Chapter 4

I had assumed Evelyn would swoop in to play the savior while Christian was at his lowest.

Strangely, she vanished completely.

Christian had always been the star of our campus—the brilliant, brooding scholar on a full academic ride.

He and Evelyn had consistently traded the spots for class rank one and two.

She was head over heels for him, and everyone saw them as the campus's golden couple waiting to happen.

Naturally, my twisted, competitive nature had flared up back then.

I had wanted to pluck that untouchable flower from the mountaintop.

I wanted to see that crisp white shirt stained with human desire.

I wanted those aloof, icy eyes to look only at me, to soften with longing, to hear him whisper my name with raw emotion.

So when I lost that game of Truth or Dare, I took full advantage of it.

I had fallen for Christian from the very start; I was just too proud to admit it. In my spoiled, privileged mind, my attention was an honor he should have been groveling for.

I purposely started frequenting the small campus coffee shop where he worked.

Eventually, I pulled strings to get a part-time shift there too.

To my surprise, he recognized me immediately.

I had just batted my lashes and smiled. "What, rich girls aren't allowed to work customer service?"

At first, he gave me the cold shoulder, assuming I was just a bored socialite playing at being a commoner.

Then came the day an arrogant customer threw a drink at him over some petty issue.

I had stepped right in front of him.

Pointing straight at the customer's face, I snapped, "Everything you have is thanks to your daddy's trust fund! If you had started where he started, you wouldn't even be fit to wipe his shoes!"

The customer turned purple with rage, hurling slurs at me: "Drop the act, princess! I can buy a dozen girls like you for pocket change."

I laughed in his face. "A rotten mind only sees trash wherever it looks."

Before the guy could escalate, I grabbed Christian's wrist and dragged him out of the shop.

The manager docked our pay for that stunt.

I thought Christian would be furious with me, but instead, that afternoon changed everything.

"You're not like the other rich kids," he had murmured, looking down at our joined hands.

A flutter of triumph sparked in my chest, and I teased, "Oh yeah? How am I different?"

A dark blush spread across his pale cheeks, reaching the tips of his ears.

He turned and practically fled.

What he didn't know was that while he was falling for me, I had fallen just as hard for him.

Later that winter, during the first snowfall of the season, I confessed to him under the streetlights.

"Christian, I really like you. Be my boyfriend."

He hesitated for so long that I felt humiliated and turned to walk away. Just as I took a step, his arms wrapped around me from behind, locking tight around my waist.

"I will, Amanda. I want to. But... but..."

"I don't have anything. I'm dirt poor right now. Are you going to get tired of me and leave?"

Before I could answer, he rushed out, voice trembling with earnest devotion: "I swear I'll work harder than anyone. I'll make so much money and give it all to you. I'll give you the life you deserve."

Back then, I didn't understand that his hesitation was born of an overwhelming, terrified love.

I had played the part of the devoted lover: "I won't ever leave you, Christian. Never."

"As long as I have you, I don't care about anything else."

That was why my eventual betrayal broke him so completely.

Catching me in that hotel room, hearing those muffled, intimate noises...

It had ripped his soul apart.

He had wept, his voice cracking: "You lied to me the entire time, Amanda. The girl I fell in love with was just an act, wasn't she?"

Irritated and defensive, I had coldly agreed.

Wiping away his tears, he had offered that tragic, hollow smile: "You're not my Amanda. You're just a stranger named Amanda."