Chapter 4

“No wonder she’s always bullying Arielle. She’s even making a scene over the exam venue assignments. She’s obviously jealous that Dylan and Arielle have gotten so close.”

“She just can’t stand seeing them together. Otherwise, why would she keep targeting Arielle?”

“But this is the most important time of our senior year! Even if the Lane family has money, she can’t screw around with the future of our entire class!”

Every word reached my ears, leaving a knot in my chest. To them, everything was my fault. However, if I kept arguing, I could end up ruining my own future too.

Hence, I said nothing more and turned to flag down a cab.

I had barely taken a step when Arielle cried out behind me.

“Tessa, don’t go! My parents taught me that you should never owe anyone anything! I’ve already lost everything. All I can do is give you my old phone to make up for yours!”

Then, right behind me, she smashed her own phone onto the ground.

I turned around and saw Arielle crouched on the pavement, staring at the shattered phone as she sobbed so hard she could barely catch her breath.

The students who had already boarded the buses all rushed back out.

“Arielle, stop crying. You have an exam in a little while. You’re going to mess up your concentration!”

“Tessa, look what you’ve driven her to!”

“Are you happy now?!”

Dylan pushed his way through the crowd. His face was red with rage, and the veins in his temples bulged as he stared daggers at me. “Tessa, I’ll remember what you did to Arielle today for the rest of my life.”

I remained silent and simply looked at him calmly. He pulled out his phone and called his father right in front of me.

“Dad, I’d like to call off my engagement to Tessa. She doesn’t deserve to marry into the Lowe family. And I want us to cut off every business deal with the Lowes and the Lanes. I don’t want anything to do with them anymore!”

His father’s furious voice immediately came through the phone. “Have you lost your mind?! What the hell are you talking about?”

“Dad, I’m not crazy. I won’t take the college entrance exam if you don’t agree.”

There was a long silence on the other end. A few seconds later, his father finally gave in.

Dylan hung up and looked at me coldly.

The students around us fell silent. Someone muttered under their breath, “Tessa really went too far. If the two families cut off their business ties, she could drag the entire Lane family down with her.”

“She brought it on herself. She had it coming after the way she treated Arielle.”

One of the girls stepped forward. “Tessa, you made Arielle upset. From now on, no one in this class is going to help you.”

“Yeah. Whatever happens to you from now on has nothing to do with us.”

They were all outraged, acting like I had committed some unforgivable crime.

Every single one of them had conveniently forgotten that this whole thing started because Arielle got my exam venue wrong.

I turned to Dylan and asked, “Are you sure?”

He clenched his jaw and answered without a second thought, “Absolutely!”

Then I turned to look at the classmates I had spent the last three years with. “Are you all sure, too?”

“Of course!”

“Stop wasting our time! You’ve already held up the entire class. If we screw up our exams because of you, we’ll never forgive you!”

I nodded.

“Okay.”

I turned around and flagged down a cab by the side of the road. As I got into the car, I could still hear Arielle’s broken sobs and my classmates crowding around her with words of comfort.

Dylan’s voice was the gentlest of them all. “Don’t worry. I’ll take you shopping for a new phone tonight after the exam.”

I closed the door and said to the driver, “Please get me to Eastside No. 1 High School as fast as you can!”

The driver knew it was college entrance exam today. He floored the accelerator, running several red lights along the way. When we finally arrived, he would not even take my fare.

I sprinted into the school and spotted my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Zane, downstairs, frantically making a phone call. She was stomping her feet in panic.

“What?! Both buses went to the west side? Who told you to go there?! The entire class is supposed to take their exam at Eastside No.1 High School! Turn those buses around and get back here now!”

I did not have time to stop and explain. I held my breath and sprinted into the exam hall with barely a minute to spare. The door slammed shut behind me.