Chapter 2

Early the next morning, Noah rang my doorbell.

When I opened the door, I realized Isabella had come with him.

Before I even had the chance to refuse, Noah had already walked inside as naturally as he had countless times over the years.

He held something out and pushed it into my hands.

“Here. This is Isabella’s favorite cake. She was nice enough to bring you some to try, so don’t turn her down.”

I had no choice but to take the small box. When I looked down, I saw that the cake had been cut into uneven pieces, with frosting smeared everywhere and all kinds of nuts mixed inside. I couldn’t even tell how long it had been sitting around.

I said calmly, “I’m allergic to nuts. You forgot.”

Noah’s expression stiffened. He stood there in awkward silence, looking as though he wanted to say something several times but couldn’t find the words.

Isabella was the one who spoke first. Covering her mouth, she exclaimed, “Oh my God, Claire, I really didn’t know. I didn’t do it on purpose. I just wanted to share my favorite cake with you.”

The moment Noah saw her reaction, he pulled her behind him as if he were afraid I might say something harsh to her.

He frowned at me. “Enough. You’re scaring her. Isabella didn’t know you had a problem with nuts. Don’t blame her.”

I said nothing more and simply turned around and dropped the cake into the trash.

Ever since Isabella had appeared, scenes like this had happened more times than I could count. Somehow, she was always the innocent one, while I was made to look like the villain.

As for Noah, he would defend her in front of me and then privately try to smooth things over afterward. “Claire, don’t be mad. I just want you and Isabella to get along.”

Sure enough, I heard him speak again behind me.

“Isabella and I... we applied to the same school. We’ll all be seeing a lot of each other from now on, so don’t get upset over something this small.”

His tone sounded casual, but every so often, his eyes flicked toward me. Only after seeing that my expression hadn’t changed did he seem to relax.

After that, he went into the kitchen, leaving Isabella and me alone in the living room.

The moment Noah was out of sight, Isabella, who had looked as though one sentence from me had nearly reduced her to tears, changed completely.

She sat down on the sofa and studied me for a long moment before suddenly smiling.

“Claire, let me tell you a story.”

“A friend of mine has a childhood best friend. She treats him like he belongs to her and drives away anyone who gets too close. Even when it came time to apply to college, she shamelessly insisted on following him to the same school.”

“But she thought she mattered far more than she actually did. What she didn’t know was that he had already fallen for another girl. He wanted to get away from her so badly that he even changed the school on her application and sent her somewhere far away.”

She kept her eyes fixed on me as she asked, “Don’t you think she sounds ridiculous?”

The mockery in her gaze was impossible to miss, but I wasn’t angry.

“I don’t know whether the friend in your story is ridiculous, but her childhood friend certainly isn’t innocent.”

Isabella froze when I failed to give her the reaction she had been expecting.

“Maybe he deliberately made promises and hinted at something more, giving your friend the wrong idea.”

I continued in the same calm voice, “And does your friend’s childhood friend know that secretly altering someone else’s college application is illegal? What role did that other girl play in all of this?”

The smile on Isabella’s face slowly disappeared, and her expression darkened as I spoke.

Just then, Noah came out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of sliced fruit.

“What are you two talking about?”

Isabella immediately stood up and hurried over to him, her eyes already red.

The moment Noah saw her expression, his face turned cold as he looked at me.

“Did you scare her again? Why can’t you ever learn to get along with Isabella?”

This time, I smiled.

“No. Isabella was just telling me a story about her friend. Apparently, someone illegally changed her friend’s college application. Have you heard about that?”

The color drained from Noah’s face, and for several seconds, he couldn’t say a word.

In the end, Isabella tugged at his sleeve and forced out, “Noah, can we go? I’m not feeling very well.”

Naturally, I had no intention of asking them to stay. Still smiling, I walked the two of them to the door, each wearing a very different expression.

Just as I was about to close it, Noah stopped me.

“Claire, are you sure your application was submitted?”

I looked at his tense, darkened expression. The irony wasn’t lost on me, but I still pretended not to know anything.

“Of course. You watched me submit it that day, didn’t you?”

His expression shifted several times, but in the end, he said nothing.