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Chapter Seventy-Eight

Author: Onuorah Linda
last update Last Updated: 2025-06-28 23:57:48

Carolyn’s POV

After J.J confronted Emma in front of everyone, the world went strangely quiet.

No more whispers behind my back. No more eyes that narrowed when I walked into a room. The school felt like it had shifted on its axis—like someone had finally flipped the light on, and the shadows didn’t have the same power anymore.

But the silence wasn’t comforting.

It was heavy.

I carried it home with me, pressing against my chest like something waiting to crack open.

All through dinner, I picked at my food, Aunt Pat’s voice fading in and out beside me while Emma sat across the table, cool and unreadable. She didn’t look angry. She didn’t look guilty. She just… looked like she was waiting.

Later, in my room—door closed, lights low—I laid on my bed and stared at the ceiling.

J.J had stood for me. Spoken for me. Defended me like I was worth protecting.

So why did I feel like something was about to fall apart?

My heart beat too fast. My thoughts spun without form. There was no clear reason—no
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  • Rich Love    Chapter One Hundred

    Carolyn’s POVWalking back into school felt like walking into a burning building—every step forward scorched a little more of my resolve.The air was thick with whispers.Their eyes were everywhere. On my back. On my face. On my chest, like I was being dissected in real time. The stares weren’t curious anymore. They were hungry. Sharp. Cruel.Aunty Pat walked beside me, her hand steady on my shoulder. She had insisted on coming with me, even though I told her I could handle it. I was grateful now. Just knowing she was there made it easier to hold my chin up.My uniform felt tighter, heavier. The fabric clung to my skin in the wrong places, and my bag, even though it was half-empty, weighed more than it should have. Like guilt. Like shame. But I didn’t do anything wrong. That’s what I kept telling myself. Over and over.I didn’t cheat.I didn’t.But no one seemed to care about that.We entered the administrative building, the fluorescent lights humming above us. Everything looked the s

  • Rich Love    Chapter Ninety- Nine

    J.J.'s POVI had never known silence to be so loud.Everywhere I went in school, it followed me. Through the corridors, into class, even during lunch—an uncomfortable buzz that grew louder with every stare, every whisper, every glance that wasn’t just curious, but expectant.People were waiting.For me to say something. Do something.To admit it. To deny it.To stand up for Carolyn—or confirm her guilt.And every day I said nothing, it got worse.I thought it would get easier after she left. After the scene in the principal’s office. After she walked out with her head down, her shoulders hunched like someone carrying too much grief for a body so small. I thought the rumors would quiet. That people would forget.But they didn’t.They watched me now.Emma especially.She didn’t say anything directly after the meeting with the principal. But she didn’t have to. The glint in her eyes was enough. Victory. Control.She’d made her move.And I’d let her.Julius cornered me again about Carolyn

  • Rich Love    Chapter Ninety- Eight

    Carolyn’s POVI thought staying home would be easier. I thought once I escaped the school walls, the whispers and the laughter and the stares, I would finally have space to breathe.But I was wrong.The silence at home was louder than anything I’d endured at school. It followed me from room to room, trailed behind me like a shadow I couldn’t shake. It wasn’t just silence—it was judgment. And it had a name.Aunty Pat.She didn’t yell. She didn’t rage or slam doors. She didn’t sit me down and demand answers. That might have been easier.No—she just watched me. Every movement I made. Every sentence I spoke.And the worst part? I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.It was a Wednesday morning when she finally said something. I was sitting in the breakfast nook, a bowl of cereal untouched in front of me. I’d been staring at it for fifteen minutes, willing my stomach to cooperate.Aunt Pat came in wearing one of her silk robes, her phone in hand, her hair in a tight bun. She moved like a gh

  • Rich Love    Chapter Ninety - Seven

    J.J.'s POVIf guilt had a voice, mine wouldn’t shut up.It echoed in every step I took, every time I passed her empty seat in class, every time I opened my phone and ignored Julius’s messages. And when I passed Carolyn’s locker—bare, emptied out like she never existed—it screamed.But I didn’t do anything.Because doing something meant admitting I was part of the reason she was gone. I won't lie, I felt empty and strange, maybe weird to no longer have Carolyn in the school. Her being gone did something to me and in a bad way, it was really hard to walk around the school not seeing her face and not feeling a glimps of those beautiful blue eyes of hers. I want so badly to go to her place and talk to her, to tell Aunty Pat that Carolyn was innocent, to kiss her and let her know that everything thing would be okay but I know I was in no position to be seen by her, she probably hates my guts and if I were her I would hate me too. Sometimes I felt nothing but guilt, other times I felt the

  • Rich Love    Chapter Ninety-Six

    Carolyn’s POVI didn’t cry in the car.Not when Aunt Pat’s driver gave me that look of awkward pity. Not when we pulled away from the school gates. Not even when I saw my classmates through the tinted glass—smirking, whispering, pointing.I didn’t even cry when we got home.I waited.I sat on the edge of my bed in the same clothes, the same shoes. My bag was untouched on the floor. The folder Principal had handed me still clutched in my palm like a cruel souvenir.And when the sun finally dipped low enough to cast shadows through my window, I broke.I cried like I hadn’t in years.Not the quiet, sad kind. The kind that comes from somewhere deep—pain that doesn’t just burn, it wrings you out. I cried into my pillow until my throat ached. Until the muscles in my stomach cramped. Until I had nothing left.I had never been accused of anything like that.Cheating?Stealing exam papers?It was ridiculous. It was insane. It was something other people did. Not me. Not the girl who studied thr

  • Rich Love    Chapter Ninety-Five

    The hardest part wasn't watching her walk out of the principal's office like a ghost of herself.It was doing nothing about it.I stood by the lockers, surrounded by noise—slamming doors, someone laughing too loud, the squeak of sneakers on tile—but I couldn’t hear any of it. Not really. Everything sounded like it was underwater. All I could hear was my heartbeat, thudding in my chest like a fist knocking from the inside. Loud. Fast. Uneven.Carolyn passed me.Her eyes slid over mine like she was looking straight through glass. Like I wasn’t even there.I should’ve said her name. Should’ve reached out, grabbed her wrist, made her stop. Told her it wasn’t true. Told her she didn’t deserve this.But my feet were concrete. My throat was a closed fist.And just like that, she was gone—her silhouette swallowed by the hallway’s sharp light.I stared after her, trying to replay what had just happened, but it kept skipping like a scratched disc.Julius appeared beside me like he’d sprinted ou

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