REBIRTH : Chasing The Limelight

Chapter 182: Relanie. Stop skipping meals

"Look here please!"

"Relanie, over your shoulder!"

Relanie struck several poses as lights flashed over her. A warm smile remained planted on her face as she continued walking forward. Several microphones were immediately stretched toward her.

"Relanie what do you think about the fan who supposedly sold her kidney just to attend your concert?"

A stifled laugh escaped Relanie’s lips.

Of course that story was as fake as a three-aurel crown. The girl had only made a post about it. Relanie herself had even believed it for a short while before the fan later admitted she had made the whole thing up. Seeing that the reporter had asked in a teasing tone, Relanie decided to play along.

"Wow that’s true dedication. I just hope she used the money for VIP seats. The view from the back isn’t worth a kidney."

The journalists burst into laughter. But Relanie was already starting to feel overwhelmed so she quickened her pace. It had all felt manageable at first, but the thing she had been avoiding eventually arrived anyway.

"Miss Ardent, what do you think about the rumors surrounding your fiancé... if we can still call him that... Adrian Vale?"

That reporter earned several colorful curses inside Relanie’s head almost immediately after asking that.

"Rumors?" Relanie repeated, raising a brow. Then she flashed a smile. "Most of them aren’t rumors."

The entire hall seemed to freeze at her words.

"Are you saying Adrian Vale is not a biological member of the Vale family?"

Relanie lowered her gaze, her toes curling painfully inside her shoes. Then she looked up and laughed softly. "I thought everyone already knew that."

She made to continue walking, but another question followed immediately.

"And Aurelia Vale? Is she real?"

Relanie took a slow breath to calm the emotions brewing inside her chest. "Lia existed," she said quietly. "People just weren’t allowed to talk about her."

Maybe she shouldn’t have said that, but she said it anyway. The uproar that followed was immediate.

"Why wasn’t the public allowed to know?"

"What really happened to her? How did she die?"

"I heard you’ve lived with the Vale family for years. Can you please tell us the truth?"

"Everyone had always believed the Vale family only had one child, Adrian Vale. But now this Aurelia Vale suddenly appears."

"She even resembles Mrs Vale. Otherwise people might have thought she was fake."

"Is it true Adrian was responsible for her death?"

Relanie paused. Her chest rising and falling faintly due to their ocean of questions. She was grateful for the crowd surrounding her, otherwise everyone might have noticed how uncomfortable she had become.

"He was the last person with her." That was all she said.

"Do you think it was intentional?"

Relanie looked directly at the cameras, not bothering to hide the frustration on her face. "I wasn’t inside Adrian’s head," she said firmly. "I never am." Then after a brief pause, she continued. "All I just know is that after Lia died, Adrian refused to attend the memorial service. He locked himself inside his room and refused to speak to anyone."

A bitter laugh escaped her lips. "Well, he never really spoke to anyone before then, so I suppose it didn’t make much difference."

She continued moving forward, ignoring the questions thrown after her. This was the thing about reporters. Give them one answer and they immediately came back demanding ten more.

"Do you believe Adrian is a good person?"

Relanie forced a smile onto her face. "I can’t answer that for him. But what I will say is that Adrian has spent his entire life convincing people he doesn’t need anyone."

Unable to take it anymore, she walked away without slowing down. Her steps never lingered for even a second before she reached her car. The driver quickly opened the door for her and she got inside. The car then pulled away almost immediately.

When Relanie finally got home, she locked the door behind her. Her chest rose and fell heavily as she looked around the empty house. The phone in her hand suddenly started ringing.

"Fuck off!" She screamed and hurled the phone across the room. It slammed into the opposite wall and shattered instantly.

Yet somehow that still wasn’t enough. She ripped the bag from her shoulder and threw it too. Its contents scattered across the floor.

Why had she even done all that? What had she been thinking?

She took another shaky breath. "He deserved it." She muttered in a self convincing tone. "He deserved all of it because he’s an asshole."

She hurried up the stairs. When she reached the second floor, she pushed open the door to her room and stepped inside. Walking calmly toward her bedside locker, she pulled the drawer open and began fumbling through it.

A small slip of paper caught her eyes as she did so.

Its faded color and worn edges showed just how long it had remained there. But she still remembered exactly how it got there. Because she had been the one who kept it. If she wasn’t mistaken, she had been carrying it around for more than six years.

The slip had come with a box of food. Back then, her career had only just started rising. She had developed the habit of skipping meals to maintain her figure... but more than that, she had been obsessed with doing anything she could to make him notice her. Anything that might make him look at her the way she wanted.

He had sent the food. She still remembered that day clearly. Everything had been fine back then. At least, then, she had believed she occupied a small place in his heart...

Relanie picked up the paper with trembling fingers and lowered her gaze to the words written on it.

Relanie. Stop skipping meals.

Her lips pressed together tightly as she stared at those words.

But behind those tightly pressed lips, the broken sobs threatening to escape were impossible to hide. Her shoulders kept trembling. Her fingers tightened around the worn piece of paper as if holding onto it would somehow stop everything from falling apart.