The screech of brakes sliced through the air, mixed with the harsh crunch of twisting metal. The stench of burning gasoline rushed straight into her nose...
Lydia Ashford snapped back to herself, her fingers clenched so tight the knuckles had already gone white.
"Miss Ashford? Miss Ashford! Are you okay?" the assistant asked carefully from beside her. "We've reached the backstage lounge. Mr. Whitmore is inside."
Lydia slowly let out the stale breath lodged in her chest. She tilted her head a little, those hollow, pitch-dark eyes facing the direction of the voice. The corner of her lips moved slightly, barely forming a smile, but she said nothing.
The assistant looked at her vacant eyes and gave a faint, contemptuous smile. After tossing out the last bit of instruction, the sound of her heels faded farther and farther away, leaving Lydia alone in the corridor.
Lydia held her matte white cane, the tip tapping softly against the floor as she felt her way forward bit by bit. She was just about to raise a hand and push open the lounge door when, before her fingers could touch the handle, an overly sweet rose perfume drifted out through the crack. Right after it came the teasing laughter of a man and woman, and the sticky, intimate sound of lips brushing and kissing.
Lydia's outstretched hand froze in midair.
"That wooden blind girl really thinks I'm gonna marry her?" Damian Whitmore's voice came out lazy, satisfied, carrying a smug laugh. "Back then she threw herself at the car on her own. If she went blind, that's on her. I only played nice and comforted her because I wanted the Illusion Fragrance formula in her hands. If she didn't still have some use left, I'd feel sick just looking at her one more time. A blind orphan like her actually dreams of marrying me?"
Inside the lounge were Damian Whitmore... and Chloe Ashford.
Lydia's fingertips turned ice-cold in an instant. It felt like every drop of blood in her body had frozen solid. She didn't push the door open. What would be the point if she did? She was blind. There was nothing she could do.
A year ago, Lydia Ashford had saved the orphanage director when he was critically ill. It was the first time she had ever walked out from those deep mountains around the orphanage. On the way, Damian Whitmore's luxury car lost control on a sharp mountain bend and shot toward the slope. The car body was stuck at the edge of a cliff, ready to plunge into the ravine below at any second.
Back then, she had been clean-hearted and simple, the kind of girl who still believed kindness mattered. One glance through the car window, and she saw Damian's gentle, handsome face. That flash of young love took root before she even understood it. Ignoring the danger of loose rock and landslide, she rushed up to save him. A falling boulder slammed into her head and eyes. She traded half her life for Damian Whitmore's safety, and in return, she herself fell into darkness forever.
After she lost her sight, Damian visited every single day. He was soft-spoken, patient, tender. Again and again, he promised her, "Lydia, I owe you my life. If you go blind, then in this life I'll marry no one but you. I'll protect you forever. Once the Whitmore annual new perfume launch is over, we'll get married."
Lydia had believed him.
She had thought that if you saved someone with your life, if you gave your heart sincerely enough, you could at least earn a little real affection in return. Slowly, Lydia raised her hand, her cold fingertips resting lightly against the crack of the door.
The voices inside kept going.
Chloe's tone was full of smug delight. "So tonight she's still waiting like an idiot for you to officially announce the wedding date? God, that's just pathetic. After the launch is over, how are you planning to get rid of her?"
Damian gave a dismissive snort. "I won't even need to. That spoiled crown prince from the Blackwell family loves going against me. I'll send Lydia Ashford over to pay off my gambling debt. Kills two birds with one stone, right? That little bit of perfume talent she has can count as bonus dowry. Might as well hand her over to the Blackwells as a favor."
"Come to my place after tonight. I just bought a new wedding bed. Perfect timing for you to help me test whether it's soft enough."
Chloe's voice turned syrupy and coy. "Brother Damian, you're so bad. What if Lydia Ashford finds out? We can't just leave her alone like that, can we?"
"Easy." Damian's tone turned filthy, low, and suggestive. "Every night I put sleeping pills in the milk I give her. She sleeps like the dead, sprawled on the sofa all night, totally clueless. And you've still got the energy to worry about her? You're already soaked, and you don't even know it?"
Chloe let out a muffled sound, then a breathy moan of pleasure. "Mm... don't touch me there..."
As her words fell, another round of kissing and flirtatious laughter came from inside.
Standing outside the door, Lydia felt like all the blood in her body had been drained away in a second.
So that was the truth.
All those countless nights, after she drank the warm milk Damian personally handed her, she always fell into a heavy sleep and never woke until morning. Back then, she had stupidly felt touched. She thought her fiancé pitied her blindness, cared that her body had been hurt, and was trying to help her recover.
Only now did she understand.
Night after night, while she lay unconscious on the sofa, her so-called fiancé had been tangled up in bed with another woman.
Lydia slowly lifted her hand again, those icy fingertips brushing the crack of the door. Go in and tear everything apart? Confront them on the spot?
No.
That would be letting this disgusting pair off way too easily.
She quietly pulled her fingers back from the door, tightened her grip on the cane, and was just about to turn and leave this nauseating lounge entrance without making a sound when a sharp, cutting female voice suddenly stabbed into the air beside her.
"What are you standing around here for?"
It was Diana Whitmore, Damian Whitmore's biological mother.
Diana had always despised Lydia for coming from an orphanage. Over the past year, she had made things hard for her more than once.
Diana shoved a wrinkled dress straight into Lydia's arms and lowered her voice as she snapped, "When you go on stage later, just stand obediently in the farthest corner and keep your mouth shut. Don't cause trouble everywhere you go. Don't embarrass the Whitmore family."
Lydia's fingertips brushed over the cheap fabric of the gown.
In the past, she had naively imagined that even if there were no grand wedding, at the very least the Whitmore family would remember that she had nearly died saving Damian, and they would treat her with some decency.
Now she finally saw it clearly.
From beginning to end, every scrap of warmth, every bit of politeness, all of it had been part of a carefully woven lie.
"Thank you for your concern, ma'am." Lydia's voice wasn't loud, and her tone stayed calm. "It's just that the material of this dress is really awful. If uninformed guests see it, they might think the Whitmore family has fallen so low they can't even afford a single custom gown."
Diana's face instantly turned dark. She pointed at Lydia and snapped, "A blind girl like you thinks you deserve better? You'll wear whatever you're given. You'd better behave, or don't even dream of entering the Whitmore family."
Lydia held the cheap pink dress in her arms, and the smile at the corner of her lips turned colder and colder.
"I'm not worthy?" she said softly. "Do you need me to remind you who it was that your family begged to marry into the Whitmores for the sake of the formula in my hand?"
Diana was hit so hard by that retort her face went green with rage. She stared at Lydia, who looked soft and fragile but had a razor-sharp tongue, and for one second she looked like she wanted to strangle her on the spot.
But this was backstage at the launch event. There were too many guests around. If she caused a scene in public, the one losing face would be the Whitmore family.
So she could only force the anger down, shoot Lydia a vicious glare, then turn and stride away.
Lydia stood there quietly, listening to the sound of Diana's footsteps fading into the distance.
Good.
If this show absolutely had to have a leading role, then she'd take it.
