. She had no idea that she was the only star in the agency not because nobody else wanted to sign, but because the agency was created solely for her. I parted my lips to refute her, but stopped myself. It was pointless. Whether she knew the truth or not didn't matter anymore. Once I walked away, she would find out firsthand what the industry was really like. Seeing that I remained silent, Chloe assumed her threats had worked. A smug smile spread across her face, and she spoke down to me: "If you don't want me to leave, there's a way." "Sign Tyler, give him a few prime roles to make him a star, and I'll stay." "You're a calculating businessman. Tyler will definitely blow up. Having both of us making money for you is your blessing." She talked as if she were doing me a massive favor. She really needed to look in a mirror to see what absolute nobodies she and Tyler actually were. I stared back at her with sheer mockery. "Making money?" I sneered. "If you have time to daydream, why don't you check your socials and see how many fans have unfollowed you, and how many are ripping you to shreds?" In the past, whenever a scandal broke, the agency's PR team would kill the fire instantly. Her fans would always flood the comments, encouraging her to focus on her career. With me around, Chloe never had to worry about a single thing. I never realized she could be this stupid. She had blown up her own career with her own hands. I couldn't comprehend it, but I sure as hell wasn't going to stop her. "So what? Real fans will stay by my side no matter what!" "The ones who leave were never true fans anyway. Why should I care about them?" For a second, I didn't know whether to call her braindead or pathetically naive. In the end, I just gave her a chilling smile. "I really hope you keep that positive attitude." Chloe frowned, ignoring my sarcasm. "Cut the crap," she snapped impatiently. "Are you agreeing to my terms or not?" I looked closely at her face, searing her ugly, arrogant expression into my memory. After several seconds, I said flatly, "Not a chance." "Neither you nor that loser deserves my time." Furious, Chloe raised her hand to slap me. Just before her palm could strike my cheek, I caught her wrist in a vice grip. Looking into her eyes, my gaze turned icy as I tightened my hold. I completely ignored her yelp of pain and her angry demands to let go. "I'm saying this one last time. Get the hell out of here, or I'm calling the cops!" With that, I shoved her hand away with force. Stumbling backward, Chloe fell directly into Tyler's arms. Tyler immediately stepped up, bursting with righteous indignation: "Chase, you've gone too far! Chloe was talking to you reasonably, and you get physical? Are you even a man?" I didn't say a word. I simply pulled out my phone and dialed 911. Seeing that I was actually calling the police, Chloe finally panicked. "Chase, you're going to regret this!" she spat. She grabbed Tyler by the arm, and the two of them stormed out in a huff. What I didn't expect was how quickly she would set her plan in motion to make me "regret" it. The very next morning, the moment I woke up, my phone rang. It was the office. They told me Chloe had brought a whole mob of people into the building, declaring she was going to fire every "useless employee" on the payroll.The situation was laughably simple. I figured it out before I even arrived at the office. She wanted to replace my staff for two reasons. First, she believed the current team was loyal to me. She wanted to put me in my place. Once she replaced everyone with her own people, I would be completely isolated. From then on, whatever she said would go. The second reason was her convenient excuse: she was getting dragged through the mud online, yet the agency hadn't lifted a finger to hire PR bots to defend her. Infuriated, Chloe wanted to purge the entire team. She seemed to have forgotten that I owned the company. Whether anyone got fired was entirely up to me. Still, I was curious to see who exactly she had dragged along with her. With that in mind, I got dressed quickly and drove over to the office. The moment I stepped inside, the tension was suffocating. The room was clearly divided into two opposing camps. My staff stood on one side, while Chloe and her mob stood on the other. It was as if an invisible river ran between them, both sides glaring daggers at each other. When she saw me enter, Chloe was the first to speak: "Chase, who do you choose? Them or me?" "If you don't fire these people right now, I'm walking out. Your agency will be an empty shell, and I'd love to see how you pay their salaries then." I didn't answer her. Instead, I glanced behind her. I recognized several familiar faces—distant relatives of hers whose names I couldn't even remember. As for the other strangers, I had never seen them before. Looking at Tyler standing right beside them, it wasn't hard to guess where they came from. Technically speaking, my boutique agency could have been considered a family-run business. It was my family business, not hers and Tyler's. Before I could say anything, the crowd behind Chloe started shouting over one another. "Is that even a question? Fire them all! We're Chloe's family; we're the only ones who actually care about her best interests!" "Exactly! These people watched Chloe get trashed online and didn't even fight back! If you ask me, they're just stealing paychecks while doing nothing!" To top it off, the speaker spat directly onto the clean floor. I frowned, taking a disgusted step back. I turned to my assistant standing nearby. "Go into my office. Bring me the first folder in my top drawer." The assistant nodded quickly, rushed off, and returned a moment later with the folder. I took the document without bothering to open it. I held it out toward Chloe. "Sign it." One of her relatives snatched the contract from my hand and passed it to Chloe. She flipped it open, took one look, and slammed it furiously onto the floor. "Chase, are you kicking me out?" she shrieked in disbelief. "Didn't you just tell me to make a choice?" She choked on her own words, completely unable to counter. Tyler stepped in again, trying to play the martyr: "Chase, if you don't want me here, I can just leave!" "There's no need to destroy Chloe's entire career just because of me. That's way too selfish." "Her career was destroyed by her own actions, and by you," I replied coldly. "What does that have to do with me?" Tyler opened his mouth, ready to give another self-righteous speech. Chloe tugged hard on his sleeve, signaling him to stop.