Doted by Many: I became the Top-Tier Celebrity!-Chapter 291 - 290: The Favor of Recognition

This story starts thirteen years ago.

Lily Sloane was twenty-eight years old and a talent manager at Solaris Media.

She was intelligent and sharp. The talent managers she had trained weren’t all top-tier, but they were all well-known.

Her artist, Coco Donovan, was poached by another company, so the company assigned the lukewarm Dominic Rhodes to her.

Dominic Rhodes was four years younger than her, twenty-four.

Initially, Lily wasn’t happy with this because she didn’t like male artists. In her worldview, there was no truly pure working relationship between opposite sexes.

She worried that spending too much time with a man would lead to impure feelings, so she always treated Dominic Rhodes with indifference.

However, this didn’t affect her dedication and commitment to nurturing Dominic Rhodes.

Due to her efforts, Dominic Rhodes had a steady stream of appearances, films, and TV shows.

The problem was, he just couldn’t seem to become popular, at most winning a Best Supporting Actor award, only to sink back into obscurity.

Lily Sloane spent a lot of energy on him and analyzed Dominic Rhodes.

He had always followed the idol route, but at twenty-four, remaining lukewarm in the entertainment industry could affect his future.

It could also tarnish her reputation.

After considering many factors, she approached Dominic Rhodes to discuss transitioning into a character actor, which meant shedding the idol baggage and becoming a new face.

It also involved changing his name.

Dominic Rhodes trusted her completely and agreed without any hesitation.

Lily Sloane thought long and hard through the night and eventually gave him the stage name: Cain Rhodes.

As Lily wished, the transformation was successful, starting with unsavory roles.

He played all sorts of characters: a fool, a wicked eunuch, a shady innkeeper, a suspect in a serial murder case...

He crawled through swamps, traversed sewers during filming, and without the idol baggage, Cain Rhodes embodied whomever he portrayed.

It took only three years for him to become popular.

Lily admired his effort and dedication and began to have subtle feelings for him.

Meanwhile, Cain Rhodes consistently maintained the best work ethic with Lily, never crossing professional boundaries.

Yet his care for her was meticulous.

One day, when Lily was drunk, she asked him why he treated her so well.

Cain Rhodes replied: gratitude for discovering me.

Those four words maintained their relationship for four years.

Lily was thirty-two.

Cain Rhodes was twenty-eight.

By then, Cain Rhodes was already quite famous, no longer the naive young man he once was.

The company believed that someone as talented as Lily shouldn’t be wasted on an already popular artist; she should be making greater contributions to the company by managing other artists.

Lily was hesitant, so she informed Cain Rhodes of this.

Cain Rhodes did not try to keep her; he felt he was the reason Lily was still unmarried at thirty-two.

When Lily was thirty, she had a promising partner, but due to Cain’s affairs, she was always running around, leading her partner to ultimately be unable to endure Lily constantly revolving around another man, resulting in their separation.

The artist she was about to manage was a twenty-one-year-old girl, and perhaps she could pursue a good relationship of her own and get married.

After hearing this, Lily felt saddened, always feeling that this man, although gentle like jade from the beginning, was also just respectful without genuine need for her.

Sticking to those four words, gratitude for discovering me.

Only gratitude, no love.

Perhaps she really should seek her own happiness, and ultimately, she agreed.

Only regrettably, Lily never understood Cain Rhodes; he was fundamentally a demon.

The four years of warm and cold attention, yet meticulous care, were all to make Lily fall for him, to bind her to his side, to make her give so much for him.

How could he possibly let her go?

Cain Rhodes suggested treating Lily to a meal to thank her for four years of companionship.

Lily did not suspect anything and followed him to dinner, drinking red wine as usual.

Normally careful, Lily drank a lot this time, and with Cain having drugged her, she eventually passed out.

Cain took her to a hotel and slept with her without her knowledge.

Cain was astonished to discover he was Lily’s first man; this vanity made him even more reckless.

In his eyes, Lily was just his plaything.

When she awoke, Lily was terrified. An affair between a talent manager and an artist, such an event breaking out, would not only ruin her but also him.

She acted swiftly, intercepting all the surveillance footage from the restaurant and hotel but could not face Cain.

In her eyes, she was the one who had developed misplaced feelings for Cain; it must have been her drunken state and lack of thinking ability that led him, while drunk, to do such a thing.

She was extremely regretful, but Cain said it wasn’t her fault; in such matters, women are always at a disadvantage.

He promised to take care of her for life.

Lily believed him, immersed in love, fought against the company for him, and managed no other artists, solely focusing on Cain Rhodes.

She even gave up better opportunities for further training; she only wanted to wait for the day Cain Rhodes fulfilled his dream of winning the Best Actor award and then exit the industry to become his bride with a new identity.

Cain Rhodes never made promises but did promise to marry her.

Lily dreamed this beautiful yet unwilling-to-wake dream.

This dream lasted another three years.

Cain Rhodes fulfilled his wish, winning Best Actor, momentarily gaining fame, with countless companies vying to sign him, until one day, the entertainment group he yearned for contacted him.

Once there, he would forever be the big shot in the entertainment industry; at this moment, Lily evidently became his obstacle.

She didn’t allow it, believing the group’s artists were too conniving, and with Cain’s single-minded pursuit of good roles, he would undoubtedly be trampled on and suffer greatly.

She did not realize Cain was actually the most formidable person, making her stay devoted for seven years without regret. Why would she fear?

Lily had witnessed his lowest moments and he no longer wished to be entangled with her.

That night, he invited several industry directors and artists for dinner and singing, proposing to her in front of everyone.

Lily was deeply moved and readily accepted, wearing the ring.

Everyone dispersed, and Lily was slightly tipsy.

Everything was pre-planned, Cain feigned taking a drunk artist home.

Left in the room were a director she often collaborated with, a screenwriter, and an agent.

Others, Tiana Thorne had not seen before, but that screenwriter was Arthur Donovan, who had yet to become a director.

On that cruel, emotionless night, they assaulted a semi-drunk Lily.

Her pleas fell on deaf ears.

Lily had a regal charm, a strong woman image that many yearned for.

Lily foolishly believed Cain’s friends betrayed him, to treat her like this, and might harm Cain in the future.

She didn’t know that at the time it happened, Cain was right outside the door, listening to everything that transpired.

He leaned against the doorframe, fists clenched, a tear falling.