I drew a deep breath, forcing down the bitterness rising in my throat.

My hands trembled as I made the drinks.

Karen's saccharine voice carried over from the other side of the counter.

"Drew, after graduation, let's travel the world together."

Drew's reply was soft, indulgent. "Sure. Whatever you want."

Karen shot me a guarded glance, then burrowed deeper into his arms.

"Promise me. Promise I'm the only one in your eyes and in your heart."

Drew stiffened. His gaze flicked to me, guilt flickering across his face.

"I promise. I belong to you. Only you. For the rest of my life."

He'd lowered his voice on purpose, but every syllable drilled straight into my ears.

A sharp pain lanced through my chest. I could barely breathe.

I didn't know how long it took. I finished all twenty new drinks on autopilot, moving like a machine. By the end, my hands were shaking from exhaustion.

Karen glared at me with a triumphant little smile.

"All these? I can't possibly drink them all."

"Drew, you're so mean! You're trying to fatten me up like a little piglet."

Then she swept her arm out and "accidentally" knocked an entire row of cups off the counter.

The floor became a mess of ice, milk, and shattered cups.

Karen giggled, looped her arm through Drew's, and sauntered toward the door.

I stood behind the sticky counter, staring down at the wreckage.

That was when I noticed the writing on a napkin.

"I'll explain tonight when I get home. —Love, Drew"

Disgusting.

Three years of devotion. Three years of waiting.

Shattered into nothing by a few scribbled words.

I swept the napkin into the trash. The second it hit the bottom, a familiar, weathered voice drifted in from the doorway.

"Ina! Ina, sweetheart!"

My nose stung. Tears nearly spilled over.

Grandma Pauline Fox shuffled in, a lunch container clutched in her gnarled hands.

I blinked hard, swallowing the tears, and started toward her.

Then she slipped.

Her foot hit the puddle of spilled milk tea and went out from under her. She crashed to the floor. The lunch container shattered, and a few drops of soup splashed onto Karen's coat.

"What the hell!" Karen shrieked. "You disgusting old hag! Are you blind?!"

She grabbed Grandma by the collar and shoved her, hard.

Grandma was already shaking from the fall, pain written across every line of her face. The shove sent her crumpling to her knees.

"I'm sorry, miss, I'm so sorry." Grandma's voice quavered, her eyes wide with fear. "I didn't mean to. The floor was slippery..."

"'Didn't mean to' doesn't cut it!" Karen screamed. "This coat was a gift from Drew! It's designer! Thousands of dollars! Can you even afford to pay for it?"

Then she lifted her foot and kicked my grandmother.

"Grandma!"

I lunged forward and shoved Karen away.

Something clicked behind her eyes. A vicious smile curled across her lips.

"Oh. So she's your grandmother."

"Like grandmother, like granddaughter. The old one has no shame, and the young one is a homewrecker."

She spun around toward Drew, who hadn't yet left, and threw herself into a tearful performance.

"Drew, they're ganging up on me!"

Drew walked over with a frown. He didn't spare a single glance at the old woman on the floor.

His eyes were cold when they found me.

"Ina, I never thought you'd be the type to cause a scene like this."

"Haven't you embarrassed yourself enough? Pay for the coat. Apologize."

"Be reasonable. Don't make this harder than it has to be."

Grandma heard the word homewrecker. Tears pooled instantly in her clouded eyes.

She had lived her whole life by one principle: dignity above all else.

"Ina... did you really... Are you really the other woman? Stealing someone else's man?"

"Grandma, I didn't! I'm not!"

I held back my tears and stared at Drew, stubborn, desperate, waiting for him to set the record straight. Three years. Three years together.

All he gave me was silence and a flicker of guilt in his eyes.

A long silence.

"Karen is my only girlfriend."

Slap!

A sharp crack rang through the air. It was Grandma, her palm striking my face.

She was trembling with rage, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"What did I teach you growing up? To live with dignity and honor!"

"How could you try to break up someone else's relationship? Apologize to this young lady right now! And pay for her clothes!"

"Grandma, it's really not what you think..."

I pressed my hand to my burning cheek, my heart shattering into pieces.

"Shut your mouth! If you won't apologize, you're no granddaughter of mine!"

Grandma's voice thundered through the room, but mid-sentence she clutched her chest, her face draining of all color.

"Grandma!"

I screamed, lunging forward to catch her.

Her body went limp, sliding toward the floor. She'd lost consciousness.

Karen let out a cold, contemptuous scoff.

"Oh, please. She doesn't want to pay up, so now she's faking a faint? I've seen this little sympathy act a thousand times."

She grabbed Drew's arm and started pulling him toward the door.

"Drew! Drew, please!"

I spun around and seized his sleeve, tears pouring down my face.

I abandoned every last shred of pride, my voice cracking with desperation.

"She needs to get to a hospital. Please. It'll only take a few minutes."

Drew frowned, and for a split second it looked like he might agree.

Then he glanced at Karen's sour expression, and the coldness slid back into his voice.

"Karen's movie is about to start. I don't have time."

He wrapped his arm around Karen's waist and walked out without looking back.

Sunlight blazed through the open door, but I felt nothing. Only ice, filling me from the inside out.

A few kind strangers helped me carry Grandma to the hospital.

The doctor said it was a sudden cardiac arrest. She needed surgery immediately.

I leaned against the cold hospital wall, panic and fear clawing at my chest.

That was when my phone buzzed.

Drew's name lit up the screen.

I hesitated for a few seconds before pressing accept.

I didn't even know what I was hoping for.

That he felt guilty? That he regretted it?

That he'd say he hadn't been thinking straight back there?

The call connected. No explanation. No apology. Just irritation.

"I heard about your grandma. Look, don't blow this out of proportion."

"Karen's young. Her family spoiled her. She's a little blunt, but she didn't mean anything by it."

"Stop making something out of nothing. Cut the kid some slack. If you've got a problem, take it up with me."

"Karen's clothes got ruined, and you scared her. She's in a terrible mood right now."

"Just apologize to her. If you two can get along like sisters going forward, she won't hold any of this against you."

I listened to him rattle off his accusations as if he were the righteous one, and it was like a bolt of lightning had struck me where I stood. Every muscle in my body locked.

Cut the kid some slack? Won't hold it against me?

Grandma was lying in the emergency room, her life hanging by a thread, and he wanted me to apologize to the person who'd put her there?

Memories flooded back like a rising tide.

Sophomore year. I'd spiked a fever of 103. Drew had carried me on his back, running nearly two miles to the hospital. He'd sat by my bed all night, wiping the sweat from my forehead, holding water to my lips.

His eyes had been red-rimmed when he whispered, "Ina, if anything ever happened to you, I wouldn't want to live either."

Junior year. My internship supervisor had made my life hell, and I'd broken down sobbing. Drew had shown up outside my office building, pulled me into his arms, and said, "Anyone who messes with my girl answers to me."

Back then, he'd been tender. Devoted. He'd held me in his palms like I was something precious that might dissolve at his touch.

He'd told me I was his whole world. The only person he'd ever love.

And now, for another woman, he could trample over my dignity and my grandmother's, tossing out a casual cut her some slack like it cost him nothing.

"Drew."

I drew a long, slow breath. When I spoke, my voice was cold enough to freeze.

"You want me to apologize to the person who hurt her?"

A beat of silence on the other end of the line, then his voice returned, sharper with impatience.

"Ina, can you stop being so unreasonable? Why can't you be more like Karen — just a little more considerate?"

"Do you really have to make a scene until everyone's embarrassed before you're satisfied?"

"I will never let you bully her just because you think my affection gives you the right. I stand up for the underdog."

The line went dead.

I listened to the flat drone of the dial tone and laughed at myself.

Suddenly, everything felt pointless.

Before I could even collect my thoughts, my phone rang again. Maya Collins.

"Ina! You're being torn apart online!"

Maya's voice was frantic.

My stomach dropped. I opened my phone with trembling fingers.

The pinned post at the top of the feed read:

SHOCKING! Part-time college girl tries to seduce upperclassman — when rejected, sends grandma to fake an injury for a payout!

The video had obviously been carefully edited.

The only footage shown was Grandma falling and spilling something on Karen's clothes.

And Drew standing there, cold-faced, confronting me.

The captions were vicious beyond measure:

Ina Fox — shameless homewrecker.

Scamming old hag, faking injuries for cash.

The comments section had erupted.

"God, she always seemed so quiet. Turns out she's total trash."

"Poor people have zero class. They'll do anything for money."

"Stand with Karen! This homewrecker needs to be expelled!"

Every single comment was a knife, driven straight into my chest.

I was drained — body and soul. My fingers were ice-cold, barely able to hold the phone.

It buzzed again. A text this time.

From Drew.

"Go live right now. Look into the camera and admit that what happened today was your grandmother running an insurance scam. Admit that you're the other woman who tried to come between me and Karen."

"As long as you confess on the livestream and Karen calms down, this whole thing goes away."

He sounded so sure of himself.

"It's just a few words. I love you. I don't care about your reputation."

"You and Karen are both the people I love most. Don't worry about what outsiders think."

I stared at the words on the screen, and a laugh tore out of me — raw and desperate.

He wanted me to go live and confess?

He wanted me to take the filth they'd smeared on me and swallow it whole?

It wasn't enough to destroy my love. He wanted to destroy my life. My grandmother's dignity.

I lifted my head and stared at the red light glowing above the emergency room doors.

The despair in my eyes slowly froze over into something cold. Something resolute.

If you won't leave me any way out, then none of you get one either.

I wiped my tears, and my fingers flew across the screen. I sent Drew one reply.

"Fine. I'll go live."

"But my apology probably won't be what you're expecting."

The moment I went online, the viewer count exploded.

The comments were a wall of rage and insults, scrolling so fast they blurred together.

"Homewrecker, get out of our school!"

"Scum like you don't deserve college! Expel her!"

"Drag the old hag out to apologize! Hicks only know how to con people for money!"

I watched the words fly past. My face showed nothing.

I calmly adjusted the camera until it framed the swollen red handprint on my cheek.

"Hi, everyone. I'm Ina Fox."

My voice was hoarse, but every word carried.

"I'm going live today to apologize."

The comments detonated:

"Oh, so NOW she knows she's wrong? Pathetic. More like she knows she's scared."

"Good. A homewrecker deserves a public execution."

I drew a long breath. The softness left my eyes, replaced by something razor-sharp.

"I'm sorry — for being so blind and so foolish that I let myself suffer like this."

"I'm sorry — for being so powerless that my grandmother ended up in that emergency room."