Chapter 3

Sylvia’s expectations were not entirely wrong.

Lucian began bullying me even earlier than he had bullied her in our previous life.

Inside a washroom at Night Academy, someone forced my head beneath the icy water filling a sink.

Water flooded my nose as a group of boys laughed around me.

Just before I suffocated, someone seized the back of my collar and hauled me upright.

I coughed violently. My soaked hair clung to my face.

Lucian stood in front of me, watching with an amused smile.

“You want the Ashcrofts’ money? Fine.”

He tilted his chin toward one of the stalls.

“Drink the toilet dry. I’ll give you a hundred thousand dollars for every mouthful. How does that sound?”

His friends immediately began cheering.

“Go on, Miss Ashcroft. Isn’t money the reason you wanted into their family?”

I looked up at Lucian.

In our previous life, this man had held my hand during our bonding ceremony and gently promised that everything he possessed would belong to me.

Now he poured all his cruelty onto me without the slightest restraint.

But Lucian was no longer looking at me.

His gaze had passed over my shoulder and settled on the corridor outside.

I knew Sylvia was there.

She was bent over, slowly mopping the hallway floor.

“Isn’t that Sylvia Miller?” one of Lucian’s followers asked. “Why is she cleaning?”

Another boy immediately answered him.

“Her adoptive mother is one of the school cleaners. I heard Sylvia stays behind to help her every night after class.”

Surprise crossed Lucian’s face.

It quickly softened into sympathy.

“Sylvia,” he called to her. “It’s late. Stop cleaning. No one is coming to inspect the floor now.”

Sylvia straightened.

She had deliberately left her long black hair loose that evening. Her pale, delicate face held exactly the right amount of stubbornness, while the cold water had reddened her fingers.

She shook her head.

“I can’t. If the supervisor finds the floor dirty, they’ll take a hundred dollars from Mom’s wages. I know that means nothing to a pureblood heir like you.”

She lowered her eyes, her voice softening.

“But for my family, it pays for an entire week of food and fortified blood.”

With that, she bent down and continued mopping.

Her intentions were obvious.

The school had countless corridors that needed cleaning, yet she had chosen the one Lucian and his followers used most often.

She had even calculated the angle, loosening her hair so that when she lowered her head, the light revealed her most beautiful and vulnerable profile.

Unfortunately, Lucian loved the performance.

He strode over, pulled Sylvia upright, and took the mop from her hands. Then he tossed it to one of the boys behind him.

“You. Finish the rest of the floor.”

The boys who had been laughing at me only moments ago stared at him.

No one dared disobey the Ashcroft heir, so they accepted the mop with obvious reluctance.

Lucian looked down at Sylvia’s cold-reddened hands. He removed his black coat and placed it around her shoulders.

“How are you getting home this late?”

“By bicycle.”

“You’re riding a bicycle in this weather?”

Lucian frowned, his tone allowing no refusal.

“Wait downstairs. My driver will take you home.”

He led Sylvia away beneath the protection of his arm.

Before disappearing around the corner, she looked back at me. A mocking smile appeared on her face while I remained beside the sink, drenched from head to toe.

Her smile seemed to say, See? Your story belongs to me now.

A few moments later, everyone was gone.

I was alone in the washroom.

I braced myself against the sink and struggled to my feet, using my sleeve to wipe away the water dripping from my hair.

“Use this.”

A cool voice came from behind me.

I turned around.

Mara Quinn, our class representative, stood there with a clean towel.

She was quiet, hardworking, and responsible for keeping attendance records for class activities, including rehearsals for Founders’ Night.

When she handed me the towel, her sleeve slipped back. Bite marks and dark bruises covered her thin wrist.

In my previous life, Mara had been the only student who tried to help Sylvia when Lucian bullied her.

Sylvia rejected her.

A few months before graduation, Mara jumped from the academy roof. Only after her death did anyone learn that her father had been abusing her for years.

I accepted the towel.

“Thank you.”

Mara nodded and turned to leave.

“I just transferred here,” I called after her. “Would you show me where the dining hall is?”

She hesitated before agreeing.

At the dining hall, I deliberately took more food than I could finish.

“It would be wrong to waste this,” I said, pushing a plate toward her. “Help me?”

Mara stared at the food before finally sitting down.

She ate slowly, trying to hide how hungry she was.

I pretended not to notice.

When we finished, I opened my mathematics workbook.

“You’re one of the best students in our year. Would you tutor me after school?”

“I don’t accept charity,” she said.

“It isn’t charity. I’ll pay the academy’s standard tutoring rate.”

Mara studied me for several seconds.

Finally, she nodded.

In my previous life, she had offered someone else a hand, but no one had reached back for hers.

This time, I would.