Chapter 002

(MALDIE POV)

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David woke up with a buzz alert from his phone, he turned and looked at me then, I just pretended that I was still sleeping. When he turned back I slightly opened my eyes again then it happened……. He quickly unlocked his phone without looking back at me, he held the screen up, it was a group chat titled …..

“Forestwood Challenge”

It's a group chat with his colleges friends 

Mark and Ralph 

I couldn't see everything clearly but the last two I saw it was crystal clear 

Mark: “Dude are you going to send us the proof or what? 

Ralph: “Did you actually get her to cave?? Are you sure, tell us Dave ....”

David: typing………Trust me I've never lost a bet before “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” I've finally taken her V-card. She's mine now. Now you both should pay up 

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My heart didn't just drop…… but it imploded. 

I felt the blood drain from my heart, the delicious unforgettable sensual ache in my body instantly transforming into paralyzed cold. The quiet tenderness of the morning shattered and the walls of the room felt quacking. 

“ Wha……what is this?” I managed, the sound barely a whisper 

David was startled; he didn't realise I've been watching him all along. He finally looked at me , a smirk replacing the blackness. He turned back to the old David that I despised, arrogant, cruel, and completely unbearable 

“A bet, Maldie” he said with a cold,flat and detached voice, a stark contrast to the breathless devotion he’d shown me just hours ago had disappeared. He swung his legs out of the bed, grabbing his shorts and singlet from the floor with complete cold and dark differences. 

“Maldie, Maldie, Maldie” he laughed devilishly as he called me thrice. “Wait baby girl you thought two years of me ignoring you was because I secretly “Wanted” you? Hahahaha funny right???……No baby you're nothing but a pathetic whore and a gold digger. We both needed to feel something or rather let me say you needed to feel something, but for me it was just about winning”

He paused, pulling his clothes back, and then back to me…..“Congratulations though, you were the easiest $1,000 I've ever made”.......

The shock was a physical blow, making my heart bleed blood, knocking the air out of my lungs. I reached for the sheet, clutching it to my chest, not for modesty, but as a desperate attempt not to cry but to hold myself together. But I couldn't, I tried to hold it in ,but it was hard I started letting it out 

“But you lied” I whispered “You said you wanted me, you said you loved me, David you said you couldn't hold it in again that you wanted me”

“Why did you do this to me, David, you took my virginity out of a bet, Tell me you're lying” I keep yelling with my tearing eyes………

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 He turned back, his expression hardened into a mask of the distant step-brother …“ I said a lot of things. You were so easy to convince. “I want you inside me Dave…” He mimicked my breathless voice from last night. He laughed again with a cold,short and nasty sound. “ You practically begged. And you know what the best part is. Now you can go back to telling Mary and your mother how much you “HATE”....me

He walked to the door, his victory absolute.

“Don't worry “Step-sister"..He laughed, his hand on the knob … “your gold digger mum will soon be back to take care of her pathetic and whore daughter”.....

He was gone. Leaving me in the ruined silence, surrounded by the scent of him and the devastating realization that the most honest, secure moment of my life had actually been the most elaborate and cruel lie.

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For a full minute, I didn't move, the silent,David left was the loudest sound I had ever heard, it screamed with his betrayal, and with my own foolish and stupid hope and with the sickening realization that my honest and secure moment was nothing but just 

“A joke” and “A Transaction”....... A thousand dollars.

I pressed my palms hard against my eyes trying to claw back the images of last night, his hand tracing my waist, the soft declaration of “FINALLY” the hungry kissing. Every beautiful memory was instantly corrupted, dripping poison. He hadn't just used my body; he had weaponized my deepest, most vulnerable feelings against me.

“You practically begged I want you inside of me Daveee.”

His mimicking voice echoed in the room, chasing away the last vestiges of warmth. My trembling wasn’t due to lingering passion now; it was due to rising, incandescent rage.

All that was drooling through me was the hatred 

I have for him. I was full of regret. I was causing myself. Isn't this the same David that despised me? What made me think he'll love me or like me. I remembered two years ago when I first stepped my foot in his house 

TWO YEARS AGO…………………

I came back from school early that day because my scholarship was terminated for no reason that day in school. I stood in front of the locked gate of my prestigious Academy, the rain beginning to soak through my uniform……in my hands the crumpled letter felt like a death warrant 

“SCHOLARSHIP TERMINATED. EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY”

No explanation, No reason, just like that I felt a cold spine down my body. “NO” I had worked hard for this,

I worked myself to the bone, survived on four hours of no sleep for years just to be the best. And in a single heartbeat all my tickets out of poverty are shredded.

Some student were laughing making fun of me 

A girl: “She thinks she can survive here. She thought it was a school for a low class like her…….Everyone started laughing…..

I walked home, my shoes ripping, my heart had a heavy weight to my chest. When I reached our tiny cramped apartment. I didn't have the chance to cry, the door was wide open. Men in dark suits were crying out on our sofa and properties………..

“Mom I screamed”........rushing inside 

I found her in the kitchen, her face looking pale 

Her hands were shaking as she pulled a stack of eviction notices……My mother Susan had always been a warrior, but today, she looked defeated……The small catering business she’d poured our life savings into had gone under. We weren't just poor anymore—we were about to be homeless.

"Maldie," she sobbed, pulling me into her arms. "I’m so sorry. I tried. I tried so hard."

That was the night I realized that hard work was a lie. We were drowning, and there was no one to pull us out.