Chapter 5**Eight Years Ago**Velmore High School was no place for a pauper like Tiana Selma, but she’d earned a scholarship there two years ago at fifteen. Now, on the cusp of graduation, she couldn’t wait to escape this world of rich bullies.She stood by the old iron gate, clutching her worn-out schoolbag to her chest. The wind lifted strands of her chestnut hair as she watched the emptying courtyard. Students laughed, took pictures, and hugged one another, graduation joy spilling through every corner of the school.For everyone else, Velmore High was a dream. For Tiana, it was survival.“The charity case,” they called her, the poor girl from the outskirts of town, with nothing but intelligence and stubbornness to keep her afloat. She was Head Girl, top of the class, the face of academic excellence. And for that reason alone, they hated her.Especially Nikolai Toriaga.He was everything she wasn’t, the rich, adored son of a powerful coffee company owner, handsome enough to make eve
Last Updated : 2025-10-27 Read more