All Chapters of That One Item Changed Everything: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

I stared at the jar of face cream with a chunk gouged out of it, then dropped it straight into the trash.Louisa shrieked instantly. “Mallory, are you insane, you spoiled brat?”She jumped off the bed and nearly dove into the trash can. "I just looked it up online. The jar alone costs thousands, and you’re just throwing it away? Give it to me. I can at least use it on my feet!”“Anything your filthy hands touched disgusts me,” I said coldly, and walked out without sparing her another glance.Behind me, her voice blended with the other roommate’s snide laughter. “Unbelievable… Rich people don’t even treat money like money.”…Early the next morning, just as I was heading to the field for orientation camp assembly, the student counselor stopped me with a grim expression. "Mallory, come to my office."The moment I stepped inside, I saw Louisa sitting there with her eyes puffy from crying. The second she saw me, her shoulders started trembling pathetically, as if I had done somethin

I recorded every second of Louisa's ranting—the taunts, the singing, all of it.Right as she was getting louder, a video call from my mom popped up. I answered."Mal, happy birthday! I sent you a big package. Did you get it?" My mom's gentle voice flowed through the speaker.Louisa's singing froze instantly.I smiled at the screen. "Not yet, Mom. It should arrive soon.""Good. Your birthday gift is in there, and some snacks too. Share them with your roommates, alright?" She added softly, "Be good while you're away from home. Get along with your classmates."I gave a quiet hum and hung up, and Louisa immediately snorted. "Keep pretending. Mom? Really? Bet that was your sugar daddy!"She was just about to start blasting music again when someone knocked on the door. A deliveryman stood outside holding a box nearly half his height. "Package for Mallory Leighton."Louisa's eyes lit up. Before I could react, she rushed forward and snatched the box from his arms. "I'll take it for her

Louisa stared at me as if she'd just heard the world's greatest joke, then let out a hysterical scream. "No way. You're all being fooled!"She jabbed a finger at me and shouted to everyone around us, "When she enrolled, her family information form said her parents were farmers. Farmers! She's lying—she hired an actor to put on a show!"I looked at her calmly, not even bothered enough to explain. When I enrolled, I'd listed my hometown and invented my parents' occupations because I wanted a quiet life.The students who had been scrambling to snatch my things moments earlier now stood pale as ghosts, each one pushing the gift boxes back toward me."Mallory, I'm so sorry. I didn't know.""I didn't eat any of it. I'm giving it back."My father didn't acknowledge them. He bent down, picked up the trampled scarf, and brushed the dirt away slowly. His voice came out cold enough to freeze the air. "President Weber, my wife has severe joint inflammation in her hands. It took her three f

Online outrage only grew worse throughout the day. Louisa seized the momentum and started a livestream. On camera, she cried her heart out, framed by the crumbling mud-brick walls of her old home. "Please… help me. I don't want to go to jail."Gifts and donations flooded across the screen.But just when her performance reached its peak, a new trending topic dropped out of nowhere—'Louisa's True Colors'.When people clicked on it, they found a video posted by my dad's company's official account—a ten-plus-minute compilation of surveillance clips, every second matched with audio.It showed her mocking me in the dorm with that snide, passive-aggressive tone. It played the full recording of her knocking over my bottle of facial essence and cursing me to my face, accusing me of having a sugar daddy."Bet you get tens of thousands a month for living expenses. You have a sugar daddy, don't you? Don't you feel guilty making your folks work their fingers to the bone back on the farm?"The