Chapter 3

The drive home in the rain was spent with me fighting back the tears threatening to spill. At times, I had to pull over to take a deep breath and stop myself from falling apart before I made it safely home. Home. This mansion I lived in was not home, but a prison, a stage created by Sheryl, Liam, and their friends for their own entertainment.

I met Sheryl in college as my roommate and learned through her drunken ramblings when she thought I was asleep that she loved playing twisted pranks that ruined people’s lives. I listened in as she reminisced about a prank she pulled on her “friend” in high school. The girl was a scholarship kid like me, planning to get into a good college or university and make something of her life. From what Sheryl said, this girl fell for the silver-spoon friend Sheryl set this girl up with.

Sher fell for the rich kid chasing her. For the flowers, luxury goods, and expensive dates, thinking she had met her prince charming. But she never gave up studying or her plans to get into a good school.

Then, right before exams that would determine her future, Sheryl had her friend break up with the girl. The girl was devastated, her heart broken to the point of panic attacks. In the end, she failed all her exams, and the colleges and universities she applied to rejected her applications. Between the break-up and the rejection letters, the girl fell into a dark depression and tried to take her own life, jumping off the school building. In the end, she fell into a coma.

Sheryl was dumb enough to have posted the whole ordeal online, and the family sued both her and her friend. The legal battle didn’t go far as the two rich families easily agreed to a settlement. Sheryl and her friend happily went off to college while their family played damage control, paying for the girl’s medical bills every year while her family lived off the money that was gained in the settlement.

This is where I met Sheryl. I was the scholarship roommate who still had to work three jobs to afford basic necessities that were not covered by my scholarships. At first, Sheryl ignored me. Pretended I wasn’t there.

Then I came home late one day after work, exhausted and expecting to just fall into bed and sleep, knowing that the next day was my day off with no classes and no work. To my surprise, Sheryl was still up, actually studying and for once, sober. That is where our so-called friendship started. I told her about my struggles. How I ended up in foster care because my father was a gambling addict who killed my mother and himself in a murder suicide. It was the first time in years that I opened up to another person about my life.

She listened, seemed genuinely concerned, but years in foster care told me that there was something inside her gaze that told me she was scheming. I figured then that if she wanted to make me her charity case, then I would accept it. I accepted her help when she offered, thanked her for the expensive gifts and money she threw my way. Fawned over her when she was seeking attention.

And then she introduced me to Liam.

I had a feeling that she was about to do what she did to that girl in high school. So I played along. Liam Knightsbridge was the idol on campus, the heir to the Knight Corporation, a business specializing in security, be it in person at major events, or cybersecurity protecting multi-million-dollar companies. He was top of his class with charisma that made me believe that if this were a Dungeons and Dragons game, his dice was always rolling a nat-twenty.

I went along with their plan, pretending to be the love-stricken college girl. He showered me with gifts, gave me money without me needing to ask for it. We held hands, cuddled, and went on dates like any normal couple would do. But I saw the disgust and disdain in his eyes for me. Saw the way he pulled back when I tried to hug him and kiss him with my own initiation.

Sheryl had bragged about her script many times when she was drunk, thinking I was deep asleep, but I was a light sleeper. Years of my father coming home drunk and angry made it so that any loud noise woke me up in case I needed to hide for my own safety.

The plan was that Liam would make me fall in love with him, would continue to have him shower me with gifts and money, then just before a major exam, she would have him break up with me and enjoy the fallout.

So I used her plan against her.

Every bit of cash he transferred to my bank account, I saved. Every expensive gift, I picked my favourite of the pieces and sold the rest, adding the money into my bank and watching my nest egg grow. The more money I saved, the safer I felt. After what my father did, the sleepless nights from hunger and the arguments between my parents because of my father’s gambling addiction, I knew that saving money was the best thing I could do. Hell, I even started investing my money into other companies and stocks, watching them grow further. I kept my plans close to my chest, only telling one person, Mira – my foster sister and best friend.

She and I laughed at these idiots over coffee and through study dates. She thought that using the elites was a smart idea, considering they were using me for their own entertainment. Then something unexpected happened.

The cheque for my scholarship was late due to a clerical error on the college’s end. I only had a five-day deadline till the money had to be paid for my last semester, and if I did not pay it by then, I would be kicked out of school. I did not want to dip into my savings. I talked to Mira, and she told me to ask Liam. To play the player and get what I needed to graduate. So I did.

It was the first time I asked for such an expensive gift from Liam, and I watched as his eyes lit up with glee. I knew that the time to strike and end the game Sheryl had planned was near.

Liam happily paid for my last semester’s tuition, telling me my future was important to him and that he loved me with all his heart. That was the first time I almost believed his words. School went on as usual. I attended classes, went out with Liam, Sheryl, and their friends when I wasn’t working or studying for tests.

Then my first exams came up, and Liam dropped the ball.

He broke up with me, stating his love for me had faded and that he needed to move on and find a kept woman. He realized that having a career-driven girlfriend would hurt his reputation in the circle of elites. Sheryl was there, quietly watching with mock concern.

I had practiced this moment with Mira, thought about the things I went through as a child, from my mother’s murder to the years in foster care. The tears came easily, and I cried like my heart was being torn out and begged Liam for another chance. He shook off my hand when I gently grabbed his sweater and scoffed at me, turning on his heels and walking away.

When I was left alone in the college courtyard, I wiped my tears away and made my way to Mira’s dorm, telling her what happened and happily devouring the pizza we ordered on Laim’s dime. Luckily for me, I had all my important work saved on my laptop and kept anything that meant something to me hidden with Mira in her closet. I texted Sheryl, telling her I was staying with Mira since I knew she was close to Liam didn’t want to make things awkward between us with my crying. She called right away and, after pretending to be heartbroken on the call, Sheryl wished me luck on my exam tomorrow and hung up.

I guess she didn’t expect me to go to my exam the next day or the next one after that, and the next after that. She didn’t expect me to be top of our class, or that I was putting on a smile when people asked how I was doing, as the news of Liam and my break-up went around campus. After hiding at Mira’s dorm for a week, I went back to the one I shared with Sheryl, pretending to be sad around her, but still followed my routine of attending classes, studying, and work. Then she came home drunk one night, talking loudly on the phone, stating how the game was boring and she expected a poor little nobody like me to have tried and swallow a bunch of pills by now.

Instead, I had a nice nest egg and investment portfolio thanks to Sheryl and Liam’s little game. I cut my workload from working three full-time jobs to working one full-time and another part-time. I gained weight, filled out in all the right places, and could afford small luxuries like better shampoo and better makeup.

That’s when the harassment amped up.

I found nails in my shoes every morning. My pillow would be soaked in water when I would come back to the dorms after a long day at work, wanting nothing more than to pass out. My clothes began to show up with stains or smell like alcohol and making it hard for me to attend classes. It got to the point that I set up a hidden camera and filmed Sheryl doing these things to me.

 With this evidence, I went to the student housing council and stated my fear of being injured by Sheryl. Told them that I knew her family would sweep everything under the rug as “Harmless Pranks,” so instead, I wanted to have a new room for the rest of the year, or I would sue the college. By the next week, I was in a solo room with zero distractions, and Sheryl was unable to learn where I had moved to, or the school would face backlash with a lawsuit.

A month into living on my own, Liam approached me, looking tired and sullen. He asked if we could talk, to work things out, and I agreed, already pressing the record button on my phone to record our conversation. Surprisingly, Liam admitted to the plan Sheryl made. How he went along with her plan to make me fall for him and then break up with me for their own entertainment, just to see what my reaction would be. He never expected that two months after our break-up that he would be missing me. He never thought I would handle everything with grace, even though I looked so sad while doing it.

In the end, he asked me to forgive him and give him a real chance. A chance I gave him. I became his kept woman, I graduated top of my class with dual majors of a master’s in business and A bachelor's in creative arts.

Now, three years later, I have learned all of his love. All of his plans for our “future” was just another prank created by Sheryl for their own amusement. The worst part is, I was finally falling in love with Liam… but what if the person I was really in love with was his twin brother Dominic?