Chapter 3

Claire froze as realization dawned on her.

Floyd believed she had known all along that he would give her the button, so she had deliberately made a bet with Shirley just to torment her.

"I didn't," she said flatly.

Yet the instant the words left her mouth, she caught herself. Why would Floyd ever believe her over Shirley anyway?

After a pause, she simply opened her palm and offered calmly, "If you don't believe me, you can have the button back."

Floyd stood rooted to the spot, unable to believe his ears. "What did you just say?"

He still remembered the moment he had agreed to give her the button months ago—how her tear-stained face had burst into a triumphant smile as she skipped around him on the track, shouting, "Floyd Sterling, I'm about to win your heart."

Yet now, she was agreeing to return the button without a second thought? Floyd's mind went blank. Interpreting his silence as dissatisfaction, Claire creased her brows.

"Still not enough? Do you want me to go run the laps?"

Before Floyd could say a word, Shirley cast a subtle glance at a girl standing beside her. The girl immediately lunged forward, snatched the button right out of Claire's palm, and shouted, "You've already touched this thing. It's dirty now. Who'd even want it?"

With a swift flick of her wrist, she tossed the button straight into the artificial pond.

"No!" Claire's expression shattered for the first time—not because of the button, but because the girl's rough movement had knocked Phoebe's delicate silver bracelet right out of her hand along with it.

While Floyd and his group walked away, Claire scrambled into the pond, frantically searching for the bracelet.

For safety reasons, the pond was only knee-deep, but the bottom was covered in a thick layer of murky mud. Trying to locate a silver bracelet in that slop was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Claire searched straight through the evening. Covered head to toe in mud and with her shins scratched up by sharp stones, she ignored the stinging pain and kept her aching back bent, sifting through the mud.

"Look, Floyd! Claire said she didn't care about your button, but she's been secretly fishing for it all this time. Talk about total denial," Shirley scoffed.

Claire looked up to see Floyd and Shirley standing on the bank, alongside a group of their classmates. Under the dim glow of the streetlights, Floyd's face was cast in shadow, making his expression unreadable.

Claire didn't bother responding. She bent back down to continue her search until the girl from that morning called out with a smug smile, "Stop looking, Claire. What you're looking for is right here with me."

Claire snapped her head up. The girl pulled something from her pocket and opened her palm, revealing both the button and the bracelet resting together in her hand.

Acting as if she had only just noticed the bracelet, the girl sneered with disgust, "Where did this extra piece of trash come from?"

With that, she tossed both the bracelet and the button onto the dirt.

Claire's expression shifted. Stumbling out of the water, she threw herself onto the ground, snatching up the bracelet to inspect it.

Laughter erupted around her.

"Look at her, Floyd. She treats your button like a prized treasure."

"Too bad getting the button doesn't mean you won his heart."

...

As the crowd walked away laughing, Claire cradled the bracelet tightly in her palm. The sharp edges pressed into her skin, bringing a wave of sudden, cold clarity.

The girl had never thrown the button into the water in the first place, and Floyd had known all along. Yet he had stood by and watched her search pointlessly in the freezing water for an entire day.

Fortunately, the bracelet was safe. Fortunately, she didn't care about him anymore.

...

Claire didn't go home that night, staying alone in her empty dorm room instead.

When she woke up the next morning, the group chat was blowing up.

It turned out that word of Shirley's special admission to Yewhaven Unversity had somehow leaked to other classes. Spurred by jealousy, people had begun spreading rumors that Shirley was playing around, dangling not just Floyd, but several top students in the AP program just to secure an offer.

The rumors grew increasingly ugly until Floyd, who never posted in the group chat, suddenly broke his silence.

[If I hear anyone spreading these baseless lies again, my legal team will be stepping in.]

The chat instantly went quiet.

Everyone knew that Floyd wasn't just handsome and academically brilliant; his family owned Sterling Enterprises, the wealthiest estate in the city, and their legal team was no joke.

Feeling completely indifferent, Claire got up and left for her tutoring gig.

Because her stepmother constantly withheld her living allowance, Claire was always short on cash, relying on weekend tutoring sessions for an elementary schooler to earn money.

Since she was leaving the country soon, she naturally needed to say goodbye to the family who had always been kind to her.

The child's father warmly insisted on driving Claire back to campus in his car. But the moment she stepped out of the vehicle, a voice called out, "Claire?"

Turning around, she saw Shirley, Floyd, and their group.

Noticing the black limousine behind Claire and the middle-aged man sitting inside, Shirley gasped and covered her mouth in dramatic shock.

"Claire!" she cried out, looking heartbroken. "How... could you sell out your self-respect for money like this?"