Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Late that night, one of Riverton’s hottest buzz-driven starlets posted a single line on Weibo:
Why does the one who came later get everything?
Then she deleted it seconds later.
And somehow, I was the one her fans sent flying onto the Weibo trending list.
First she pretended to be the old-money heiress Vanessa should’ve been, and now she’s stealing her fiancé too.
No surprise there. She’s always playing scheming supporting villainesses. Guess the actress and the roles really are the same.
I turned and shoved at the solid chest of the man behind me. “I’m the one who came later?”
Julian Ashford only lifted a brow. “Later? Earlier? There’s only ever been you.”
Because of Vanessa Sterling’s vague, loaded little post, her fans moved fast. They swarmed in like they’d been waiting for a signal.
Before long, my Weibo comments were buried under a flood of abuse.
Why be a decent person when you can throw yourself at someone else’s man?
Only someone as rotten as Sienna Sterling could play a scheming supporting villainess that convincingly.
I scrolled through the comments with great interest. Honestly, I quite appreciated the ones complimenting my acting.
Unfortunately, before I could finish reading, another tag shot to number one on the trending list at lightning speed.
Sienna Sterling, get out of the entertainment industry.
I clicked my tongue.
Funny. Also deeply ridiculous.
Julian Ashford was my boyfriend. Officially. Fairly. No gray area whatsoever.
Meanwhile, Vanessa’s fans were enthusiastically educating innocent passersby in the comments about my “glorious history.”
In short, after one production wrapped, I’d casually posted a day-in-the-life photo to stay visible online.
Some eagle-eyed internet sleuth zoomed into the background and discovered that the bag in the picture was a counterfeit designer bag.
That was enough to get me dragged onto the trending list.
She can’t even afford a bag in that price range and she’s pretending to be an old-money heiress?
What an insult to actual old money.
I glanced at the bag sitting nearby, something I’d grabbed off the street on a whim.
There were too many so-called affordable luxury brands these days. How was I supposed to remember which was which?
I’d needed one in a hurry. It was roomy, cheap, and convenient, so I bought it without a second thought.
As for the so-called heiress persona, that part really wasn’t intentional.
Once, at the airport, a stalker fan had snapped a photo of the jade bracelet on my wrist.
It had been my mother’s. Unless a role required otherwise, I usually wore it.
Who knew that would get photographed too?
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Just as the internet was working itself into a righteous frenzy over my “fake image,” Vanessa Sterling—who always liked to act as if she floated above the rest of us—posted on Weibo.
In the blurry background of the photo, she stood with a glass of red wine in hand, glancing back over one shoulder. Her smile was soft, cool, elegant in that practiced untouchable way she’d built her whole image on.
And the location tag?
The Sterling family estate district—some of the most expensive real estate in the entire city.
The post had been up for less than a minute before every gossip account and entertainment blog started reposting it.
Now this is what a real heiress in show business looks like.
In an instant, the public’s hatred for me hit a new high.
So Vanessa Sterling is the real Sterling heiress.
Sienna Sterling, you fake, finally got exposed. I’ve been sick of her forever.
Vanessa’s fans were practically celebrating as they piled on.
A fake is still a fake. She’ll never become the real thing.
The way our Vanessa stays so calm and graceful no matter what? Sienna could never learn that in a hundred lifetimes.
Bet that jade bracelet from before was fake too.
Please. A color that green? Obviously cheap plastic pretending to be jade.
“My God, can you explain to me why you’re living on the Weibo trending list again?”
My manager, Mara Wells, sounded like a woman whose soul had already left her body.
I spread my hands. “This one’s not on me. I haven’t even said anything yet.”
“Oh, whatever. Notoriety-driven fame is still fame. Otherwise how would we have landed a reality show this hot?”
Mara muttered it like she was trying to hypnotize herself into believing it.
Crossroads Live was a celebrity reality variety show launched two years ago by the star director Graham Kane.
The moment it aired, it was a hit.
Any actor who showed up on it saw their profile explode almost overnight.
After that, it became one of the most sought-after shows in the industry.
At the beginning of the year, Vanessa had been invited as the first guest for this season.
And now, I’d been invited too.
Who knew whether the production team wanted me because I was good for scandal-driven ratings, or because of my long-running feud with Vanessa.
If you really looked back, the tension between us had shown itself a long time ago.
Two years earlier, I’d just entered the entertainment industry and lucked into a role in a low-budget web drama—a scheming supporting villainess.
Vanessa had been the female lead.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
She always acted like she was above everyone else, and at one point she’d even said to me, all lofty composure and sharpened smiles, “Life is a stage, and the stage is life. Sienna, just don’t get so deep into playing the villain that you end up following her path in real life.”
We were in the same cast. I still had no idea what she was acting so superior for.
All I wanted to do was act. A few snide comments meant nothing to me.
They never got under my skin, so I never bothered responding.
Who would’ve thought that little web drama no one expected anything from would end up becoming the breakout hit of the year?
Vanessa Sterling, as the female lead, shot to fame overnight and became Riverton’s newest buzz-driven starlet.
As for me, I took plenty of heat because of the role I played. Still, it was enough to get my name out there in the industry.
The downside was that from then on, I got typecast as the scheming supporting villainess.
And Vanessa’s contempt for me only grew more obvious.
She had always been good at using other people to do her dirty work. She never came at me directly in public. Behind the scenes, though, she constantly steered her fan teams, stepping on me to build up her image of cool, untouchable elegance.
The livestream started.
Vanessa suddenly moved first, slipping in front of me by a single step.
She walked toward the camera with graceful ease and smiled as she greeted the audience.
The live comments immediately exploded into cheers.
Then I appeared on screen, and the mood flipped so hard it was almost funny.
“Oh, look. Isn’t that Miss Other Woman herself? She’s really got the nerve to show her face.”
“Gotta admire Sienna’s thick skin. I could never.”
I didn’t know who started it, but within seconds the screen was flooded with one message over and over:
“Sienna Sterling, get out of the entertainment industry.”
The host, to give credit where it was due, was excellent at the job.
At any given moment, he knew exactly how to stir up conflict and turn it into ratings for the show.
“So, Vanessa and Sienna both came out of the same drama,” he said with a bright smile. “Have you kept in touch over the years?”
Before I could answer, Vanessa beat me to it.
She curved her lips into a soft smile. “Of course we have. Right, Sienna?”
I just spread my hands. “Sure. If that’s what you say.”
The comments blew up again.
“First time I’ve ever seen the other woman facing the official partner and acting this shameless about it.”
“Vanessa has so much class. If it were anyone else, they would’ve torn her apart on the spot.”
“Well, my Vanessa is an old-money heiress. Of course she’d never behave like some street-fighting psycho.”