Reclaiming Her Heart

In the evening, Sophia rolled back to her tiny rented pad.

So far, she'd only snagged one gig in a TV series. As a newbie, her paycheck was peanuts. Ronald had fought tooth and nail for her, but she only scored sixty grand. Now, she was scraping by on that sixty grand.

Ronald was chilling in a swanky villa. She had dreams of moving next door, but the rent was a whopping eight grand a month.

Her sixty grand was chump change.

After all the random expenses, she was down to thirty grand.

Sophia was desperate to make some cash. Even if she jumped ship to S.M Corporation, she knew she wouldn't be raking it in anytime soon.

She'd done her homework on the company. It was a startup, and their rules and systems were probably still a hot mess. If she joined, she'd be twiddling her thumbs for a while. Sophia paced around her cramped apartment and thought about live streaming. It was a quick way to make some dough, and live streaming with product sales was blowing up. Plus, she had a bit of a name. Once she hit a hundred grand, she'd be Ronald's neighbor in no time!

Sophia's eyes lit up. She fired up her computer and started her live stream.

But she couldn't show her face. It was a breach of contract for an artist to live stream on the sly. If All Star Entertainment found out, she'd be on the hook for compensation. Sophia threw on a catgirl outfit. As a newbie streamer, her traffic was pretty weak at first.

The outfit was skimpy, and with her killer body, she had all the right curves in all the right places.

Sophia's stream was the kind that once guys stumbled upon it, they couldn't tear themselves away.

In her mind, she wasn't really showing anything. It was just a bit suggestive. As long as she could make bank, it was all good.

These days, no matter where you hustle, you gotta check your pride at the door.

She'd been broke before. If someone threw cash at her, she'd smile and pick it up, one bill at a time.

"Hey, everyone. Welcome. I'm new here, and it's awesome to meet you all for the first time. I really hope you'll support me." She already looked young, and her sweet voice was enough to make any guy weak in the knees. Meanwhile, Ronald was wide awake. Lately, S.M Corporation was on a hiring spree. They had a stack of resumes, but only a few folks met his high standards.

In the entertainment biz, just being a pretty face didn't cut it. Pretty faces were like vases-they had an expiration date. Ronald was on the hunt for someone with real acting chops.

So, before hitting the sack, he liked to scroll through female streamers online.

He had a little setup on his bed, with a laptop perched on a stand. Wearing his gold-rimmed glasses, he flicked through one female streamer's live stream after another, his face a mask of indifference.

Most of them weren't his style, and with those beauty filters cranked up, the real deal would look way different from the video.

Ronald was thirty-two, and he always had this no-nonsense, straight-laced vibe.

When he stumbled upon a newbie's live stream, his brows knitted together. This was way too suggestive. Just as he was about to skip it, her sweet voice chimed in, "Welcome, new viewers. This is my first live stream." The video didn't show her face, just below her neck, and her chest looked like it was about to bust out of her outfit.

Ronald immediately noticed a tiny red mole on her collarbone. Coupled with her overly sweet voice, his brows furrowed even more. He whipped out his phone and called Sophia.

Sure enough, the phone rang in the live stream. This streamer was definitely her!

Ronald couldn't quite pin down his feelings at that moment. First, he was pissed, then he cooled off. He stared at the screen, trying to stay rational.

Probably because of his call, Sophia shut down the live stream, her tone lazy.

"Ronald, what's up?"

"Sophia, what the hell are you doing?"

Sophia didn't feel guilty at all and had no clue she'd been busted.

"Making money, you know I need cash."

Ronald felt his veins about to pop. "How much do you need?"

"Are you gonna give it to me? Then you'd be keeping me. If you're keeping me, we gotta live together. So when can I move in?"

Sophia's words were logical, even eager.

Ronald was so mad his chest was shaking. "The place you're in now is safe, and S.M Corporation is about to sign you. There are more opportunities here. You don't need to degrade yourself online like this. If fans find out later, it won't be good for you."

He was thinking about what was best for Sophia. But Sophia went silent for a full three minutes before she softly said, "Ronald, I've degraded myself plenty of times. To make money over the years, I've done everything except sell my body."