“You're about to be famous.”

Something inside me snapped. Every last thread of restraint burned away, and before I could think, I stepped forward and slapped Tamara across the face.

The crack echoed through the dorm room.

A welt rose on Tamara's cheek almost instantly. Her teeth clenched, her expression twisting into something feral.

“You have a death wish, Yvette? My boyfriend could make you disappear from this school with a single phone call.”

I let a slow, calm smile touch my lips.

“Then I'll be watching.”

The moment I walked away, I texted Lambert Mason.

【Freeze Tamara Cooley's supplementary credit card. And stop all future sponsorship payments to her.】

You could pour a lifetime of kindness into an ungrateful person and never tame them. So I'd simply take back what was never hers to begin with.

I ignored them after that and left the dorm alone.

I drew a long breath.

The school ran on my family's funding anyway. Worst case, I'd just get reassigned to a different room.

I called our family's attorney next and sent him the audio I'd recorded in the dorm.

A malicious defamation charge would be more than enough to ruin the rest of Tamara Cooley's life.

I wasn't going to let them take one more thing from me.

I started down the stairs, one step at a time.

My hand drifted to my wrist out of habit, reaching for my jade bracelet. My fingers closed around bare skin.

I stopped dead. My heart stuttered.

That bracelet was the last thing my mother left me before she died.

I must have taken it off in the rush and left it in the room.

Cold sweat beaded along my hairline, and a sick, frantic heat spread through my chest.

I turned and ran back up the stairs, back to the dorm, reaching for the handle.

The door was already locked from the inside.

“Tamara, open the door! I left something in there!”

Muffled, contemptuous laughter seeped through the door.

“Oh, so much for your pride. You lasted what, three minutes? Already crawling back to make nice? You were pretty tough when you hit me. Too late now.”

“Born spineless. No wonder older men love her.”

Then a video call from Tamara lit up my screen.

She was standing on my bed, shoes and all, her eyes glinting like a snake sizing up prey.

“Get on your knees and knock your forehead on the ground a hundred times within five minutes. Then maybe I'll think about letting you in to apologize.”

I didn't hesitate for a second. I hung up.

I went downstairs and found the RA.

When the door was forced open, Tamara let out a shriek.

She was on a voice call with her “boyfriend,” cooing “baby” into the phone between every other word.

I didn't spare her a glance. I just started searching, frantic, tearing through every corner for my bracelet.

A fist closed around my hair from behind and yanked. Before I could brace myself, I was shoved hard and sent sprawling to the floor.

My knees cracked against the concrete, white-hot pain searing up my legs.

I didn't look up. I stayed low, eyes locked on the ground, scanning desperately, every nerve screaming to find what my mother had left me.

I searched the entire room by touch, every surface, every gap. Nothing.

Tamara clicked her tongue, savoring the moment.

“You wouldn't happen to be looking for this, would you?”

I raised my head, stiff, slow.

A deep, luminous green bracelet sat quietly on Tamara's wrist.

I drew a breath and forced my voice level.

“Who told you you could touch my things?”

“A bracelet this nice? Don't tell me that old man of yours bought it for you. Could he even afford it? Probably fake.”

I clenched my jaw and lunged for it.

Tamara jerked her arm up high, dangling my mother's bracelet over the hard floor as if she'd let go any second.

I froze. My eyes burned until the edges of my vision went red.

“Don't you dare!”

Tamara had the bracelet dangling from one finger, swinging it like it meant nothing.

“You're this precious about some cheap bracelet? How many nights did you have to sleep with him to get it?”

“You want it back? Fine. From now on you treat me with respect. And I want you to admit, out loud, that you're being kept by some old man. Then get on your knees and knock your head on the floor a hundred times. Do all that, and it's yours. Sound fair?”

“One kowtow, and I lower it one centimeter.”

Her voice dripped with satisfaction.

The way she looked at me was the way someone looks at a stray dog whose food just got snatched away.

The sheer arrogance of it made me laugh out of pure rage.

I'd been raised in the palm of my father's hand my entire life. I'd never lifted a heavy thing, never gone without, and I had never been humiliated like this.

If I wanted, the whole school could be mine.

Why the hell would I bow my head to the person who fabricated explicit photos of me?

Instead of kneeling, I closed the distance between us, step by step.

I reached for the bracelet, but she saw it coming and kicked me square in the knee.

The same knee she'd already hurt. Pain shot through my leg and my face twisted.

I held back my fury and the urge to strike her, terrified she'd drop the bracelet.

My voice went cold.

“Tamara, are you sure you want to do this? Let me make something clear. My father funds this school. You're one of the scholarship students he sponsors. If I kneel to you today, you won't set foot on this campus tomorrow.”

The room went quiet for two seconds.

Then they burst out laughing.

“Did I hear that right? A whore trying to act tough? If your dad's a school board chairman, then I'm your grandchild.”

“Don't bother with her, Tamara. She probably wants to pawn the bracelet to treat whatever diseases she's carrying.”

Tamara lifted the jade bracelet again. This time she tossed it into the air.

My eyes went red instantly. Veins stood out along my neck.

This was the last thing my mother ever left me. I couldn't watch it shatter.

I clenched my jaw and forced myself to step back.

“I'll apologize. I'm sorry. I'll be respectful from now on. Is that enough?”

She curled her lip, unimpressed.

“Strip. Record a video of yourself naked as a guarantee. Otherwise, how do I know you're sincere?”

My head snapped up. My voice came out raw.

“Don't push it.”

Tamara grabbed both my arms and locked them behind me. She'd grown up doing farmwork, and the strength in her grip was brutal. I couldn't break free.

I couldn't move.

Kate stepped forward and ripped my shirt open, baring a wide stretch of skin.

“You love selling yourself so much, right? Let's film a little promo and drum up some business for you.”

She manhandled me like a ragdoll. Every ounce of strength had drained from my body.

Ice settled behind my eyes.

“If you touch me, my father will destroy you.”

Tamara pulled out my phone, opened the camera, and switched to video. Her thumb hovered over the record button.

One second before she pressed it, the door exploded inward.

“Stop!”

Tears clung to my lashes as I looked up.

My father, who was supposed to be at the office, came charging through the doorway.

One sweep of his arm sent Tamara and Kate sprawling to the floor. He shrugged off his suit jacket and draped it over my shoulders.

“Evie, are you all right? I'm taking you home. Right now.”

He stood back up, walked toward Tamara, and crushed the phone on the floor under his heel.

The color drained from Tamara's face.

“That phone was a limited edition my boyfriend just bought me. Can you even afford to replace it?”

She looked my father up and down, and her face lit up like she'd just cracked a code.

“So you're the old man keeping Yvette as his sugar baby, huh? Playing hero now? Just wait till I tell my boyfriend. He'll make both of you pay!”

My father's gaze drifted down to the name badge pinned to Tamara's chest. His brow furrowed slightly.

“So you're the girl who came out of the mountains. In that case, perhaps it's time you went back.”

His words drew a sharp laugh out of Tamara.

“Cut the act. My boyfriend is the richest man in the city AND the school board chairman. Who do you think you are to expel me?”

And with that, she lifted the jade bracelet high and slammed it against the floor in front of everyone.

It shattered into pieces.

The breath left my lungs. Hatred flooded my chest until there was no room for anything else.

Even my father's eyes flashed with something dangerous.

But Tamara didn't notice. She was too busy gloating.

“Watch me call my boyfriend over here to set you both straight!”

She whipped out her phone and dialed.

Two seconds later.

A ringtone cut through the dorm room.

Tamara's head snapped toward the sound.

A man in a chauffeur's uniform stood behind my father, rigid, not daring to make a sound.

The moment Tamara recognized that face, she froze solid.