All Chapters of My Boyfriend Rejected Harvard Offer, I Rejected Him: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

"Stop it already. I will only ever love Naomi, for the rest of my life."Felix's eyes were rimmed red. He was hunched over his open laptop at the foot of the mattress like he was guarding it with his body.The basement was a shrine to his idea of freedom.A thrift-store mattress on the concrete floor. It smelled like weed, damp laundry, and the takeout from two days ago congealing on the floor.He'd signed the lease a week ago, the minute he and his mother stopped speakingIn my previous life, he was in the middle of drafting an email to decline Harvard's offer when I found him.I'd yanked the laptop out from under him and sent the acceptance in his place — to the seat my father's money had bought him.He'd gone on to become the richest man in the country. Then he'd died young. And he'd left me an estate worth billions.In my dreams, he'd stared at me with bloodshot eyes and cursed me.He'd said I'd ruined his entire life. That I'd cost him the only person he'd ever loved.Captions dri

By my sophomore year, my tech startup had launched.Caleb Kingsley — the venture capitalist who'd spotted me at a freshman pitch competition and written the first check — had come on board as my partner. With his backing, and what amounted to two lifetimes of business instinct, the product landed hard in the market.I'd made my first real fortune. My profile had taken off.Meanwhile, Felix was most of a year into his Australian working holiday and already cracking.Naomi's Instagram was full of sunsets on Bondi Beach, açaí bowls, and long captions about "escaping the system."Felix's actual life: graveyard shifts at a meat-packing plant in rural Queensland, sleeping eight guys to a bunkhouse, scraping by on instant ramen.Then a trending article popped up on his phone — a business magazine cover story on me.He maxed out his credit card on a standby ticket and flew back to the States. His tourist visa let him back in — barely.He turned up in the lobby of my office building in Boston.

"You — what did you just say?"Felix froze.His head snapped up. He was staring at me.His pupils constricted.His voice was shaking. The stack of useless paper in his hands rattled."Wasn't that clear enough?"I took half a step back and smoothed a crease on my sleeve."You thought your untouchable little angel was some pure-hearted innocent?""For the last six months, you've been working three jobs at that slaughterhouse to buy her handbags.""You've been destroying yourself.""She's turned around and spent every cent of it on sneakers for a trust-fund kid at the hostel."I watched the color drain out of his face."Felix. You're not supporting a relationship.""You're funding someone else's.""Shut up! Shut up!"Felix clapped his hands over his ears. His composure splintered."Naomi isn't like that. You're lying. You're trying to drive a wedge between us!"I laughed, without warmth.I pulled a stack of photos out of my clutch and flung them at his chest.They scattered.Clear images,

"Once it's done, the remaining nine hundred thousand will be in your account."The voice on the other end came through a voice changer, cold.The dirt Felix was offering was manufactured. All of it.Using the fragments of memory from his other life, he'd cobbled together fake financial statements from Fairfax Group's early years.And paid someone in the backpacker circuit to doctor photos of me with various business executives into fake "pay-for-play" tabloid material.The man on the phone didn't hesitate.A hundred thousand dollars in cash hit Felix's account as an advance.Felix stared at the long string of zeroes on his balance.For the first time in a long time, his back straightened.He took the money and picked up a cheap suit at a department store in the CBD.Got his hair cut and blown back at a walk-in salon.He stared at himself in the mirror — the bone-deep exhaustion didn't go away, but now at least he looked like someone.That cheap, false previous-life swagger came back to

"Felix Davenport. You are under arrest for extortion and commercial defamation. Come with us."The ballroom doors opened again.Officers walked in, unhurried.Cuffs clicked around Felix's wrists. The sound carried.Felix finally broke.His knees went out from under him. He fell to the floor."Iris — Iris, I'm sorry!"Snot and tears streaked his face.He crawled toward me without dignity."It was Naomi — she tricked me, she put me up to it!""We grew up together. Please. I don't want to go to prison!"He looked up at me.For the first time, there was no arrogance left in his face.Only fear. And regret.The flickering fragments of his other life had finally beaten him into real despair."I admit it. I admit everything!"He was sobbing, hysterical."In my first life I was useless. I was the failure — not you!""I hated you for dragging me into success because I was jealous. Because you were stronger than me!""My biggest tragedy was losing you. You were my only salvation!"It all came ou