I'm pursued by superstar after betrayed

Inside the private booth, Raiden Evans sat with Lenora Kelly tucked right beside him, a handful of his friends circling the table. He’d already introduced her to the group, but he’d intentionally kept her presence a secret from his wife, Violeta Reynolds.

Lenora had that soft, first-love glow about her—she clung sweetly to Raiden’s arm, her voice thick with sugar. “Raiden, I have that big audition tomorrow. I’m so nervous… Will you stay with me tonight?”

She blinked up at him with those wide, spellbinding eyes—this was exactly what had hooked him the first time they met. Lenora knew just how to tug him in with her little-girl charm.

Raiden chuckled low and peeled a piece of fruit for her. It was a small thing; he’d been spoiled his whole life, he wasn’t used to waiting on anyone.

A warm, foreign satisfaction bloomed in Lenora’s chest. Her cheeks flushed pink as she snuggled deeper into his arms. “Please?”

Right then, his phone buzzed. The screen lit up with one word: *Wife*. The smile in his eyes dimmed just a hair. He fed the fruit to Lenora first, then pulled back, brushing his thumb softly over her lips.

Lenora turned crimson. It was hard not to—Raiden’s sharp, stunning good looks had an pull no one could deny. That signature charisma of his was impossible to resist.

He answered the call, his voice ice-cold and detached. “What do you want?”

Halfway across the city, Violeta stood by her bedroom nightstand, turning the whole place upside down looking for her ID. She was positive Raiden had moved it somewhere. As a studio owner, she needed it for a stack of contracts first thing tomorrow.

“Where did you put my driver’s license?” she asked.

“Ask the housekeeper. I’m busy. How the hell should I know?” Raiden brushed her off.

Violeta already knew not to count on him. She took a slow breath. “Alright.”

He was still smiling, his fingers still tracing the curve of Lenora’s mouth, amusement glinting dark in his eyes. “Looking for your ID’s just an excuse, isn’t it? You’re just checking up on me.”

His words twisted truth and lies together so tight she couldn’t untangle them to answer.

Luckily, she caught a faint murmur of another person’s voice in the background, like someone shifting close to him.

She flicked her lashes down. “I’m not. I’ll hang up now.”

Raiden ended the call, and Lenora immediately climbed right into his lap. “Raiden, why won’t you stay over with me tonight?”

Raiden glanced over at his friends. This was old hat to all of them.

Adonis Howell laughed. “It’s only the fifteenth, and you’ve already stayed ten nights with her. Even back in the day, you’d give your main girl more than that, yeah?”

Lenora’s face burned hotter. She buried her face in Raiden’s chest, her heart hammering. Raiden was so handsome, so soft with her—how could anyone not fall head over heels? She prayed he’d dump that boring plain wife of his and pick her. But she knew better than to push. Rush things, and it’d all blow up in her face.

Lenora hadn’t met many old money types working in showbiz. Next to the guys at this table, every man she’d ever dated was just cheap, flashy nouveau riche. These boys were real aristocracy—each one oozed power and influence. All the socialites back in her world had money, sure, but these men were born to privilege, through and through.

She couldn’t let this go. She had to hold on tight, get Violeta out of the picture for good.

Raiden turned and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Be good, head home. I’ve got stuff to handle tonight.”

Lenora hated it, but she knew when to behave. She kissed him back slow, dragging it out, before finally standing to leave. Once the door clicked shut behind her, Adonis leaned in.

“You know Violeta’s gonna find out eventually, right?”

Raiden said nothing. Instead, Logan Lawrence spoke up. “Raiden wouldn’t be doing this if he cared about getting caught. Wait… isn’t it Violeta’s little sister who’s been head over heels for you for, what, ten years? When they adopted her into the family, she was always hanging around with us, we watched her grow up. Just don’t take it too far, man.”

Raiden leaned back in his booth, swirling his whiskey slow, his voice lazy and uncaring. “When I married Violeta, I made one thing clear: I don’t love her.”

Logan took a sip of his drink. “Nobody stays cold forever, right? That actress’s eyes do look just like her sister’s. Violeta’s sister was a knockout… how’d everything end up such a mess?”

Adonis cut in. “She made a bad call. Fell for Raiden and ruined her whole life. Left Violeta stuck holding the bag.”

Logan laughed. “Who knows? Maybe one day she’ll wake up and leave you holding the bag, man. Our boy Raiden here’ll end up raising someone else’s kid.”

Raiden unbuttoned his collar, closed his eyes, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. “Violeta was raised by her adoptive family just to be my wife. She’s a clinging vine—can’t survive without me.”

Nobody in the room argued. They all agreed with him.

Everyone knew the truth: Violeta was adopted specifically to marry into the Evans family and seal the alliance. Marrying Raiden was the best thing that ever happened to her.

Late that night, Violeta jolted awake feeling like garbage. She pressed a hand to her forehead—turns out all that stress from the past few days had spiked a fever.

She forced herself out of bed and stumbled downstairs looking for fever meds. A servant heard her moving, flipped on the hall light.

“Madam? What are you looking for?”

“I need fever medicine. I think I’ve got a temperature,” Violeta said, leaning against the side table to steady herself—dizziness was swallowing her whole.

The servant hurried over. “Let me get that for you. Go sit down, I’ll bring you a glass of water too.”

Violeta had always been kind to the staff, never threw her weight around. She’d been raised with strict rules, trained to be the perfect proper lady from the time she was little.

She propped her head up on one hand, shoulders hunched, nausea rolling in her stomach. The dim living room light was soft and quiet… until her phone rang again. Fuzzy with fever, she fumbled and hit speaker by accident. A rush of messy sobbing poured out:

“Raiden, I can’t do this anymore. My audition’s tomorrow, I’m so scared I can’t…”

“Raiden…”

Violeta’s face drained of all color instantly. Her fingers shook so bad she could barely hold the phone. The call disconnected before she could even blink, her vision too blurry to tap the red button in time.

The servant came back with the medicine, hovering quiet by the door.

“Madam… that must have been a wrong number…”

Of course the servant covered for Raiden. He signed her paychecks, after all. And Violeta was just the wife, nothing more.

Violeta tugged up a bitter smile. Her head was clear now, sharp as a knife. She took the pill the servant handed her and dry-swallowed it, no water needed.

“Don’t mention this to Raiden.”

The servant couldn’t hide the flash of scorn in her eyes—like Violeta was just choosing to play stupid, after all. But hey, for a twenty thousand dollar monthly allowance, anyone would pretend to be deaf and blind, right?

“I won’t say a word.”