The Truth Beneath Her Halo

My girlfriend became an overnight sensation after saving a drowning child. Netizens praised her for being beautiful and kind. Her Instagram followers skyrocketed by hundreds of thousands in a single night. A famous dating reality show invited her to be a guest. Only later did I learn that on the show, she had painted me as a pathetic ex-boyfriend who did nothing but emotionally manipulate her. She won the sympathy of countless viewers because of it. Meanwhile, I was doxxed across the internet, and my doorway was buried under trash. Everyone saw her performing CPR on a child by the ocean. No one knew that I was the one who had gone into the water with a raging fever and pulled that child out. Later, her carefully crafted image collapsed. She was mocked until she vanished from social media, then came crying to me, begging to get back together. I waved her off. “Let’s not. This pathetic loser can’t afford to support someone like you.” My college roommate, Ethan, sent me a video. His message read: “Your girlfriend is unbelievable! She’s really selling herself even though she has a boyfriend!” I didn’t understand what he meant. I clicked on the video and realized it was from Ava’s new dating reality show. I’d been too busy with work lately and had forgotten when the show premiered. I was about to exit and call her to congratulate her when I suddenly heard her mention my name on the show. Before she accepted the role, she had discussed it with me. She said she was only going on for appearances and wouldn’t actually date anyone. The show paid well, but all the guests had to be single. So she suggested that we pretend to break up. Once filming ended, she promised she would personally beg my forgiveness. I had ruffled her hair and pretended to scold her. “Fine. I’ll reluctantly agree this time. But don’t expect me to be so easygoing if you pull something like this again.” That was why I was caught off guard when she brought me up. My hand froze over the screen, and I began listening carefully. On the show, she sat alone in an interview room, dabbing at her tears with a tissue. “We met in college. At first, he treated me incredibly well. He tolerated everything and took care of me.” “But toward graduation, it was like he suddenly became a different person. He slept until noon every day, refused to look for a job, and stayed home doing nothing.” “If I tried to talk to him about it, he’d say I didn’t love him or understand him…” I stared at the familiar face on my phone. For one brief moment, she felt like a complete stranger. Ava wasn’t supposed to be like this. She knew better than anyone what kind of person I was. Why was she twisting the truth on television? Ava and I met during freshman orientation. We had different majors, but we stood in adjacent rows during the drills. One day, she fainted from low blood sugar while she was on her period. I carried her across half the campus under the blazing sun. I stayed with her while she received an IV at the campus clinic and made her a cup of warm brown-sugar water. After orientation ended, she confessed her feelings to me. She said she liked me because I seemed dependable. I already had feelings for her, so I said yes. During the years we were together, I practically gave her everything she asked for. She loved flowers, so I brought her a bouquet on every anniversary. She loved milk tea, so I brought her a cup every time we met. She once said she wanted an unforgettable birthday. So I gathered our friends and lit up the beach for her, complete with fireworks. In my heart, Ava had always been sweet and considerate. If I could, I would have protected and loved her forever. So when she used studying for an exam as an excuse to stay by my side for three years after graduation instead of finding a job, I never complained. As long as I could support her, I didn’t care if she stayed with me forever.I tapped out a reply to Ethan. “Those shows are usually scripted. Ava took their money, so she has to follow their instructions.” He sent back a shrugging emoji. Everyone knew I had spoiled Ava to the point of losing all common sense. A month earlier, she had insisted on going to the beach to watch the sunset while I was burning up with a fever. The night before, she had seen a college roommate post an engagement photo on Instagram. The couple had kissed romantically by the ocean in the setting sun. She wanted an identical photo. It didn’t matter that my fever had reached 102.2 degrees and I hadn’t been able to keep down even a bowl of soup for two days. “It’s just one picture. We can come home and sleep afterward, okay?” She clung to my arm and pouted. She knew that was all it took for me to give in. And she was right. But that day, before we could even take the photo after setting up the camera, I heard someone screaming for help from the water. Ava turned my face toward her and complained that the sun was about to set. I didn’t say a word. I ran toward the sound. By the time I dragged the child who had been swept away by the waves onto shore, I was so exhausted I could barely stand. Ava told me to go back to the car, rest, and change my clothes. She said she would contact the child’s parents. After I recovered enough to walk, I went looking for her on the beach. Instead, I found her surrounded by a crowd. Applause erupted all around her. She lowered her eyes and smiled modestly. “No need to thank me. Really, it was nothing. Anyone would have done the same.” Later, her heroic rescue made the Instagram trending page, and she gained four hundred thousand followers overnight. At the time, she was lying in my arms, hesitantly asking whether I was angry that she had stolen the spotlight that should have belonged to me. I didn’t care about any of that. The child was safe. That was all that mattered. So I scratched her under the chin. “As long as you’re happy, I don’t care.” Tears suddenly glimmered in her eyes. She leaned over and kissed me. Then she smiled. “I knew I loved you most of all!” The dating show Ava joined became a huge topic online. I hadn’t wanted to pay attention to it. Unfortunately, my friends loved drama and wouldn’t stop sending me clips and screenshots of the comments. “What? Are you all jealous that I have a successful career and a happy relationship?” “You’re all going out of your way to ruin my mood.” I cursed at them in the group chat. But I still clicked on the links despite myself. Ava’s persona on the show was incredibly popular. She had supposedly been destroyed by the man she loved for seven years, yet she still believed in love like an innocent girl experiencing it for the first time. She was also friendly, thoughtful, and independent—the kind of woman who had once rushed into the ocean alone to save a drowning child. Not only did viewers adore her, calling her their “daughter” and “favorite girl,” but two of the male contestants seemed interested in her. I watched Ava flirt with them and call them “big brother” in that cutesy, affectionate way. I watched them pair off for dates, hugging and touching each other, eating candlelit dinners. I watched them play games as a group. When one of them lost, he had to kiss the person beside him for three seconds. Ava blushed until her eyes grew moist. The man’s ears turned bright red. The comments flooded by. “They’re so cute together!” “I’m shipping them!” I was the only one sitting there with a pale face, humiliated. Furious, I called her immediately. The night filming ended, Ava had taken the earliest train to see me. She stood outside my door holding a bouquet. She smiled and said she had come to beg my forgiveness. I pulled her into my arms and held her tightly, wishing I could freeze time. I wanted to stay with her forever.But she left early the next morning because of work. From then on, we rarely saw each other. We still video-called often, but she never told me that she had become so close with the other men on the show. Even after the episodes began airing, she never called to explain. My phone rang for nearly two minutes before someone finally answered. “Hello? Who is this?” It was Ava’s assistant, a young woman who had just graduated from college. I remembered the fake breakup Ava and I had agreed on, so I cleared my throat. “I’m a friend of Ava’s. I need to speak with her.” “Oh,” the assistant said. “You might have to wait a little. Ava and her boyfriend are shooting a magazine cover.” My mind went blank for several seconds. I couldn’t stop replaying the words “Ava and her boyfriend.” I could barely hear anything else the assistant was saying. Boyfriend? “What boyfriend?” The assistant seemed to realize what she had said. She abruptly hung up. When I called back, the line was busy. Ava didn’t call me until midnight. “What exactly are you trying to pull?” I asked the moment she answered. “Weren’t you just going on the show for appearances? How did you manage to cheat on me while ‘just going through the motions’?” Ava didn’t even seem interested in making excuses. “Do you have to be so disgusting?” “I’m the disgusting one?” Her accusing tone almost made me laugh. “Why don’t you open your eyes and take a good look at the man you’ve cuckolded? Do you honestly think any man could stay calm and listen to you after that?” Her mocking laugh came through the phone and pierced my ears. “Ryan, we already broke up. How exactly have you been cheated on?” “Wasn’t it supposed to be a fake breakup?” “Oh, I’m sorry…” She laughed for a while before continuing. “I didn’t realize you were this naive.” “Ryan, do you believe everything I tell you? I was lying to you. You should take a good look at yourself. The money I made from shooting one magazine cover today is more than your entire monthly salary.” “Tell me, what makes you think you’re worthy? What makes you think you still deserve to be my boyfriend?” It felt as if someone had smashed the back of my head with a sledgehammer. My thoughts spun. Pain swallowed everything. I didn’t know how to face this, much less process it. From the age of eighteen to twenty-five, I had treated Ava as more important than my own life. I had never imagined that one day she might leave me. “Fine. I understand.” I fought to control my emotions. I just didn’t want to break down in front of her. “I hope everything goes well for you from here on out. Don’t look back.” I swallowed my sob and said the words before blocking her number.