Chapter 6 — The Ring

POV: Elena

I hated him. The realization followed me all the way back to my room. Not the childish kind of hate I used to carry after he pulled my pigtails in middle school or laughed when other kids mocked me. Not the bitter resentment of a girl whose first crush turned into her first bully.

This was something deeper, something much uglier. The kind of hatred that settled in your chest and made breathing hurt.

His threats ran through my head; it felt like my heart was sinking into my stomach.

“Fine!”

The word left my mouth before I could stop it. The room went completely still.

Jace blinked. "What?" I hated the tiny flicker of surprise on his face.

As if he'd expected more resistance.

As if he hadn't already cornered me from every possible angle. "You win." My voice sounded dead. "I'll do it." The notebook slowly lowered.

For the first time all night, Jace looked uncertain. Not guilty, not sorry. Just uncertain. " Elena—"

"Don't."

I held up a shaking hand. "Don't pretend this wasn't exactly what you wanted." His mouth closed.

Good.

Because I couldn't stand hearing another lie. A strange emptiness settled over me. The kind that comes after panic. After tears. After anger. When there's simply nothing left.

"Can I go now?" Jace stared at me. For a moment something unreadable crossed his face. Then he stepped aside. The deadbolt clicked open. I reached for the handle.

My bedroom door clicked shut behind me, but it did nothing to stop the trembling that had taken over my body. I leaned against the wood and squeezed my eyes closed, trying to steady my breathing. It didn't work.

Every word from the study replayed inside my head. The scholarship. Blackmail. The threats against my mother. The notebook.

God.

The notebook.

A wave of humiliation crashed over me so hard that I physically winced. What kind of person kept a thirteen-year-old girl's diary for years? What kind of person saved it specifically so he could use it against her later?

Apparently Jace Calloway. The same beautiful monster, Jace Calloway, had spent most of my childhood making me miserable.

I pushed away from the door and crossed the room before collapsing onto my bed. My eyes immediately burned with tears. I hated myself for crying. I hated him for making me cry. Most of all, I hated the fact that he had won. He had won, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it now.

The terrifying thing was that he knew exactly where to strike. If the threats had only been about me, I would have told him to go to hell. Let the university read my embarrassing fantasies. Let them laugh and judge me for all I care.

I could survive humiliation.

What I couldn't survive was watching my mother lose everything again.

For years it had been just the two of us. I remembered overdue bills stacked on the kitchen counter, nights when she skipped dinner and pretended she wasn't hungry, and mornings when she left before sunrise to work extra shifts. I remembered watching her smile through exhaustion because she thought I didn't notice.

Now she finally had stability. She finally had security. A beautiful house. Financial freedom. A husband who seemed determined to give her the life she deserved. All she had ever wanted and dreamed of. The thought of destroying that life made my stomach twist.

I grabbed my pillow and buried my face in it. A frustrated scream escaped before I could stop it. The sound was muffled by the fabric, but the anger behind it was real.

"Asshole," I muttered.

The word felt completely inadequate. A knock sounded on my door. I froze.

For a brief, horrifying moment, I thought it might be Jace. Then my mother's voice floated through the wood. "Elena? Honey, are you awake?" Relief mixed with panic. I quickly wiped my eyes and sat upright. "Yeah." The lie sounded terrible.

The door opened a few inches, and Margot stepped inside. She was still wearing the elegant navy dress she'd worn for the retreat, though her heels were gone and her blonde hair had started falling from its expensive updo.

Her expression softened immediately. "You were crying." Of course she noticed. My mother noticed everything. I looked away, trying to wipe out the tear that dropped from my eyes.

"I'm fine."

“You're back so soon?” “How was the trip to Aspen?” She gave me the exact look mothers reserve for lies they have no intention of believing. "Elena." "I'm serious." Another lie.

Margot walked further into the room and sat beside me on the bed. "The party ended badly downstairs." My heart immediately started pounding. "Did it?" She sighed.

"Richard and Jace had another argument. "That wasn't surprising. The two of them fought almost as often as they breathed. "What happened?"

“We got a call, which sounded very important, so we had to fly back as soon as possible." "Something about Camille." I kept my face carefully neutral. My mother continued talking. "Apparently she caused a scene before she left." A scene. That was one way to describe threatening to destroy someone's future.

The guilt settled heavier in my stomach. If my mother knew what had happened upstairs after the party ended, she would lose her mind. At least I hoped she would.

A terrible thought suddenly crept into my head. Would she? Or would she tell me to help him?Would she ask me to protect the family that had given her everything?

I hated myself for even wondering. Margot reached over and brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. "You know you can tell me if something's wrong, right?"

The question almost broke me. For one dangerous second, I considered it. Telling her everything. The threats. The diary. The fake engagement. All of it. The words rose to the back of my throat.

Then I imagined Richard finding out. I imagined another argument. Another divorce. Another financial collapse. And just like that, the courage disappeared.

"I'm just tired."

The disappointment in my mother's eyes nearly made me confess anyway. Instead, she leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Get some sleep." I nodded.

She stood and headed toward the door. "Goodnight, sweetheart." "Goodnight." The room became silent again after she left. I stared at the closed door for several seconds. Then I slowly looked toward my desk. My phone sat beside my laptop.

One notification glowed across the screen.

Unknown Number. A chill ran through me.

I already knew who it was before I opened the message.

Tomorrow. 10 A.M. Dress nice. We're buying your ring. 

— Jace

I stared at the text. Then at the ceiling. Then back at the phone. The reality of what I had agreed to finally settled over me. By this time tomorrow, I will be wearing a diamond ring. And everyone at Halden University would believe I belonged to Jace Calloway.