He stared on for a long while, remembering the night five years ago that he would never forget....

That was two months after the day Isabelle had spent the night at his apartment.

That was the night their relationship had taken a turn for the worst, resulting in them becoming strangers.

Every time he remembered that night, even after five years, he would still feel as though a dagger was ripping his heart apart.

It was the night the Golden Movie Award ceremony was held and it was also the night he was awarded the 'Best Second Male Lead' award because of the hit series "Longing". That was also the start of his blossoming career and Isabelle's twenty first birthday.

Regardless of how busy he was, he would always find time to celebrate her birthday.

If he could, he would have gone to celebrate her birthday with her.

But that day, he needed to be at the award ceremony, as it would affect his entire career. If he was really awarded the best second male lead, his career would be smooth sailing from then on.

This was the moment he had been waiting for after struggling for four years, after fighting hard to improve himself, to be able to give her the best.

He made up his mind and headed to D.C.

Before his flight, he arranged for his assistant to bring Isabelle two sets of presents. One was the black swan cake he would order every year and the other was a bouquet of fresh flowers he specifically flew over from France. In the bouquet, he had handwritten a card with the words: I love you.

Initially, he was ecstatic to have won the award, in front of the thousands of applauding crowd, he was both touched and excited.

After the ceremony at 8 pm, it was about four hours till the end of Isabelle's birthday. He didn't attend the after party of the award ceremony, but instead took a flight with his trophy.

When his plane had touched down, it was already 11.30 pm. In his hurry, he didn't inform his assistant and took a cab straight to Davis family's mansion.

By the time the cab reached the highway, it started drizzling. He sat at the back of the cab, looking out at the blurry scenes outside the window, recalling the first time he had met Isabelle. His face smoothed out and he started feeling an unusual tenderness and anxiety.

His heart started to run and even the palm that was holding onto the trophy started to sweat as he thought of how he was going to confess.

At 11.45 pm, the cab stopped directly outside Davis family's mansion. He paid and alighted.

Isabelle's birthday party had already ended. The entire mansion was silent except of the open door.

He waited for the cab to leave before taking a deep breath. He headed towards the entrance while arranging his confession speech. But before entering the mansion, he paused, his gaze falling on the trash area outside.

It must of been someone from the Davis family who tended to the cleaning. The rubbish bin was filled with all types of gift boxes, empty bottles, and fruit peelings. Among the rubbish, he honed in on one place - a bouquet of fresh flowers and an unopened cake with the Black Swan packaging that was probably just thrown out.

From the part of the packaging, you could clearly see that the cake had fallen out of shape. Also, the petals of the beautiful fresh flowers, received in the morning, were scattered on the floor.

Some petals were trodden on, and the bronze card was ripped in two, casually thrown on top of the battered flowers.

In that split second, it was like Alexander's pressure points were pressed. He stood on the spot without moving an inch. Just like that, the happiness and wonderful image in his heart dissipated in a puff of smoke. No, it was like someone had cruelly slapped him across the face.

He stood on the spot for a long time before striding forward, bending down to pick up the bouquet of flowers.

Indeed, the bouquet of flowers was worthless to Isabelle, and to him now, it wasn't worth much either. But, back then, it cost him the pay from several episodes of filming.

The drizzling rain grew heavier. He wanted to fix up the flowers, as if something like this could calm his scattered heart. But it was no use. The beautiful flowers were far too trampled on. His finger touched the flowers, and the petals fluttered down to the ground. In the end, all that was left in his hand were a bunch of bare stems.

His fingertips trembled for a long while, before picked up the ripped up card and put the pieces together. The words he wrote, "I am happy only with you", fell into his eyes, as the rain smudged the ink.

He didn't know how long he was there, spaced out, but suddenly there was the sound of a car stopping behind him. Following this came the sound of a car opening, and footsteps stopping behind him. "Sorry to disturb you."

Alexander composed himself and slowly got up with a hand full of bare stems. He turned around to find the Williams family housekeeper.

The housekeeper didn't bother to wait for him to speak, but pointed at the car behind him. "Please follow me. Madam would like to see you."

Naturally, he knew that the 'Madam' the housekeeper referred to was Mrs. Williams. Mrs. Williams had always hated him to death. What good could there be to see her; he stood on the spot without moving.

The housekeeper wasn't in a rush, and continued to say, "Madam says, she has something to tell you about Miss Davis."

"Miss Davis", the two words were like his weakness that brutally clutched onto his life force. He lowered his eyes and got in the car.

The housekeeper drove him to a private clubhouse, but he was actually brought to the monitoring room.

Only Mrs. Williams was in there, dressed very luxuriously. In front of her was a screen showing an enlarged party room. He only needed one look to recognize all of the people there: James, Isabelle, Sophia, Camila, and some other friends he knew.

The housekeeper waited for him to enter before closing the door.

There were only the two of them, he and Mrs. Williams, in the monitoring room. He didn't greet her, but Mrs. Williams didn't mind. She wore an elegant yet arrogant smile, not even bothering to look at him. She shot out the words, "You like Izzy."

Her words were an affirmative sentence. There wasn't a even a hint of doubt.

He didn't make a sound.

Nor was Mrs. Williams interested in hearing what he had to say. With her eyes fixed on the big screen in front, she continued to speak warmly and calmly, but every word, it was as cutting as a knife.

"I implore you to give up because there's something that you probably don't know. It's that the Williams family and Davis family had formed an engagement long ago.

"So to speak, you probably don't quite understand, so let me put it simply. James and Izzy have an engagement, which is to say that Izzy is James' fiance, and will marry him in the future. Moreover, I think there's something you probably don't know, Izzy and James are mutually in love.

"What's more... you're an illegitimate son who wants everything but has nothing! What right do you have to love Izzy?

"Don't forget. Isabelle is the daughter of the Davis family. Even if her parents have passed away and she's just an orphan now, it doesn't change the fact that she is the daughter from a wealthy family. Never in your life will you be able to touch the inheritance and shares in the Davis family business that she owns!

"But it's different for our James. He is the Williams family's future heir. Izzy and him are a perfect couple and a match made in heaven."

As Mrs. Williams said this, Alexander saw Isabelle and James singing a duet to an old song, on the large screen in front. The big screen had no audio, so he couldn't hear them sing, but he could see that the two of them were standing side by side. Just like Mrs. Williams said, there was a feeling of a perfect couple and a match made in heaven.

"I called you here tonight, and said so much, to tell you... don't go pining over Izzy!

"I believe your mother must of told you before; one must know how to show gratitude. Don't you forget that the only reason why you have survived until now is because of my son. James donated his bone marrow to save your life. If it weren't for my son, you would of died early on!

"Unless, you would return the favor by stealing his lover?"

Mrs. Williams said everything she wanted to say in one breath. There seemed to be nothing more she wanted to say to him, for she turned around and left the monitoring room. When she reached the door, it looked like she suddenly thought of something. Her footsteps stopped, and she slowly turned around. She stared into his eyes with utmost hate and contempt.

"You know in your heart just how James has treated you all these years. I hope you don't become the third person, just like your mother was!"

The moment Mrs. Williams finished speaking, she turned around, and leaving only the clear sound of high heels trotting farther and farther away.

Alexander completely forgot how he left the clubhouse that night. All he could remember was that when he snapped back to reality, he was already standing in the heavy rain like an idiot. His hand was clutching onto the fresh flowers without petals that someone had thrown away, and the card that was ripped in two. Then he saw Isabelle, James, and the others leave the clubhouse. Isabelle seemed to be drunk, James carried her on his back.

He stood very far away in the rain, as he stared at their backs. After thinking over and over again, he thought about why Isabelle studied to get into the first class from the third class, and why she wanted to go study in Hangzhou but stayed in Beijing. So it was all for James.

That night, he walked mindlessly around in the rain for a very long time. The next day, he had a fever and locked himself in a hotel room. He spent seven days and seven nights in bewilderment before completely waking up.

That night, he walked mindlessly around in the rain for a very long time. The next day, he had a fever and locked himself in a hotel room. He spent seven days and seven nights in bewilderment before completely waking up.

His phone had many missed calls, mostly from the media. One of the messages he received was from Isabelle, congratulating him in receiving the best supporting male award at the Golden Film Festival.

As he saw her message, he instinctively wanted to reply, but just as he typed the two words, "Thank you", the memory of what happened on the night of her birthday came over him like a rushing tide. His fingers stopped typing for quite a long time, then he ended up slowly deleting the letters, one-by-one. He put his phone done, stood up, and walked over to the hotel's floor-to-ceiling window. There, he stared at the bustling city under the sun's rays with a pitch-black heart.

Actually, he was even more hurt by the fresh flowers and cake that Isabelle threw out than Mrs. Williams's words.

All along, he only worked hard to better himself so he could love her. He never thought about whether she loved him or not.

After that, Isabelle went to his city about three times. She even invited him to eat with her. Before, her messages would be like a surprise from the skies, but for him back then, they were torture.

Crushes in your youth mostly end in failure. He told himself to leave it at that, but who knows if it was his heart playing tricks on him, but the less he saw her, the more he missed her. There was even one time when he went back to the hotel to get some rest after filming and he saw a woman who wore the same clothes as Isabelle. In spite of everything, he stupidly stood on the spot and stared for a long time. It was only after his assistant had called him a few times that he snapped back to reality. Later, his mood became extremely low for no reason.

Later, two months after graduation, he went over for an event, where he unexpectedly bumped into James.

During their free time, he and James stood on the balcony smoking. He thought about what Mrs. Williams had said to him and pretended to casually ask, "I hear the Williams family and Davis family have an arranged marriage?"

When he heard arranged marriage, James furrowed his brows. Then he took a deep drag of his cigarette. He gently made a "mmm" sound.

The hand with which he held his cigarette trembled gently. Then he took a longer drag than James. After a while, he asked, "Sophia or Isabelle?"

For James, when he found out that his own engagement had nothing to do with love but to bring the Williams family some benefits, it didn't matter who he married... At that time, when James knew about the arranged marriage, but still didn't know who he was going to marry, he didn't know that Alexander had fallen for Isabelle. If he knew, he would have definitely not have answered like he did He only assumed that Alexander was asking who he preferred out of the two, and so he answered, "Of course, it's Izzy."

With such a very simple, very casual answer, he forcibly transformed Alexander's deep love into a forbidden love.