Chapter 1

Tracey Cox loves fairness more than anything.

So every time she took up with a new guy, she'd make a point of sending a college girl my way too.

The first time, I was so furious I smashed everything in the house to pieces.

Tracey didn't stop me.

She stood by the door, watching coldly, and only went back to her room once I'd collapsed on the floor, worn out.

She left me alone to face the wreckage all over the ground.

Then came the second time, the third time... countless times.

I went from breaking down to going numb, until at last I could calmly tell those women who tried to cling to me for a shortcut that I'm not like Tracey.

I wouldn't dirty myself just to get revenge on the person I loved.

Until she brought home a different kind of boy.

The new kid was gentle and well-behaved, hiding behind Tracey and looking at me timidly.

Tracey said with a teasing lilt, "Paddy just got out of the hospital. He'll be recuperating here, so take good care of him."

"Of course, I've already got your payment ready. This year's campus belle and valedictorian from Capital University—she's more than enough for you."

I nodded indifferently, pulled out the debit card I'd prepared in advance, and got ready to send the girl off the way I always did.

Until I looked up, and froze on the spot.

Because the woman standing in front of me was the one I'd loved in secret for ten years, my white moonlight—Priscilla Cooley.

01

In an instant, my heart hammered like a drum.

Time seemed to have frozen on Priscilla Cooley's face.

She looked exactly the way she had six years ago when we parted, not changed at all, if anything even more fresh-faced.

I wanted to ask her why she was here.

I wanted to ask her why she'd transformed herself into this year's campus belle and valedictorian at Capital University.

But the words reached my lips and I couldn't get a single one out.

All I could hear was my own heartbeat, pounding louder and louder.

It was the first time Tracey had seen me lose my composure. Her pretty, almond eyes narrowed slightly, moved between my face and Priscilla's, and then she let out a sudden sneer. "Allan Dudley, I never took you for someone with a taste like this."

In Tracey's eyes, Priscilla looked astonishingly shabby.

A wrinkled plaid shirt on top, jeans washed pale, plus a pair of old canvas sneakers gone yellow, hair hanging loose and messy, her eyes dark and deep—the whole of her gloomy and downcast.

Tracey couldn't understand why I'd be staring, stunned, at someone like that.

She lifted her chin at Priscilla and gave a lofty order. "Go on, do a good job pleasing your sugar daddy."

Priscilla didn't move.

She pressed her lips together and clenched her fists, as if she'd been dealt some terrible humiliation.

Watching her, I felt a little disoriented.

Priscilla had a terrible temper. Anyone who crossed her, she'd pay them back right then and there—she'd never swallow it like this.

Could it be that the person in front of me wasn't Priscilla?

But could there really be two people in the world who looked exactly alike?

While I stood there confused, Tracey ran out of patience.

She folded her arms, walked around behind Priscilla, and kicked her in the small of the back.

The kick sent Priscilla stumbling, and she nearly fell.

On instinct I rushed over and caught her.

Priscilla fell right into my arms, burying her face against my shoulder, her whole body trembling and unable to stop.

This, I thought, definitely wasn't Priscilla.

Priscilla was proud and strong. She'd never once been this fragile.

The wild excitement in my heart cooled, and I took the card out again and held it out to her.

Before the woman in front of me could say a word, Tracey laughed first, mocking.

"Allan Dudley, what's the point of playing the innocent for so long? Back when you were doing everything you could to crawl into my bed, weren't you wilder than anyone?"

I was long used to Tracey's vicious tongue, so I didn't even glance at her. I calmly said to this person who looked so much like Priscilla, "There's five hundred thousand in here. Take it and go."

The woman across from me trembled her lashes, reached out with long, sharp-knuckled fingers, and rested them lightly on the card.

My pupils suddenly shrank!