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Top Score, Bottom Morals
Top Score, Bottom Morals
Autor: Little Shadow

Chapter 1

Autor: Little Shadow
It felt like a hand was crushing my throat. Bitter nausea climbed up my chest, and I couldn't even cry anymore.

Govind calmly wiped the blood off his arm. "A few days ago, you fought with Yvette. Her depression got worse again. She couldn't even finish her practice tests. Jovie, if you'd just behaved, would this have happened?"

My whole body trembled. Pain tore through my broken leg, but it still didn't compare to the ice spreading through my chest.

"So you decided to ruin my SAT?"

Govind tipped his head at me, completely guiltless. "I'm protecting you."

Then he reached over and ruffled my hair like he always used to.

That hand used to hold a flashlight over my books during late nights at the children's home.

Now it rested on my head while he said the cruelest things I'd ever heard.

"With a broken leg, you can't take the SAT. Yvette can become the city's top scorer without pressure. Once she's happy again, she'll stop hurting herself over her depression. Your parents won't dump their anger on you either. One sacrificed test for your family's peace. If you'd just be good, wouldn't that be better?"

Be good.

That's what everyone told me my whole life.

The day my parents left me at the children's home, my mom cried and said, "Jovie, be good. We'll come back for you in a few days."

Fifteen years went by.

They never came back.

When kids bullied me at school, the teacher said, "Be good. Don't start trouble. Why are they only targeting you?"

Even after I got into Ridgefield High, my dad only said, "Govind will cover your tuition. Be good. Don't make trouble for him."

I'd been good for fifteen years.

And the person I trusted most shattered my leg.

"You said you'd protect me for life!"

The tears finally fell. I struggled to sit up, but my broken leg shifted, and the pain curled my whole body in on itself.

"You said it! You promised you'd get me out of that hellhole!"

Govind just stood there, looking at me with those same gentle eyes.

Gentle.

Strange.

Disgusting.

"What gives you the right, Govind Swinton?" I screamed, grabbing his arm hard enough for my nails to dig into his skin. "What gives you the right to decide my life? To ruin my SAT?"

He frowned and shook me off.

My hand slipped from his arm and dropped weakly onto the bed.

"Jovie, calm down. Getting emotional won't help you heal."

He looked like he wanted to say more, but then his phone rang.

He glanced at the screen and smiled.

A kind of softness I'd never seen before.

He turned and walked out of the room, his voice low and gentle.

"Yvette, be good. Don't cry. I'm here... Yeah, it's handled. Just focus on studying."

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  • Top Score, Bottom Morals   Chapter 10

    The evidence I turned in was airtight. More than enough to put Govind away.To protect Swinton Corp's stock price, the Swintons held an emergency board meeting that same night. They cut Govind off from the inheritance and publicly kicked him out of the family.The arrogant rich-boy heir was headed to prison.The Jevans ended up even worse.I sent Yvette the video of Govind trashing her.Watching the guy she loved humiliate her like that shattered whatever sanity she had left.I heard she completely lost it.She locked herself in her room every day, screaming that she was the top scorer. Anyone who got close, she bit.Jevan Corp was already getting boycotted because of the scandal. Once the cash flow collapsed, the company went bankrupt.I heard my parents sold the mansion and luxury cars while drowning in debt worth tens of millions. They ended up crammed into some dark, damp basement apartment with a completely unhinged Yvette.I heard my dad got his leg broken running from

  • Top Score, Bottom Morals   Chapter 9

    After the party, the internet branded the Jevans and Govind as "murderers" and "corrupt elites."I heard Yvette finally snapped under the backlash and investigation. She locked herself in her room, ate paper, and screamed nonstop.Jevan Corp's stock kept crashing, hanging by a thread from bankruptcy.Govind got called in by the cops over and over.I heard he tracked down the driver who took the $500,000 fall-guy deal and barely got himself out of it. Even then, the Swinton family's reputation was wrecked. Rumor was the board wanted to strip him of his inheritance rights.Late one night, after days of being hunted and trashed online, Govind dragged himself back to the estate.I sat by the floor-to-ceiling window reading while moonlight spilled across my face.The second he walked in, he froze.He stared at me like something finally clicked.Maybe he finally realized that for fifteen years, the one who actually gave him peace was never fake, performative Yvette.It was me. The

  • Top Score, Bottom Morals   Chapter 8

    Police officers walked in.The lead officer held up his badge, voice sharp and cold. "Which one of you is Yvette Jevan? We received a report, along with solid evidence, that you illegally obtained SAT exam questions. Your scores have been frozen pending investigation. You need to come with us."The ballroom exploded.Cameras flashed nonstop, all pointed at Yvette frozen on stage."Wait, she cheated her way to the top?""Buying exam questions? That's literally a crime!"Her legs buckled, and she collapsed to the floor.Same routine as always.She grabbed her head and started screaming, trying to play the sympathy card again. "I didn't do anything! I don't know anything! You're framing me! My depression's acting up—I'm gonna die!"Mom and Dad lost it.They pointed at me on the floor and started screaming."Was this you, you psycho? You're jealous of Yvette, so now you're making up lies?"Govind's face drained of color.He yanked out his phone, probably trying to get his fami

  • Top Score, Bottom Morals   Chapter 7

    Late that night, the mansion was completely silent.I avoided the cameras and slipped into Govind's study.Half a month of acting obedient had finally lowered his guard. He didn't lock the door anymore.I turned on his computer.Password protected.My fingers paused over the keyboard before I typed in Yvette's birthday.Unlocked.A mocking smile pulled at my lips. I shoved the feeling down and kept searching.Finally, buried in a hidden folder, I found it.A record of a $500,000 overseas transfer from Govind to the driver who hit me.So my leg—and all those years of studying—were only worth $500,000 to him.When I opened the second file, my blood went cold.Govind had used his family's connections to bribe people on the test committee. He paid a fortune to leak part of the SAT questions to Yvette.I stared at the screen, feeling sick.Back at the children's home, I'd studied under motion-sensor lights until my eyes burned red just to earn my grades.Yvette only neede

  • Top Score, Bottom Morals   Chapter 6

    Blood covered the floor.Jovie lay in the middle of it, face pale, blood pooling beneath her. The cut on her wrist was so deep bone showed through.For the first time, the always-composed Govind lost it.He rushed over like a madman, trembling as he clamped a hand over her wrist. Warm blood seeped through his fingers."Jovie! Wake up! Who said you could die?!"His eyes were bloodshot, his roar echoing through the hallway. Even the doctors running over hesitated when they saw him.Outside the ER, Govind stared at his blood-covered hands, his whole body shaking.He forced himself to breathe, repeating the same thing over and over in his head.'I just don't want Yvette feeling guilty. That's all. This is for Yvette...'But the panic clawing through his chest—so hard it felt like it might rip him apart—wouldn't go away.Three hours later, Jovie was wheeled back into her room.She survived.***Jovie's POVWhen the anesthesia wore off, I opened my eyes.No tears. No breakdown

  • Top Score, Bottom Morals   Chapter 5

    The second I cut my wrist, I didn't even feel pain.Just relief.Warm blood poured out, sliding along the chain around my leg and spreading across the floor.Before everything went dark, memories started flashing through my head.Fifteen years ago, a car lost control and came speeding toward us. I shoved Yvette out of the way with everything I had. My knees scraped across the asphalt until the skin tore open.But my parents never comforted me.Yvette curled up in Mom's arms, pointed at me, and cried like she was the victim. "It was Jovie... Jovie tried to push me in front of the car..."Mom slapped me so hard my left ear rang. Nobody cared about the blood at the corner of my mouth.That night, Dad left me outside the rusted gates of the children's home with a burning fever.They held Yvette and comforted her.I stood alone in the freezing rain.From that day on, I knew blood meant nothing.I was born unloved.The scene changed.Winter at the children's home. No heat.I h

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