Chapter 1

Deep inside the quiet library, Marie Hail hid behind a towering bookshelf as Rylan Stafford pulled her close, wrapping an arm around her waist before kissing her.

The sudden intimacy left her breathless, and she clung to him for support.

As his warm breath brushed her ear, a shiver ran down her spine, leaving her knees weak. She looped her arms around his neck and gazed at him with unmistakable affection.

"What's there to be afraid of?" she murmured with a smile. "If you dare to do it, so do I. Besides..."

Before she could finish, Rylan tightened his hold and kissed her again, deeper and more insistently this time.

They remained hidden among the books until nightfall, when they finally managed to slip out of the library.

After driving her home, Rylan stole one last lingering kiss at her doorstep before heading off. Still wrapped in the warmth of their goodbye, Marie started up the steps, only to realize that she'd left her favorite hair clip in his pocket.

Since he hadn't gone far yet, she turned and hurried down the street to catch up with him. However, just as she was about to reach him and call out to him, she saw him duck into a narrow alley.

Inside, a group of casually dressed teenagers was waiting for him.

The moment Rylan appeared, one of them let out a sharp whistle. "Well, well! Look who's back from the hunt. So, how was it? Did the girl live up to the hype?"

"Of course," Rylan replied with a laugh. "Maybe I'll let you guys have a turn with her sometime."

Marie stopped dead in her tracks. For a moment, she couldn't make sense of what she'd just heard.

Meanwhile, the group erupted in laughter.

"That's Rylan Stafford! Always willing to share!"

"You've been keeping Marie all to yourself for so long that we honestly thought you'd fallen for her!"

"Are you kidding me?" Rylan scoffed, his voice dripping with contempt. "Marie isn't worth a single strand of Coraline's hair."

Marie clenched her fists. Her nails dug into her palms as her entire body began to tremble.

Coraline Cortes was the campus belle and, at the same time, Marie's fiercest academic rival. Although Coraline was popular, her grades had always fallen short of Marie's.

"If Marie ever finds out you only got close to her to help Coraline, she'll probably cry her eyes out!" one of the boys said with a grin.

"Seriously! Taking Marie to the beach was just a trick to make her miss the National Math Olympiad so Coraline could move up in the rankings!"

"And those mountain trips to watch meteor showers? You were just exhausting her so she'd bomb her exams and Coraline could take first place!"

"Don't forget that tattoo! Marie thinks it's a symbol of your love. She has no idea it's a crane flower, Coraline's favorite! Can you believe how gullible she is?"

With each revelation, the group's laughter seemed to grow louder, while Marie felt the truth tearing through her one piece at a time.

Their mocking words were like jagged blades slicing into her chest. Tears spilled down her pale cheeks as she struggled to process what she'd heard.

"Can you blame Rylan for being so devoted to Coraline, though?" another boy chimed in. "When they were kids, he fell into a lake and nearly drowned. Coraline was the one who saved him, so he's just repaying the favor."

"Yeah, but now that he's found his biological parents, he's gone straight to royalty. You'd think he'd have better things to do than play the knight in shining armor."

Rylan seemed entirely unbothered by their teasing.

"What do you know?" He lit a cigarette, chuckling. "Coraline has always been proud. She likes playing hard-to-get and making guys chase her. If I switch gears too quickly, I'll scare her off, so I have to take my time."

"Damn, you're good!" one of them exclaimed. "Just to make sure Coraline takes first place in the humanities track, you even convinced Marie to hand in a blank exam paper. That's next-level dedication!"

By then, Marie couldn't bear to hear another word. She turned and ran, desperate to escape the voices that had shattered everything she'd believed in.

As she stumbled through the darkness, her foot caught on something, and she crashed to the pavement. Her knee scraped against the rough ground, and blood seeped through the torn fabric of her clothes.

Yet she felt no pain, not with her heart already broken.

Ever since childhood, her parents had kept her on a tight leash, confining her to a life of rules and expectations. Then, a year ago, Rylan had come along and changed everything.

He'd broken through the walls that had confined her for so long, stirring something wild and vibrant in the stagnant waters of her existence.

He was bold, carefree, and unafraid to challenge convention. He filled the margins of his textbooks with her name, stood by her when others questioned her, and encouraged her to do things she'd never imagined herself capable of.

Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that every tender moment had been part of an elaborate scheme. Her first love, her deepest feelings, and her wholehearted devotion had all been nothing more than disposable pawns in Rylan's pursuit of Coraline.

Worse still, she'd willingly followed him deeper into the trap.

That was simply pathetic.

...

Marie bowed her head and sobbed as the icy wind cut through her clothes, chilling her to the bone. She didn't know how long she remained there before she finally wiped away her tears and forced herself to stand.

Still dazed, she made her way home and found her mother waiting for her.

"Mom, I've made up my mind. I'll do what you want. I want to study abroad."

In truth, Rylan had misunderstood her from the very beginning.

Harley Hail had never intended for Marie to settle for merely topping the local academic rankings. Instead, she'd already arranged for her daughter to pursue a more ambitious future.

Marie had received an early acceptance letter from a prestigious university overseas. She had hesitated to accept the opportunity, however, because she'd wanted to tell Rylan about it first.

But now that she knew the truth about his intentions, there was no reason to hesitate any longer.

"I'll leave in two weeks," she said.

With that decision made, Marie was ready to walk away from the place where she'd grown up and the boy whom she'd once loved with all her heart.