Chapter 3

Over the next few weeks, Adrian didn’t stop targeting me.

My lunch was thrown in the trash. Dead spiders appeared in my locker. Someone burned holes into a new dress with a cigarette.

Once, I looked up and saw Adrian leaning against the wall at the end of the hallway.

He mouthed two words at me.

“You deserve it.”

He was probably waiting for me to cry.

Or run home and complain to Mr. and Mrs. Blackwood.

I did neither.

I threw away whatever had been ruined and went back to class.

Eventually, that seemed to irritate him even more.

“How long are you planning to keep pretending?”

“Pretending what?”

He didn’t answer.

Adrian had grown up surrounded by people who wanted something from the Blackwoods, so nothing disgusted him more than someone getting close to his family for money or status.

In our first life, one of the reasons he had liked me was that I had never asked him for anything.

Sophia remembered that too.

After being given a second life, I finally understood that the most valuable thing the Blackwoods could give me wasn’t designer clothes, jewelry, or expensive cars.

It was time.

In my first life, I spent every afternoon helping Mrs. Miller work, then went home and worried about Mr. Miller digging through my backpack for money.

This time, I didn’t have to work.

I didn’t have to wonder where my next meal was coming from.

The Blackwoods had adopted me because having an orphaned daughter looked good for the family.

I had never planned to treat them like my real family either.

If they were willing to give me the best education and all the time I needed, then I would use both.

By the time I became an adult, I intended to be someone no one could control.

Sophia was doing the opposite.

She still wore old clothes and stayed after school to help Mrs. Miller clean. Whenever Adrian was around, she made sure he heard how tired she was and how she would never complain.

But when something required real effort, she stopped caring.

She skipped tutoring sessions.

Her grades slipped badly enough that a competition spot her teacher had recommended her for went to someone else.

She treated all of it like something she could make up for later.

Because as far as she was concerned, none of it mattered as long as Adrian loved her.

She wanted someone to rescue her.

I wanted to make sure I would never need rescuing.

That was the difference between us.

When the school began preparing for its annual performing arts showcase, I was put in charge of rehearsals for the dance team.

Sophia signed up too.

Out of more than thirty rehearsals, she attended only a handful.

By the final dress rehearsal, she still couldn’t remember the basic formations.

The dance instructor asked me to finalize the cast list.

I crossed out Sophia’s name.

Several girls on the team were relying on this performance for arts scholarships.

I wasn’t going to let Sophia’s absences cost them their future.

The next afternoon, I passed the rehearsal room and found Sophia sitting outside in tears.

Adrian stood in front of her.

“What happened?”

“I was cut from the performance.”

“Who cut you?”

Sophia said nothing.

Adrian had already guessed.

“Her?”

She bit her lip.

“Don’t blame her. Maybe she had her reasons.”

Then she lowered her eyes.

“I don’t want her to get punished because of me.”

The more she defended me, the angrier Adrian became.

In our first life, this had always been the kind of thing that affected him most.

A girl who was hurt but still thought about everyone else first.

Sophia hesitated for a long time before speaking.

“She said I couldn’t afford the costume.”

Adrian’s face hardened.

Sophia continued quietly.

“She said my mother was only a cleaner and my father was only maintenance staff. That someone like me had no business standing on the same stage as her.”

For a moment, I was too stunned to speak.

I had never said any of that.

Adrian didn’t even bother asking me.

“How much is the costume?”

Sophia immediately shook her head.

“No. I don’t want to become someone who depends on you for everything just because I know you.”

I had said those words too.

In our first life.

Adrian’s expression softened completely.

“I’ll pay for the costume.”

Then his voice turned cold.

“As for her, I’ll deal with it.”

Sophia was quiet for a moment before adding,

“She’s a Blackwood now.”

“Your family donates to half the programs at this school. Even if the teachers know she’s bullying me, they might be afraid to do anything.”

That was when I understood what she was doing.

She didn’t just want Adrian to hate me.

She wanted to cast herself as the poor girl being bullied by a rich one.

And I was supposed to be the spoiled Blackwood daughter using my family name to take away her opportunities.

A woman nearby suddenly spoke.

“Wait.”

She had a press badge clipped to her jacket.

“You’re saying you were removed from the performance because your family is poor?”

Sophia froze for a fraction of a second.

Adrian stepped forward before she could answer.

“Yes.”

The reporter looked at him.

“And you’re talking about the Blackwoods’ adopted daughter?”

“Yes.”

He didn’t hesitate.

Sophia had only meant to put on a performance for Adrian.

Now the situation was already slipping out of her control.

Not long after that, I was called into the school conference room.

The principal was there.

So were several teachers, a few reporters, and both sets of parents.

Mr. and Mrs. Blackwood arrived last.

The first thing Mr. Blackwood said wasn’t,

“What happened?”

It was,

“Why is the press here?”

I wasn’t surprised.

They had never cared much about me.

They cared about the Blackwood name.

Once the meeting began, one of the reporters turned directly to me.

“Sophia Miller says you removed her from the performance because of her family’s financial situation.”

“Is that true?”

Sophia sat across from me with red eyes.

The reporter continued.

“She also says this isn’t the first time you’ve used the Blackwood name against her.”

I looked at Adrian.

“You believe her too?”

He didn’t hesitate.

“She wouldn’t lie about something like this.”

“Why are you so sure?”

His expression stayed cold.

“Because she’s nothing like you.”

“She doesn’t want Blackwood money. She hates owing people anything. She helps her family every day without complaining, and even when someone hurts her, she still thinks about them first.”

“She relies on herself.”

“Someone like that has no reason to make up a story like this.”

I looked at him and finally understood.

It wasn’t that Adrian knew Sophia well.

He simply believed the version of her he wanted to see.

I smiled.

“Have you actually seen any of that for yourself?”

“Or have you only seen what you wanted to believe?”

His face darkened.

The reporter pushed a recorder toward me.

“We only need your answer.”

I was about to speak when the conference room door opened.

Emma Carter stood there holding a stack of documents.

One of the teachers frowned.

“Emma? What are you doing here?”

The reporter glanced at her plain clothes.

“Are you here to confirm that Sophia was bullied too?”

Emma walked to the table and set the documents down.

Then she looked at Adrian.

“You just said you know her.”

She opened the folder.

“Then you should probably look at this.”