Seven Years With the East Coast Heir

In my seventh year with the East Coast elite heir, he had another girl by his side.

A friend teasingly asked him why he swapped her out.

He smiled thinly. Do I need a reason to want or not want a woman?

I turned and walked away, never to appear in his world again.

A long time later, he cornered me in a dressing room, giving me no room to escape.

His eyes were shadowed. "Still not planning to come back?"

I smiled politely and raised my ring finger, showing off the diamond.

"Sorry, you're too late."

The next time I saw Vance, it was at a charity auction.

To win the emerald bracelet "Heart's Desire," I kept raising my paddle.

Just as I was about to secure it for two million dollars, a cold, lazy male voice rang out. "Ten million."

My heart sank heavily, and I turned my head stiffly.

The shadowed crowd separated us, and I only caught a glimpse of his rugged profile. His chiseled jawline cast a faint shadow, and the Adam's apple on his neck radiated a silent, arrogant sex appeal in the dim light.

Two years unseen, and he didn't look like he had changed much.

Yet, something felt different.

The faint curve of his lips still carried that careless, lazy tune.

But the aura around him felt exceptionally cold and gloomy.

"What is Vance playing at?" My best friend, Stella, leaned over, her tone dissatisfied. "He's deliberately bidding against you, isn't he?"

I calmly withdrew my gaze. "Not necessarily."

Spending ten million to buy a moment of pleasure was just a regular Tuesday for someone like Vance.

"But he knows exactly how important that bracelet is to you."

Yes, he knew.

I unconsciously tasted bitterness in my mouth. "So what?"

"Bid higher, we have to win it." Stella was fuming. "Whatever the cost, consider it my gift to you."

I forced a laugh. "Forget it."

When this man sets his sights on something, he always gets it.

Fighting him for it meant zero chance of winning.

At the banquet following the auction, a young woman came over to greet me, holding a glass of champagne.

She was incredibly young, looking fresh enough to pinch water from, delicate and blooming.

Like me at twenty.

Even the tiny teardrop mole under her left eye was identical to mine.

She smiled sweetly. "Chloe, I've always watched your movies. I love you so much, and I finally get to meet you in person today."

I saw her raised hand, and on her pale, slender wrist rested the glowing, luxurious bracelet.

It was "Heart's Desire," the one Vance had just bought.

Noticing my gaze, she feigned shyness. "My boyfriend gave it to me."

She purposely turned and pointed not far away.

I followed her gaze. Amidst the glamorous crowd, the noble man, as if sensing something, cast an attentive look her way.

The girl's face flushed with a charming pink, and she exchanged a deeply affectionate look with him across the room.

No matter how I looked at this scene, it felt abrupt.

"Chloe, I saw you raise your paddle several times. Is this bracelet really important to you?"

There was a hint of apology in her bright smile. "I told him to let you have it, but he insisted on giving it to me. It makes me feel quite bad."

I looked at her with amusement, not saying a word.

She bit her lower lip uneasily. "Are you very disappointed?"

"What's it to you?" Stella couldn't hold back anymore. "Are you and my Chloe close? Stop acting out."

Perhaps she didn't expect Stella to be so blunt, and she bit her lip, looking genuinely wronged.

Vance saw it, and a shadow fell over his eyes.

I suddenly felt a heaviness in my chest, unable to explain why.

"Your boyfriend is waiting for you." Whatever intentions this girl had, I didn't want to explore them at all.

She didn't say anything else, quickly walking through the crowd to take Vance's arm.

From beginning to end, Vance hadn't looked at me directly.

His gaze fell on the bracelet on the girl's wrist, and then, inexplicably, he suddenly brushed her hand away.

With a cold face, he left the banquet hall.

"Vance, that bastard."

Stella gritted her teeth in anger. "You were with him for so many years, and he never went public. Now he's parading around with Blair!

"And outbidding you for something you wanted just to please her, that's too much."

I took a sip of champagne, suppressing the dark tide in my heart.

Throwing away a fortune to win a beauty's smileVance had done that for me, too.

Now that he was doing it for another girl, it wasn't surprising.

"It's nothing."

"Bullshit." Stella sneered. "Can't you see? Blair is just here to show off, deliberately trying to disgust you.

"Covered in the sour stench of a small-minded nobody, pretending to be a pure, innocent little flower."

I drained the wine in my glass. "Don't be angry, it's not worth it."

"I'm just furious. You and Vance were together for so long, and he purposely found a plaything that looks so much like you to disgust people. He's really a piece of trash."

These past two years, I had been calm enough.

But Stella's words still brutally tore open a gash in those memories.

I seemed to be standing in front of that scene from two years ago again.

At that time, after a month-long cold war with Vance, I planned to soften up.

On a winter night with the first snow, I came out of the hospital and went straight to Vance's private club to find him.

Inside the private room, it was a scene of debauchery. I pushed the door open.

Just in time to hear someone teasingly ask Vance, "Where's Chloe? Why the change of personnel?"

Vance leaned lazily against the sofa. A girl with a pure, clean look held a lighter, her tender fingertips seemingly unintentionally brushing against his hard jawlinegreen and secretly provocativeas she lit the white cigarette between his lips.

As the thin smoke rose, he raised an eyebrow and looked toward the door, glancing at me carelessly.

His gaze didn't linger for a second, and his words were arrogantly and dismissively lazy:

"Do I need a reason to want or not want a woman?"

I don't know how I left.

On the street late at night, the heavy snow didn't stop, and the cold wind cut to the bone.

The chill in my heart swept through my limbs, and I felt as if I were soaking in an icy lake, the biting cold making it hard to breathe.

Vance's best friend, Hayes, chased after me. "Sister-in-law, don't be mad. Vance had too much to drink, he's just joking."

My tone was quite flat: "Is he?"

"Really." He carefully observed my face and explained, "That girl is just a little model, ignorant and lacks boundaries. Vance didn't do anything."

"Oh."

"Sister-in-law, you..." Seeing me so calm, he actually felt a bit scared. "Let's go back inside first, it's cold out here."

I looked quietly across the street, unmoving.

When that suffocating feeling gradually dissipated, something in my chest was drawn out along with it.

"No." I shook my head slightly, a faint smile appearing on my lips. "Actually, he's right."

The eldest grandson of the top Old Money elite family on the East Coast, an unruly heir, surrounded by stars like the moon, so noble that people dared not look him directly in the eye.

A playboy like Vance naturally had the capital to look down on everything.

Young, frivolous, and reckless, the girls passing by him were like flowing water. No matter how much they poured out their love, he never showed true feelings.

To want a woman, or not want one, he never needed a reason.

"I'm leaving." The snow was falling harder, and I got in the car to leave.

Hayes wouldn't give up and chased after me: "Sister-in-law."

I waved my hand without looking back: "Goodbye."

Saying goodbye to Hayes, saying goodbye to Vance.

The car drove into the world of ice and snow. Even though the heater was on full blast, I was still shivering from the cold.

I curled my body up, burying my head in my knees, just to catch a little warmth.

I remembered that, in the beginning, I had avoided Vance like the plague too.

How did we end up entangled for seven years?

It was hard to explain, and I didn't dare look back and think about it.

Those long seven years, our love and hate were too distinct.

When things were good, we were deeply in love and inseparable; when we fought, the words that stabbed each other's hearts were ruthless and bitter.

How many times we bickered, broke up, and got back together was hard to count.

Getting to this point, our fate seemed to have run its course.

I was decent enough to withdraw from his world without making a fuss.

I didn't even remember what the girl next to him looked like.

Only later, in a foreign country, did someone occasionally pass on news about him.

I heard that the girl sent to his side looked like me and was named Blair.

Vance pampered her in every possible way, chauffeuring her around, generously giving her houses and cars, and throwing countless resources to pave her way in the entertainment industry.

The two years I disappeared from the screen without a trace were the two years Blair's career took off.

Because she looked so much like me and had astonishing resources, the path she took was exactly the same as mine.

She even earned the nickname "Little Chloe."

Inside and outside the circle, everyone said that it wouldn't be long before Blair completely replaced my position in the entertainment industry.

I thought with amusement, replacing my positionit wasn't just in the entertainment industry.

The man, too.

"Chloe, what are you thinking about?" Stella waved her hand in front of my eyes.

I snapped back to reality. "Nothing, just probably had too much to drink, a bit dizzy.

"Let's go, let's go home."

Saying goodbye to Stella, I returned to my door. I took a deep breath before pushing the door open.

The lights were off inside, and it was quiet.

Just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the lights suddenly blazed.

The woman sitting in the wheelchair didn't know how long she had been waiting. Full of impatience, she opened her palm toward me. "The bracelet."

I subconsciously clenched my hand, my nails digging into my palm. "Mom, I didn't get it."

She was stunned for a moment, then burst into a rage. "Useless trash."

The next second, she grabbed whatever was on the table and threw it at me.

A thermos hit my collarbone, a dull, aching pain.

I stood there calmly, listening to her roar in the night:

"I told you, no matter how much it costs, you have to get it back. Are you reluctant to spend the money?

"Or do you not have me, your mother, in your eyes at all, so you didn't take my words seriously?"

"Neither." How should I explain it to her?

Tell her I couldn't outbid Vance?

I couldn't say it, and I didn't want to.

She excitedly beat the armrests of her wheelchair. "Then why?"

"Mom, let's just forget about it."

"Shut up." She became even more irritable, her body rocking frantically. "If you can't get the bracelet, then go die."

The steps I wanted to take to comfort her stopped weakly.

She cursed for a long time, and I didn't make another sound.

With the heavy slamming of that door, the world finally quieted down.

I dragged my heavy steps up to the third floor and sat down in front of the dark French windows.

The city lights in the distance stretched for miles, like a sea of burning stars in the dark sky.

I thought of the bracelet on Blair's wrist, and I thought of Vance.

At this moment, the pain on my collarbone seemed to spread to the bottom of my heart.

An inexplicable emotion swallowed me along with the darkness.

My phone rang abruptly. I answered it, but no one spoke for a long time.

The sound of the wind tore through the receiver, and the person's breathing was blurred by the wind.

My heart trembled, and Vance's face floated in my mind.

It's him, it must be.

His silence was as intriguing as this call.

I thought, he was waiting for me to speak first.

Waiting for me to beg him.

Two people who had possessed each other in negative distance for seven years couldn't have a superficial understanding of each other.

However, for an arrogant playboy like Vance to make this call, he must have been extremely unwilling.

If I didn't speak again, he would probably get furious.

I moved the phone away from my ear and threw it aside.

Let him be furious. It's better if he's furious.

With enough patience, I took out a cigarette, the lighter clicking open and shut as I lit it.

I don't know which of Vance's nerves was triggered, but the next second, the call was disconnected.

This couldn't help but remind me of some old romantic affairs.

One night after his post-coital cigarette, on a whim, I wanted to taste it, so I took the cigarette from his lips and took a drag.

Inexperienced, I took a hard drag, immediately choked, coughing repeatedly, my eyes turning red.

Vance laughed gloatingly. "Serves you right."

Then, with thin smoke on his lips, he kissed my lips recklessly, lingering and grinding. "Is tasting it like this still not enough?"

I guessed Vance probably thought of it too.

How good we were in the past, how embarrassing it is now.

I didn't go begging Vance, but a few days later, I received "Heart's Desire," which he had someone send over.

"No, is he crazy?" Stella was greatly puzzled. "Snatching it from you to give to his little lover, and then taking it back to give to you. Isn't this deliberately disgusting?"

I didn't want to guess Vance's psychology; I just felt tired.

Closing the box, I returned the item exactly as it came.

"You really don't want it?" Stella felt a bit reluctant to part with it instead.

"Yeah."

She was silent for a moment, then said, "I think he's trying to soften up a bit. If you don't appreciate it, he'll explode."

I laughed. "There is no such thing as softening up in his world."

"I don't think so." Stella disagreed. "Vance has indeed done a lot of ridiculous things, but I think he doesn't want to break up with you; he's just too proud."

I stroked my empty ring finger; a simple band used to sit here.

Relieved, I said softly, "Two years ago, he and I broke up."

A few nights later, the recording of a show ended.

On the way home, I fell asleep groggily. When I woke up, I was already at my door.

There was already a chill in the late autumn wind. I barely looked up and caught a glimpse of that incredibly expensive supercar and the figure standing in the night.

I don't know how long he had been there, slightly hunched over, his fingers flicking a lighter on and off.

The flickering light and shadow drifted over his eyebrows, masking his usual reckless arrogance, making him look extremely cold and deep.

And dangerous.

My footsteps hesitated, and he lazily lifted his eyes to look over at this moment.

The night was heavy, and I couldn't see the emotions in his eyes clearly, but being looked at by him still made me feel like there were needles on my back.

Vance reached back into the car seat, grabbed the box containing Heart's Desire, and played with it, opening and closing it in his hand, waiting with great patience for me to approach on my own.

He knew the significance of this bracelet to me.

My father was a superstitious man. Even when he later accumulated massive wealth, the Heart's Desire that had been passed down for generations was always his most prized possession.

He always said that Heart's Desire had an aura; if it was gone, it signaled that our family line was broken.

When the family went bankrupt back then, all our belongings were auctioned off to pay debts.

This had always been a sore spot for my mother.

I asked around many times, but to no avail.

It was hard enough that the wealthy lady who bought Heart's Desire put it up for auction this time. I rushed back in a hurry, only to be intercepted by Vance.

"What's the meaning of this?" He lowered his eyelids, his voice sounding a bit lazy.

Two years unseen, without a single word exchanged, this was the first sentence he said.

But I knew him too well; the calmer he was, the more violent the undercurrents hidden beneath.

I spoke coldly: "I don't want it anymore."

That day, seeing Heart's Desire on Blair's wrist, I was sad.

We used to be too intimate; Vance knew best what kind of soft knife could stab into my heart.

Vance's hand movements paused. After a long while, he let out a light sneer. "Okay, you have backbone."

The night breeze blew, and an uncertain storm lurked in the air.

He casually raised his hand, and the bracelet hit the ground with a crisp sound, breaking into several pieces.

I held my breath, making no sound.

"Chloe." Vance's tone was very light, not revealing the slightest bit of temper. "Don't constantly test my patience."

The roar of the engine tore through the night sky as he sped away.

I stood quietly for a moment, then turned and went inside.

Why didn't Vance understand? I wasn't throwing a tantrum or making a scene.

I truly didn't care anymore.

Early the next morning, Ms. Reed came to pick me up for an audition.

She spoke to me earnestly: "You've had a blank slate for two years. This is your best chance to return to the top. You must seize it."

The overseas-returned genius director, Archer, had reached the pinnacle of domestic and international film awards with just two movies in three short years, his momentum unparalleled.

The news that Archer was the executive producer and director of the upcoming film "For Her" brought its own nationwide buzz.

To get a role, stars of all tiers had long been fighting tooth and nail.

I laughed self-deprecatingly. "With so many A-listers fighting for the female lead, why would he choose a washed-up nobody like me?"

For an actress who had been completely absent for two years during her peak, this was undoubtedly career suicide.

A harsh, worldly genius like Archer probably wouldn't choose an actress like me.

"No matter how washed up you are, you're still an actress who took home the Best Actress trophy." Ms. Reed was quite optimistic. "Besides, I read the script, and I feel like the female lead's role was made for you."

I didn't think much of it.

The entertainment industry has always worshipped the high and trampled the low. Even if Archer was aloof, it was hard to avoid being hijacked by capital.

I didn't hold out much hope for this role.

Especially when waiting in the lounge, I saw Blair arriving with a massive entourage, surrounded by a crowd.

Ms. Reed went next door to coordinate, leaving only me and my little assistant.

"A newcomer sure puts on a big show," the little assistant muttered under her breath.

I closed the script, speaking gently. "Gossip less about others."

The little assistant pouted, clearly disliking Blair.

"Chloe." Blair came over with a beaming smile. "What a coincidence, we meet again."

I nodded slightly. "It is quite a coincidence."

Blair's expression had some subtle changes.

Soon, she raised the corners of her lips, took a coffee from her assistant's hand, and handed it to me.

Out of politeness, I stood up just as I was about to refuse, but her hand suddenly tilted, and the coffee spilled, splashing all over me.

To match the character for the audition, I was wearing a long white dress, and the stain was particularly obvious.

The scalding heat seeped through the fabric, stinging my skin.

"Oops." She let out a soft cry, her apology insincere. "Sorry about that, my hand shook."

She feigned panic, taking a tissue to wipe the stain for me, her smile sweet. "Chloe, if I were you, I wouldn't have come.

"You probably don't know, my boyfriend is the investor for this movie. He said the female lead can only be me."