Chapter 2

[James, I know this must be painful for you.]

[But what Sophia and I have is real. I hope you can let it go and make her happy.]

The message was from Alexander Lee, Sophia Williams's assistant.

Aside from that message, that shameless bastard also sent me videos and photos.

An impassioned embrace beneath the famed Tower of Love.

Whispers of affection before exhibits of one of the most famous museums in the world.

Naked bodies tangled on the sands of a tropical paradise.

And even images of their making love in unrestrained pleasure against a floor-to-ceiling window.

Only in that moment did I fully understand that Sophia was no longer the woman I had once loved.

…

Sophia and I met when we had nothing.

For the sake of her acting career, I worked day and night, pouring every cent into her performances and running errands for her film crew.

For seven long years, I slept on subway rides home after toiling all day and drank so hard at business parties that my stomach bled.

Piece by piece, I built a company from nothing.

And in those same years, Sophia rose to fame, her name celebrated across the nation.

Everything we dreamed of achieving together—she chose, in the end, to share with her assistant.

…

Without hesitation, I drafted the divorce papers.

Just as I was about to sign my name, a voice suddenly echoed at my ear.

"James, don't! You promised me, didn't you? You said you'd give me three chances."

The familiar voice struck me like lightning. My body trembled.

I turned… and there stood Sophia at nineteen, delicate and ethereal, wearing the 30-dollar dress I once bought her with money from a part-time job.

As I remembered, she had always been the most beautiful in that dress..

I stared blankly at her ghostly form, then unexpectedly, I laughed.

"All right. Three chances."

Just then, my phone rang again.

"James! How many times have I told you? Stop picking on Alexander!"

"He's only my assistant. He's already exhausted every day, running around with me from place to place."

"If you keep this up, forget about that seaside trip I promised you!"

I put the call on speaker. Her furious voice filled the room.

I glanced at the nineteen-year-old Sophia, offering her a gentle smile.

Anger flared on her youthful face.

"How can she talk to you like that? How dare she speak to you this way! "

Nineteen-year-old Sophia trembled with fury. But the twenty-seven-year-old version of her was cold as ice.

"James, looks like you've grown bold—keeping another woman at your side now."

"I'll give you half an hour to get to Marlen Tower. If you're not here by then…"

She hung up without finishing.

I muttered, "That's the first chance, Sophia."

I wasn't sure if I was speaking to the nineteen-year-old girl before me, or simply muttering to myself.

Anyway—by the time I drove to Marlen Tower, forty minutes had already passed.