Chapter 3

A young man wearing a loud, patterned shirt, with a thick gold chain hanging around his neck, sauntered over surrounded by a cluster of bodyguards.

He walked with a lazy swagger, a cigar clamped between his teeth. It was Brett Statham, the Stathams' good-for-nothing heir.

The moment Melanie spotted him, her whole face lit up like she'd found her savior.

She scrambled up off the ground, and before she'd even fully steadied herself, she threw herself at him.

"Brett! You're finally here! The plane… I wrecked your plane."

Brett glanced at the half-submerged jet out in the water, his brow furrowing, and blew out a ring of smoke.

"Are you kidding me? I just got my hands on that thing, and it's at the bottom of the ocean because of you?"

Melanie's sobbing only got louder.

"Brett, I'm sorry. It's my fault; I'm just not very good at flying.

"But it's not completely my fault either. It was Elizabeth. She wouldn't stop pestering me to take her up in the air, and I panicked."

She pointed at me, her eyes full of wounded resentment.

Brett followed her finger and looked me over, his gaze lingering a second too long, a leering little smile spreading across his face.

"Oh? She's the one who talked you into it?"

Jamie stepped forward immediately, putting on a show of shielding Brett's view of me, his tone righteous.

"Brett, Elizabeth just made a bad call in the moment. Sure, Melanie was the one who flew the plane and crashed it, and we own up to that. It's just the cost of the damages. Could you give Elizabeth a little more time?"

Brett laughed and clapped Jamie on the shoulder.

"Kid, you've got guts. But the money…"

He let the sentence trail off, his eyes drifting back to me. He licked his lips.

"My plane's gone, and I'm not happy about it. But Elizabeth isn't bad-looking. If she'll have dinner with me, we can talk this whole thing over."

Dead silence fell over the beach.

Every eye turned to me.

Something like triumph flickered across Melanie's face before she quickly rearranged her expression into worry.

"Brett, that's not really appropriate. Elizabeth has a boyfriend."

Jamie's face twitched. But then his eyes flicked to the wreckage floating in the water, worth tens of millions of dollars, then to the pack of hard-faced bodyguards standing behind Brett. His fists clenched and unclenched, and in the end, he lowered his head and said nothing.

My heart went cold, all the way through.

So this was the man who'd once chased after me and sworn he'd be good to me forever.

Not only was he letting me take the fall, he'd gone completely silent the moment someone suggested I buy my way out with dinner.

Seeing Jamie stay quiet, Brett's smile only grew more shameless, and he strode toward me.

"What, you don't want to?

"Fine by me, then. You and your best friend and your loving boyfriend can all go sit in a jail cell together. That wreck out there is worth enough to put you away for over a decade, don't you think?"

Melanie grabbed frantically at Brett's sleeve.

"Brett, no, please don't call the police! Jamie still has school. Elizabeth, Elizabeth, say something! If you just agree, all of us can get out of this!"

She kept shooting me urgent, pleading looks.

The classmates around us started murmuring again.

"Maybe Elizabeth should just say yes. It would save herself, and it would save Jamie and Melanie too."

"Right, it's just one dinner. It's not like Elizabeth's losing anything."

"Elizabeth, don't be so selfish."

I looked around at every ugly, self-satisfied face in that crowd. I looked at the man I'd once loved, his head bowed in cowardice. I looked at Melanie's performance, pushed past the point of absurdity.

And I started to laugh.

"What's so funny, Elizabeth?"

Jamie finally raised his head, staring at me with obvious disappointment written across his face.

"You can still laugh, after everything? Are you really willing to let Melanie and me go to prison just to protect your reputation? You're being so selfish."

Brett scowled too. "Cute little thing, you're getting mouthy, aren't you?"

I let the smile drop and looked back at them, cold and level.

"I'm laughing because you're all idiots."