Chapter 2

"Stay away from this woman who only knows how to make empty promises. We'll talk about the rest in private."

After saying that, I turned and walked away. I had no interest in arguing with Isabelle.

She stood there stomping her feet in anger, staring at my back as she yelled. "Adrian, just wait and see! I won't let a rich kid like you get away with this!"

Adrian held his battered old phone so tightly that his fingertips turned white.

His heart raced as he stared at the plain black profile picture in his WhatsApp contacts.

He couldn't stop wondering what I really wanted.

Was I really jealous, like Isabelle claimed, and planning to use my money to force him to drop out?

The next day, an anonymous post went viral on the school forum.

The title immediately caught everyone's attention. "My Rich Boyfriend Is Jealous and Targeting an Innocent Poor Student. How Can I Protect Him?" It wrote. "I only noticed that my junior was struggling, so I kindly comforted him. But then my arrogant rich boyfriend got jealous and embarrassed us in front of everyone. He even threatened to use his money to make my junior drop out and drive him out of town. I'm honestly heartbroken. Does being rich mean you can trample on someone else's dignity?"

I already attracted plenty of attention around campus because I drove supercars and wore expensive designer clothes. I had a flashy reputation, so people were always talking about me.

Once everyone read the post, they knew it was about me. They blindly believed Isabelle's story.

The whole school quickly took Isabelle and Adrian's side.

Whether she was in the cafeteria or the class group chat, Isabelle kept playing the victim.

"Damian just cares about me too much, so he gets jealous and possessive. But he shouldn't take his anger out on Adrian."

Every time she saw someone, she put on a heartbroken look and complained about me. Her acting was almost too convincing.

Because of her, people started talking about Adrian whenever he walked across campus.

"Look, that's the poor student who got bullied into dropping out."

"He's so unlucky. How did he end up crossing a rich kid like Damian?" Isabelle took the chance to play the hero. She stayed by Adrian's side every day, pretending to worry about him. A few times, she even tried to grab his arm.

"Adrian, don't be scared. I won't let Damian hurt you. I'll protect you." Around noon, I had just sat down at the campus café when Isabelle stormed in and slammed her hand on my table.

The sudden movement knocked over some of my iced coffee. It splashed all over my brand new designer suit.

"Damian, stop this already!" She glared at me, her eyes full of self-righteous disappointment.

"I know you love me. So it's normal for you to get jealous when you see me with another guy. But can't you be reasonable? What you're doing now is no different from being crazy."

She lowered her voice, like she was doing me some huge favor.

"All you have to do is apologize to Adrian and give me some money to help him. Then I'll forgive you."

I stared at the coffee stains on my suit. My eyes turned completely cold. Without hesitation, I picked up the half-full iced coffee left on the table and poured it onto the floor right in front of her feet.

"Oh!" Isabelle screamed and jumped back.

"Are you awake now?" I picked up a napkin and slowly wiped my fingertips where I had touched her earlier. "Your imagination is unbelievable. You really think this version of you could make me jealous? You wrote that post on the forum, didn't you? Stay away from me."

I couldn't be bothered to look at her ridiculous expression anymore. I grabbed my bag and walked away.

I never planned to explain myself on the forum. Trying to prove myself to someone this stupid would only waste my time.

That evening, I went straight to the old library on campus.