Nor did she dare let the Williams family know, so she worked hard to look after the child without letting the Williams family know it was their biological son.
Perhaps, if things had gone that way, that would've been the end of it. But when the minor celebrity's child reached three years old, onomatopoetic stem cells were discovered and he needed a bone marrow transplant to survive.
The minor celebrity considered donating it herself but her HLA wasn't a match with the child's. In the end, she had to helplessly find the Williams family.
At the time, even though Mr. Williams and Mrs. Williams's relationship was founded by benefits rather than emotions, after their marriage, they had lived harmoniously. Also, Mr. Williams had always played the role of the doting husband, so when the minor celebrity's child suddenly came knocking, his game was undoubtedly destroyed.
Mr. Williams didn't feel anything for the minor celebrity. That night they spent together was just a moment of drunken debauchery, and their child was evidence of his previous debauchery. It was the only stain in his life, and so deep down, he had never wanted that child, Alexander Smith, to exist.
Mrs. Williams certainly was not going to have her own son's inheritance threatened by the child of her husband's mistress - no woman would!
Hence, the two of them schemed to give the minor celebrity some money to send her away. The minor celebrity wholeheartedly refused and begged profusely. In the end, Mr. Williams's father took initiative, even though the child was illegitimate, he was still his grandson after all. The grandfather told Mr. Williams to go with the minor celebrity and his child to test for HLA compatibility. Test results showed that he was not a good match. Their last hope was with the Williams family's only heir. The results from the two step brothers came out—they were a complete match. This meant that the minor celebrity's child, Alexander, had hope! But Mrs. Williams point-blank refused to consent to the operation.
In the very end, with no other possible option, Mr. Williams's father drew conditions to persuade Mrs. Williams to consent: the minor celebrity's child couldn't live with the Williams family, the child would be excluded from the family tree, the child wouldn't take over the Williams family's estates, and her son, James, would be the Williams family's successor.
The operation was successful. After it, the minor celebrity held up her end of the deal. She took Alexander, who had the Williams family blood running in his veins, and left.
The minor celebrity never made it big, nor was she able to get a foot in the entertainment industry after giving birth. Now, without anybody to rely on or an educational background, she looked after the child with nothing. In the end, she had to work shifts in a night club to survive.
And so, Alexander spent the nights of his childhood alone. The everlasting memory of his mother was the image of how she would drink a lot and come home vomiting in the bathroom.
But no matter how hard their days became, the minor celebrity never let her son suffer. However, because of her job, Alexander got teased a lot by his classmates.
Those days of immature teasing, at times, were the deadliest.
Alexander tried to blend in with other classmates a few times but failed. Eventually, he slowly gave up and started to do things alone. Over time, that became a habit.
Perhaps, that was when his cold and unsocial personality started to take shape. The reason for why Alexander was so rude when he spoke was only because he was acting defensively.
His mother passed away from alcohol poisoning when he was in the sixth grade. From then on, he became an orphan on this earth who couldn't contact his own relatives.
After her death, he received some inheritance. Even though it was small, it was enough for him to survive a few years. His neighbor was an old lady who had no children. Seeing how pitiful he was, she took him in.
After his mother, the person who loved him most in this world, passed away, his personality became even more unsociable.
As Mr. Williams's father, his grandfather, grew older, the more he missed the grandson who lived outside. Hence, on every New Year's Day, he would send someone to invite the child to their family's reunion dinner.
Even though Mrs. Williams didn't react, her attitude was always dismissive. As for his biological father, he never looked him straight in the eyes. When James called "Dad", he also tried to call him "Dad", but Mr. Williams told him off and Mrs. Williams screamed at him. From then on, he ruled out the word "Dad" from his life forever.
Compared to adults, children are the most innocent in the world. James didn't think that he and Alexander were any different. In fact, he quite liked his brother who was two hours older than him, and so he made the move to get closer to Alexander, calling him his brother. When Mrs. Williams saw this, she told James off, but once established, the bond between boys was difficult to break.
Then, Mr. Williams's father, Alexander and James's grandfather passed away and Alexander never stepped foot in the Williams family's home ever again. However, he crossed paths with James a lot more.
That was when Alexander learned about Isabelle.
The three of them, Sophia, James, and Alexander, were of the same age. Isabelle was younger than them by two years. To allow the two sisters to go to school together, the Davis family had forced Isabelle to skip two years in elementary school.
The Williams family and Davis family didn't live too far away. On many occasions, James, Sophia, and Isabelle would go home together after school. During junior high, James and Alexander liked to go play football in the field after school. Sophia would usually stand by the field screaming for James to go home.
They were only in junior high at the time, but Isabelle and Sophia were already quite popular with the guys.
Sophia's personality was very fiery and outspoken, whereas Isabelle was comparatively quiet and peaceful. The two sisters were considered pretty. Isabelle was naturally more beautiful, but Sophia's personality drew people's attention. And so, every time Sophia screamed for James to go home, people would whistle and scream.
Sophia would arrive at the field with Isabelle alongside. Though everyone was whistling and screaming at her, Sophia never blushed. Yet, Isabelle, who stood behind her, would always secretly blush.
When he first noticed it, Alexander had the ball in his arm. In his heart, he couldn't help but chuckle and silently make fun of her - they're screaming for Sophia and James, so why are you, Isabelle, blushing so hard?
But at that time, he never asked himself what Isabelle's blushing face had to do with him.
Perhaps he had already noticed her back then. The young man's heart struggled to understand what love was or what it meant to be moved. He only knew that after playing football after school every day, he would see her and feel relaxed. When he didn't see her, it felt like something was missing.
For over half a year, he had always silently paid attention to her. Then, on one heavily rainy day after school, he finally actually got close to her.
At the time, he carried an umbrella and was about to pull it out from his school bag when he saw her carrying her school bag over her head and running over to a shelter under the roof of a house. He didn't know what came over him but he pushed the umbrella back down into the bag and followed her under the roof.
He was listening to music at the time, but he turned off the music as he stood next to her. With earphones in his ears, he heard the pitter patter of raindrops. From the start, he never turned to look at her once. To be honest, he was a little nervous.
It was not until the rain had died down and he was getting set to leave that he turned to look at her. As he turned, he found that she was staring straight back at him. In that instant, his heart picked up, and he quickly diverted his eyes, bolting away.
After that, he got close to her again on their first day as new high school students.
In reality, he didn't want to go to that high school. The tuition was a little expensive, and at that time, he had already spent all of his late mother's savings. However, when he found out through James that she would be attending that high school, he pawned off his mother's jewelry and used all the money he earned working in the summer to pay off a year's tuition.
That day new students had to report to school, so he purposefully stuck with James. When James introduced them, he really wanted to say his name but out of habit he just coldly nodded. James gave her his name instead.
At that time, it counted as both of them officially recognizing one another. To the very least, when they bumped into each other, she would say "hi", and he would nod at her or sometimes, he would say her name. Naturally, his favorite place was the school field. Every night when he would play football, he saw her and her friends in the field running. Yeah. Actually, there was another secret people didn't know. That field was where the guys got together to judge who was the school's most beautiful girl.
He didn't vote for her.
However, in the end, she was chosen as every guy's most beautiful girl in school. At the time, he was happy but also distressed. So many other guys also thought that the girl he had his eyes on was the most beautiful.
Later, he heard that they would be splitting the class depending on their results in Science and Arts. When it came time for the end of term examination, he left the last big question at the end of the math paper completely blank.
There was no helping it, that was what he got for falling for a girl with bad grades.
All in all, the idea was there, but the results were terrible. Who knew that out of nowhere, she would turn into a black horse getting into Batch 1? He, on the other hand, ended up in Batch 3.
That day when the class was divided, he was in an awful mood. He laid in bed that night tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.
With a headache from the lack of sleep, he entered the classroom the next day to find a pink envelope in his drawer. It made his mood worse.
A week later during break, he and a few guys went to the school's snack shop where he bumped into her. However, she didn't notice him.
The longest time that they had ever spent alone was when he left the washroom once. He caught her resting on the wall, pale-faced, clutching her stomach. She looked like she was really in pain, and so he sent her to the school's nurse room.
As a whole, that was the most perfect afternoon of his life.
It was a bright sunny day. She lay there on the bed not too far from him. He looked like he was reading but all he was thinking about was her.
Later, a female classmate came over. After that, Isabelle said a few words to him. Just as she was going to leave, she actually asked him if that girl before was his girlfriend.
Did she misunderstand him?
He hurriedly cleared things up. For someone who rarely spoke, after he cleared things up, he further explained why he was speaking to her in the first place. Secretly, deep down, he thought that after the class event finished, it would be best if he and this female classmate never spoke again. Truth be told, he never could be bothered by that female student.
That afternoon, although it was the most perfect afternoon, at the same time, it was his most shameful afternoon.
Because when it came time to paying for the medical fees, the bill came to twenty-eight bucks. He reached out for thirty. He'd earned that thirty that weekend under the bright sun handing out leaflets. But she casually opened her wallet to reveal a thick pile of hundreds. That was a year of his wages and more.
Truthfully speaking, that was when he started to think about how he could work hard to make money.
Just like what the male broadcaster said - love can't be measured by money, but without money, love would be impossible. For him, becoming a better person was to be able to love her.
Furthermore, he loved that version of her - the girl who didn't come from an ordinary family, but a wealthy one.
Truthfully speaking, he wasn't much of a talker, so he didn't enjoy hanging out with classmates. But every time James went out, he would call her, so he would go regardless.
That was also when he learned about the luxurious life she lived. No matter if it was what she used or what she wore, it was expensive. Back then, their stars weren't aligned in the slightest. He felt immensely pressured.
After that, she would often go to NY, and with every trip, he would treat her to a meal.
At the time, she never knew that there was a poor man, who scraped his wallets to pay for her bills.
Nor did she know that, one meal of hers was a month of his pay.
On his fourth year of university, when his acting career was picking up, he received a text from her saying that she'd lost her wallet and was alone at the station. At the time, it was heavily raining. He didn't even change out of his clothes before renting a black car and rushing over.
That night was the first time in their lives where they shared a room.
That night, she slept well with a smile on her face, while he had to hide in the bathroom a few times in the middle of the night.
That night, she didn't know it, but he secretly stole a kiss. After the kiss, he said deep down that he would take responsibility for it.
~*~
When Alex's car entered the city, it was still raining heavily, but he no longer dared to continue reminisce about the past.
At her birthday party, Helen asked him who Isabelle was to him.
He hadn't replied.
If he were to reply now...
Isabelle.. She was his deep, forbidden love.
If he were to go back in time, back to the time of his memories, and someone were to ask him who she was to him, he would say that she was his deepest love.
However, somehow, along the years, that love had become forbidden.
From the day he had noticed her to the day they had hid under the deserted home for shelter, to the day she was officially introduced to him by James... to the day they shared a room, he had been trying desperately to improve himself. He had always believed that to love someone was to protect them from the world and not let them suffer with him.
He entered the entertainment industry when he was 18 years old, with a total of four years, he went from the substitute to the side character that no one paid any attention, to finally the third male lead.
In the entertainment industry, not only females were humiliated, males were too, especially one with such an exceptional looking face. Not just women, even men tried to keep him as a paid lover. He had always been blunt, offending the rich and powerful, thus often getting ostracized and pressured.
Those four and a half years were the most difficult time of his life, but yet, it was also his most blessed.
No matter how hard the situation, as long as he remembered that he was working for his one true love, he would willingly plough through any situation.
The last time he had sent Isabelle out of NY, he had given her all his money. At that time, his new drama was about to air and even though he was just the second male lead, he was a favored character. He strongly believed that with this role, he would officially open himself to the industry. When he had watched Isabelle queue up, he had still been thinking if the love he had harbored for so many years could finally materialize the next time they met.
However, life would always throw surprises at you.
In the end, he managed to take over the industry with that role. Every alley and street were filled with his news, and the success that he had been striving for was well in his hands.
But somehow, his seeking for love, it all changed from there...
The change had caused them to grow further and further apart... and now, they were practically strangers.