Chapter 83

Chapter 83

Sara’s Point of View

The room felt suffocating, as if the walls were conspiring to crush me under their silent judgment. The once vibrant posters of my movies lining the walls now seemed to mock me. My achievements, my success all of it felt tainted.

I sat on the edge of the bed, my knees drawn to my chest, staring blankly at the shattered pieces of my life reflected in the glossy magazine covers scattered across the floor. Each headline screamed my shame louder than the last.

"Sara Brown: A Career Built on Scandal."

"From Star to Pariah: The Downfall of Sara Brown."

"Hollywood's New Villain."

The weight of their words pressed down on my chest, making it hard to breathe. My throat felt raw from crying, and my eyes burned, but the tears had long dried up. All that was left was an empty hollowness.

I heard a soft knock on the door. My mother’s voice was cautious, almost timid.

“Sara?”

I clenched my fists, ignoring her.

The door creaked open slightly. “I brought you some tea,” Mom said, stepping inside. She placed the cup on the bedside table, her movements hesitant. “You haven’t eaten anything all day.”

“I’m not hungry,” I said flatly, my voice devoid of emotion.

She lingered, her presence grating on my already frayed nerves. “Sara, we need to talk about this. We can figure out a way to....”

“There is no ‘we,’ Mother,” I snapped, finally looking at her. “This is my career, my life that’s falling apart not yours. You don’t get to act like we’re in this together.”

Her face tightened, but she didn’t leave. Instead, she sat on the chair by the window, crossing her arms. “I’m your mother, Sara. I won’t abandon you now, no matter how much you push me away.”

I let out a bitter laugh, shaking my head. “Spare me the motherly act. You abandoned me the moment you decided your schemes were more important than raising me with even a shred of decency.”

Mom flinched as if I’d slapped her, but her expression quickly hardened. “That’s enough,” she said, her voice low and dangerous. “You’re not a child anymore, Sara. Stop blaming me for your choices. You’re in this mess because of your own actions.”

“My actions?” I stood, my hands trembling with rage. “I’ve worked my entire life to escape the shadow of your mistakes, and now I’m being dragged back into it because of you! They’re calling me a mistress because that’s all they’ve ever seen me as your daughter, following in your footsteps.”

Her jaw tightened, but she didn’t respond. The silence between us was a chasm too wide to bridge.

The phone buzzed again from where it had landed on the carpet. The sound jolted me, but I didn’t move. I couldn’t bear to see another headline, another hateful comment.

“Are you going to get that?” Mom asked cautiously.

“No,” I muttered, sinking back onto the bed.

She hesitated for a moment, then stood. “You can wallow in self-pity if you want, but I won’t let you throw everything away. Fix this, Sara. Before it’s too late.”

Without another word, she left, closing the door softly behind her.

I stared at the tea she’d left, the steam curling into the air like a ghost. My stomach churned at the thought of eating or drinking anything.

Minutes passed, or maybe hours I couldn’t tell. The silence was unbearable, yet the idea of filling it with anything felt exhausting. My career was crumbling, my reputation shattered. I thought I had climbed high enough to escape my past, but it had dragged me back down, pulling me into its depths like quicksand.

The phone buzzed again, louder this time.

With a groan, I crawled across the bed and grabbed it, my fingers trembling. A name flashed across the screen: Lila. My assistant.

I hesitated, then answered. “Lila,” I croaked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Her voice was hesitant but urgent. “Sara… I.... I need to tell you something.”

I closed my eyes, bracing myself for more bad news. “What is it?”

There was a long pause on the other end, and I could hear her struggling to find the right words. “A lot of your contracts… They’ve been terminated.”

The world tilted slightly, and I gripped the phone tighter. “What do you mean?”

“Endorsement deals, sponsorships… Even the perfume brand you’ve been the face of for two years they’ve all pulled out. They don’t want to be associated with the scandal.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. “Lila, no… Please tell me this isn’t happening.”

“I’m so sorry, Sara,” she said, her voice cracking. “There’s more. The producers of Where Love Shines they’ve decided to drop you from the movie.”

My grip on the phone loosened, and it fell to the bed. The words echoed in my head like a death sentence. Dropped from the movie.

“Sara? Are you still there?” Lila’s voice was faint, distant.

I couldn’t respond. My throat felt like it was closing up, my heart pounding erratically. This couldn’t be real. My career, my dreams they couldn’t just vanish like this.

“Sara, I’ll try to set up a meeting with the PR team,” Lila continued, her tone desperate. “Maybe we can salvage this, do some damage control....”

“Don’t bother,” I whispered, cutting her off.

“What?”

“It’s over, Lila.” My voice broke, the weight of the truth crushing me. “They’ve already made up their minds. Nothing I say or do will change that.”

There was a long silence on the other end. Finally, Lila said softly, “I’ll call you later.”

The line went dead.

I stared at the phone, my hands trembling. My career, my reputation, my identity everything I had worked so hard for was gone.

For the first time in my life, I felt truly powerless. All the charm, the ambition, the connections they meant nothing now. I was just another name in a long list of scandals, another star burned out too soon.

Curling up on the bed, I clutched a pillow to my chest, tears streaming silently down my face. The headlines had won. The world hated me, and for the first time, I couldn’t find a way to fight back.