Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 51 - Chapitre 60

"Don't act like we're friends!" I yelled the second we rounded the corner, out of sight from the glaring lights of the ballroom and the sea of gossiping students.I whipped my arm out of his grasp, stepping back and glaring down at him. "Don't touch me, Nate! You ass-licking traitor! Are you done kissing your master's smelly boots? Is that why you're even here right now? Did I ask you to cover me with your stupid jacket?"I crossed my arms tightly over my chest, glaring daggers at him, though I didn't actually take the jacket off. The cold air conditioner in the hall was biting against my wine-soaked gown, and I wasn't stupid enough to freeze just to prove a point.Nate didn't yell back. He didn't scoff or roll his eyes. He only watched me in heavy, painful silence for a long moment before slowly sliding down and going down on his knees right there on the marble hallway floor."I'm sorry," Nate murmured, his voice cracking slightly as he looked up at me from the ground. "I'm sorry ab

The silence left in the wake of Aaron and Reed’s departure hung thick in the air for a second before I blinked against the spinning room and turned back toward the bar."Roonie? Izzy?" I mumbled, squinting through the flashing multi-colored lights.The two high-top bar stools were entirely empty. Roonie and Isabella had vanished completely, likely slipping away to elope in a supply closet or finally find a quiet corner to digest their sudden, chaotic engagement.I looked over at Nate, who was watching me with a mix of exhaustion and quiet concern."Don't look at me like that, pussy boy," I hiccuped, waving a dismissive hand. "Go report to your masters. Graduation night is officially done. Time to say bye-bye to everybody."Before Nate could protest or offer to walk me home, I spun on my heel, swaying unsteadily on my designer heels, and marched straight toward the raised stage where the DJ booth was set up.Tonight was the last time I was ever going to step foot on this campus. The fi

The weekend sun streamed lazily through my bedroom blinds, cutting across the floorboards where my scattered shoes still sat from graduation night. My phone buzzed loudly on the nightstand, vibrating against the wooden surface until I finally groggily reached over and swiped it to my ear."Hello?" I groaned, my voice thick with sleep."Jess! Oh, my god, are you still in bed?!" Isabella’s voice shrieked through the speaker, bursting with an energetic buzz that felt entirely illegal for a Saturday morning.I winced, pulling the phone an inch away from my ear. "Izzy? What time is it? And why are you shouting?""It's noon, sleepyhead! And I'm allowed to shout because I am officially reporting live from enemy territory," Isabella giggled, sounding delightfully breathless. "I'm just coming from Roonie's family house."I instantly sat up against my pillows, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "Wait, you went over there after the disaster of a graduation ball? Are you alive? Did his mother try to

"Dad, why isn't the beast….I mean, why isn't the CEO's actual name anywhere on these documents?!" I came tearing down the wooden staircase from my bedroom, moving so fast I nearly clipped my fully packed designer luggage, which was still sitting right by the front door where I had abandoned it before my aborted trip to Africa. My dad looked up from the coffee table, holding the thick stack of legal papers with a heavy, deeply conflicted expression. He shook his head slowly, looking thoroughly exhausted. "Oh, they told me that without your formal consent first, they won't even process or disclose the full legal disclosures, so... honestly, I didn't even know you'd actually agree to this absolute circus," my dad said, running a tired hand over his face. "The old CEO at least had some standard decency before retiring, and now this new one comes in with the most ridiculous, medieval conditions imaginable. I still can't believe it." "I will sign it. All of it. Right now," I announce

"Seriously, what is wrong with you?" I muttered out loud, glaring past the privacy partition at the back of the driver's head.The masked man in the front seat didn't even twitch. He just kept his hands locked at ten and two on the steering wheel, navigating the endless ribbon of blacktop like an emotionless android programmed strictly for vehicular transport."Nothing is wrong with me, ma'am," he deadpanned, his muffled voice sounding like it was filtered through a CIA walkie-talkie. "Just executing orders.""Right, orders from the Grand Poobah of Corporate Tyranny," I snapped back, leaning my head against the cool leather windowpane. "Tell me, does Mr. Anonymous wear a cape in his spare time, or does he just settle for crushing human souls under a mahogany desk?"Silence. Not a single chuckle. Not even a sympathetic sigh. Working-class solidarity was completely dead in the billionaire sector, apparently.I let out a long, heavy sigh, my gaze drifting back to the vanishing city skyli