Beyond The Limelight Chinese Short Drama

I collapsed from exhaustion after dedicating ten years of my life to my CEO girlfriend, Kendal. I gave up my music, my dreams, everything to build her empire. At the hospital, the doctor delivered the news.

Malignant tumor. I needed emergency surgery to save my life.

Kendal never visited. Not once. I later found out she was on the phone with another man, sweetly telling him she missed him while I was lying in a hospital bed.

Two weeks after they cut the cancer out of me, on her birthday, I went home and cooked her favorite meal. It was supposed to be our last supper, a final goodbye.

She stumbled in late that night, drunk, carried piggyback by that same man.

They were wearing matching black t-shirts. His said, "I'm with her." Hers said, "I'm with him."

She saw me and froze, her laughter dying in her throat. She scrambled off his back, her face a mask of panic and guilt.

But I felt nothing. Not anger, not jealousy. The part of me that could feel pain for her had been carved out on the operating table, right along with the tumor.

I looked her straight in the eye. "It's over."

Then I walked out of the penthouse we once called home, leaving her standing alone in the monument to our failed relationship. This time, I wasn't coming back.

Chapter 1

I placed the resignation letter on the HR manager' s desk. The paper was crisp and white, a stark contrast to the storm brewing inside me.

"Brock? What' s this?" Sarah asked, her eyes wide with surprise. She picked up the letter as if it might burn her.

She read it, her expression shifting from confusion to disbelief. "You' re leaving? After all this time?"

I just nodded, my throat too tight to speak.

"But… Brock, it' s your ten-year anniversary with Kendal next week. The whole company knows. We were planning a surprise."

Ten years. The words hung in the air, heavy and meaningless. A decade of my life, poured into her, into her company. For nothing.

I stayed silent, my face a blank mask. I couldn' t afford to let any emotion show. If I started, I might not be able to stop.

Sarah sighed, seeing the resolve in my eyes. She stood up. "I have to get this signed by Kendal."

"She' s the CEO," I said, my voice flat. "That' s the procedure."

She left the office, and I stared out the window at the city skyline. This was the view from our new penthouse office, a symbol of the success I had helped build. The success that had cost me everything.

Sarah returned a few minutes later, the letter now bearing Kendal' s looping, arrogant signature. She hadn' t even bothered to look at what she was signing.

"She didn' t even ask what it was," Sarah said, her voice a whisper. "She was on a call."

Of course, she was. Always busy, always important.

"Brock, are you sure about this? InnovateX needs you. Kendal… she needs you. You handle everything. Without you, this place will fall apart."

A dull ache started in my chest. Sarah was right. I was the one who remembered her mother' s birthday, who handled her family' s endless demands, who made sure her coffee was exactly how she liked it. I was her executive assistant, her boyfriend, her shadow. The man who made her world run smoothly so she could shine.