Chapter 438: Your Choice Was Not Wrong

Chapter 438: Chapter 438: Your Choice Was Not Wrong

Serena Taylor felt a wave of enlightenment wash over him, and he instantly understood Arabella Donovan’s meaning.

His wife had recently been trying to persuade him to move from being in front of the camera to working behind the scenes. She felt it would not only solve his current predicament but also allow him to make good use of the experience he’d accumulated over the years.

But he had been hesitant and hadn’t made up his mind.

Looking at it now, he had been too timid. He couldn’t see things nearly as clearly as his wife, an outsider, and had ended up holding her back.

"I understand now. Thank you for your guidance, Miss Donovan. We’re still in the middle of filming, so I can’t properly express my gratitude, but after the show is over, my wife and I will thank you again."

With Milton Lambert and Serena Taylor as two recent examples, Faye Collins, who was already getting antsy, felt even more tempted. She stared at Arabella Donovan, her eyes filled with a mixture of hope and apprehension.

Arabella quickly noticed her. She blinked and cut straight to the heart of the matter. "Ms. Collins, are you looking to ask about... your love life?"

When Arabella said this, everyone present looked with some surprise at Faye Collins and... her seven-year-old daughter standing beside her.

Faye Collins’s significant other had always been a mysterious figure. No paparazzi had ever exposed the person’s identity, but because of her daughter, everyone assumed she had been married for a long time. They figured her husband was either a powerful tycoon or a private citizen, which would explain why he never appeared in public.

But now, hearing what Arabella said, they weren’t so sure. If she was already married, why would she need a reading on her love life?

"Your nasal bridge is a bit low, and the space between your eyebrows is wider than average, which indicates that you’re a person with strong self-esteem, yet also quite sentimental. Because your pride is so strong, you’re easily provoked and prone to doing things in a fit of pique that you’ll later regret. And because you’re sentimental, you’re easily deceived by a man’s sweet nothings and can get trapped in the web of lies they spin."

Arabella paused here, her voice tinged with sympathy. "Your type tends to attract scumbags. My advice to you is not to date casually, nor to rush into marriage with anyone. Otherwise... you’re bound to regret it."

It all boiled down to one thing: dating would likely get her scammed, and marriage would likely leave her broke and homeless. The only solution was to swear off romance entirely. Stay single, stay safe.

Everyone: "..." How tragic!

After Arabella finished, Faye Collins completely froze. After a long moment, she slumped in self-defeat. "Okay, I admit you’re right. I don’t know why, but I’m a magnet for scumbags. Almost every relationship I’ve had was forced to end for a series of reasons, like him cheating, changing his mind, scamming me for money, or stabbing me in the back."

"What about Qiuqiu’s father?"

Serena Taylor blurted out, only realizing after he’d spoken how tactless the question was.

Fortunately, Faye Collins wasn’t angry. She just glanced at her daughter. Hector Donovan and the others instantly understood, telling the children, who had mostly finished eating, to go play off to the side. They took Faye Collins’s child with them.

"He was a two-timing, two-faced monster! A real love-em-and-leave-em scumbag! All he wanted was a moment of fun with no responsibility. And his mother was even crazier, her head full of feudalistic ideas, thinking a woman couldn’t run away once she had a child. She pulled all sorts of insane stunts. In the end, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I got rid of the father and kept the child. I just took my kid and ran."

It was clear Faye Collins was filled with resentment and complaints about her daughter’s father. But for her child’s sake, she restrained herself. After a few curses, she clamped her mouth shut and said no more.

After Faye Collins’s explosive revelation, the livestream chat descended into chaos. Although, like Serena Taylor, she was considered an older, somewhat has-been celebrity, her songs were still the soundtrack to a generation’s youth.

Hearing her story, many people felt sorry for both mother and child. But some took the opportunity to stir up trouble, making filthy comments, acting as if a woman who was scammed in body and heart and didn’t obediently marry the man was somehow indecent and had committed a terrible crime.

Arabella saw the suppressed indignation in her eyes and sighed. "You did nothing wrong. If you had swallowed your pride and compromised for the child’s sake, they would have just drained you of all your value, ground down your spirit, and eventually thrown you and your child out with nothing."

"You might have been at fault for misjudging his character and giving your heart to the wrong person, but the choice you made back then was not wrong. Leaving a scumbag early is just cutting your losses. If you had really married into their family, it would have been much harder for you and your child to escape that quagmire."

Faye Collins froze, and her eyes instantly turned red.

She had revealed all this today in front of the cameras and so many people, partly out of self-loathing and a sense of self-abandonment.

Ever since her child was born, everyone around her had blamed her, calling her selfish for leaving her child without a father, without a complete family.

Even her closest relatives treated it as a massive scandal, constantly trying to marry her off as quickly as possible to shut the mouths of all the gossips.

And now, in the end, it was a stranger she had just met who was telling her that her choice wasn’t wrong, that leaving decisively was cutting her losses, and that it was the best choice for both her and her child.

’A child can live without a father, but she absolutely cannot have a father like that.’

"You came to me for a reading on your love life today because your relatives, together with your parents, introduced you to a man for a blind date. After meeting him, you thought he was okay, but you’re still suffering from the trauma of your past relationship, so you can’t bring yourself to decide whether to be with him. At the same time, your parents are pressuring you relentlessly, so you’re in distress."

"Yes, that’s right."

Because she’d had a child out of wedlock, Faye Collins had been subjected to years of verbal abuse and manipulation from her parents. This blind date was also the result of their constant criticism and insults.

After meeting the man, Faye Collins had already given up, thinking that since her life was already like this, she might as well just settle for someone passable and get by.

But perhaps out of concern for her child, a rope in her mind kept pulling her back. Every time she was about to give in, her reason would yank her back to a moment of clarity. This cycle repeated, trapping her in a spiral of indecision and self-loathing from which she couldn’t escape.

"Your wariness is justified. This person is not a good man. For your and your child’s sake, you should cut off contact with him as soon as possible. The longer you drag it out, the worse it will be for you both."

Faye Collins’s expression changed slightly. In a tone of disbelief, she said, "You mean, he’s a... scumbag? But he... but he seems... and his reputation is..."

It wasn’t that Faye Collins had already developed a particular fondness for the man; she was simply stunned that his true nature could be so different from the face he showed the world.

’Seriously? Do bad guys carve the words "bad guy" on their foreheads to blatantly tell everyone, "I’m a villain, stay away from me"? Besides, this blind date of yours is likely more than just a scumbag. He could very well be the type to abuse and even murder his wife.’

Hector Donovan: ’Whoa!’