Chapter 3

3: 3

Steve stared at me, stunned, and just as he opened his mouth to say something, my shuttle bus turned a corner.

So he decided he must have been seeing things, and called to feel me out.

"Where are you? Did you get a train ticket?"

I let out a cold laugh. Instead of telling him I'd already boarded, I asked, "Steve, did it ever cross your mind to worry about what I'd do if I couldn't get a ticket?"

"Tickets back to school over summer break are the hardest to grab. Especially same-day ones."

He froze for a second on his end, then let out a breath. "If you can't get a seat, buy a standing-room ticket. As long as you actually want to come, there's always a way."

"And you're saying this on purpose, aren't you? Trying to make me feel guilty. That's a nasty little mind you've got there."

Something in me went dead. With someone this biased, nothing I said would ever matter.

"Steve, we're done. Don't contact me again."

He blanked for a moment, then laughed coldly. "Pamela, you're really not going to let this go, are you? Even if you threaten me with a breakup now, it won't get you a ticket. We've already boarded."

"I was hard enough for you to chase and win. I know how good you are to me. There's no way you'd actually break up with me."

"Or did you forget what you did last winter break, when I lost a game of truth or dare and called you to break up?"

My body stiffened, and my eyes slowly went hot.

"So don't try to fool me with such a childish trick. I won't buy it."

Just then Judy's coy voice drifted over from his end. "Steve, it's my first time on a plane, I don't know how to do the seatbelt. Can you help me?"

Steve hung up in a hurry.

The hand holding my phone wouldn't stop trembling.

Last winter break I'd been burning with fever when I got Steve's breakup message, and then I dragged myself out, sick as I was, searching everywhere for him.

I finally found him at a scenic resort, where he was taking photos of the snow with Judy.

When he saw me he startled, then explained it away, breezy as anything, saying he'd only sent the message because he lost a game of dare, and afterward, when the game ended, he'd forgotten to explain.

I was so distraught I fainted on the spot.

When I came to, I clung to him and sobbed. "Steve, please, no matter what happens, never say the word breakup to me again. I'll die without you."

So he felt untouchable, certain I could never leave him no matter what. That was why he could trample all over how I felt.

Maybe it was because of that day that his attitude toward me kept getting worse over the past year, which slowly cleared the lovesickness out of my head. And today's stunt finished the job, letting me see exactly what he was.

Drawing a hard line between us for good.

I took out my phone and opened the shared-payment account, the one I'd set up when we started dating. But over the past year his charges had grown bigger and bigger, almost all of it women's products.

And I'd seen every one of those things on Judy.

I'd confronted him about it, and he explained that Judy's family was poor, that he only looked out for her a little because he felt sorry for her, that what he felt for her was just brotherly. And I'd believed him.

Now it just seemed laughable.

I pulled up his charges. In the past year alone he'd spent sixty thousand of my money buying Judy gifts. I screenshotted and saved every one, then unlinked the shared-payment account, all in one smooth motion.

Done with that, I closed my eyes to rest.

But a familiar voice came from beside me. "Pamela, mind if I grab a seat?"

My eyes went wide with shock. It was my adoptive brother, Hugh Barnes.

He handed his luggage off to the crew without a fuss, his expression cool. "Might as well head back to school together."

Because all I wanted was an ordinary college life, I'd kept my identity hidden, passing myself off as a girl from a comfortable but ordinary family.

Hugh, on the other hand, had a sharp head for business from a young age, and my father had always kept him close to groom him, so his position as the Barnes heir was public knowledge.

So everyone knew the Barnes family had an adopted son and heir. No one knew there was also a true heiress.

Right then, Steve's call came through.

"Pamela, you're disgusting. I never imagined you were this kind of vain, money-grubbing woman. Your so-called private jet is just you sponging off the young Mr. Barnes, offering him some very special services."