Chapter 5

Summer's POV

Evan and everyone else left quickly. I waded into the pond.

For safety reasons, the water was only knee-deep, but the bottom was thick with mud. Trying to find a thin bracelet in it was like searching for a needle in quicksand.

I looked until dark. Nothing.

I was covered in mud, my shins sliced up from the rocks at the bottom, but I barely registered any of it. I just kept bending over, inch by inch, scanning the murk.

"Look at this. Evan, she said she didn't want your pin and now she's been searching for hours. Total act."

I looked up.

Evan and Lily were there. So were half their class.

The path lamp cast just enough light to show the outline of Evan's face, but not his expression.

I went back to searching.

Then the same girl from before called out, laughing. "Summer, you can stop looking. I've had it the whole time."

I snapped upright. She pulled something from her pocket and opened her hand.

Both the pin and the bracelet.

She looked at the bracelet like it was a piece of trash she'd found. "What's this doing in here?"

She dropped both onto the ground.

My expression shifted. I moved fast, too fast, almost stumbling, and dropped to my knees to check the bracelet.

Laughter came from the group.

"Look how much she loves that pin!"

"Too bad having the pin doesn't mean you have his heart!"

They walked away, still laughing. I closed my hand around the bracelet and held it tight. The clasp bit into my palm.

My head cleared.

The girl had never thrown the pin in the pond at all.

Evan had known.

And he'd watched me wade through that freezing water for hours anyway.

At least the bracelet was okay.

At least I was already past caring.

I didn't go home that night. I sat alone in my dorm room until morning.

First thing when I woke up, my phone was blowing up from the class group chat.

Somehow, word had spread to other classes that Lily was getting early admission to Princeton.

Rumors started. People were saying she'd been leading on multiple guys in the Honors program, stringing them along to help her applications.

It got uglier by the hour.

Then a message appeared from Evan. He never posted in the group chat.

"If I hear this kind of garbage again, I'll have my attorneys handle it."

The chat went dead.

Everyone knew Evan wasn't just smart and good-looking. His family ran a billion-dollar firm out of New York. The legal team wasn't a bluff.

I put my phone down. No reaction. I got dressed and headed to my tutoring job.

My stepmother controlled my finances so tightly I had almost nothing to live on. To cover basic expenses, I'd been tutoring a grade school kid on weekends for the past year.

The family had been nothing but kind to me. Now that I was leaving for college, I needed to say goodbye.

The father was warm. He insisted on driving me back to school himself.

I stepped out of his black Bentley.

"Summer?"

I turned. Lily. Evan. Their usual group.

Lily's eyes went wide at the car and the man stepping out of the driver's seat. She pressed a hand over her mouth in exaggerated shock.

"Summer." Her voice dripped with theatrical concern. "I can't believe you'd sell your self-respect for money."

One sentence. The whole group's eyes shifted to me with that look.

I knew exactly what game she was playing. But the truth speaks for itself, and I had no interest in arguing. I turned to leave.

Evan grabbed my wrist.

I looked up. His face was cold stone.

"Summer." The words came out sharp as broken glass. "Are you really that careless with yourself? Any man will do?"