Chapter 3

Back at school, I called Mom as usual to let her know I was safe.

Listening to her rambling concerns on the phone, a wave of warmth washed over me.

When we started talking about finding a job after graduation,

Mom suddenly sighed,

"If only your dad were here, he had so many friends, finding you a good job would be no problem."

Listening to her use various memories to prove how capable my dad was,

for a moment, I almost blurted out the truth.

Arthur Grant wasn't dead at all.

He'd abandoned everything, changed his identity, and was now Arthur Stone.

He wanted nothing to do with us.

He wished we believed he had passed away.

But even after hanging up the phone, I still said nothing.

In Mom's heart, her husband was her spiritual pillar.

He was her guiding star, an idealized figure.

But the real Arthur Grant?

He was an unfilial son to his mother, a scoundrel who abandoned his wife and daughter.

When I discovered his true identity,

he showed no remorse.

He hypocritically asked about Grandma but showed no concern for Mom.

If I told her the truth, how heartbroken would she be?

It was better to leave things as they were.

The next day, my roommate and I went to a large lecture class.

Sitting in the classroom, I felt like people were talking about me.

But when I turned around, all the gazes vanished.

Only whispers faintly reached my ears.

"Is she the homewrecker?"

"Looks like it. I thought this kind of thing only happened in TV shows, but there are actually people who want to be their friend's stepmom?"

"Girls like that are always the same. As long as a guy has money, no matter his age, they'll go for him."

I was confused.

Were they talking about me? When did I become a homewrecker?

"Skylar, look at the campus gossip page!"

Ashley, my roommate, was full of shock, frantically tapping my arm.

[Anonymous Post: Skylar Grant, a senior in the Special Education program, was invited to her friend's home for the weekend. She then tried to seduce her friend's father, attempting to become a homewrecker and ruin her friend's parents' marriage.]

[Update to previous post: Skylar Grant's friend, seeing her poor circumstances, even gave her expensive clothes. Is this how she repays her? She's an animal.]

Looking at the baseless posts on my phone screen and the malicious speculations in the comments section,

I felt like my throat was constricted, barely able to breathe.

Without a moment's hesitation, I knew who the poster was.

The incident of Brooke giving me clothes happened in her home.

Besides her and me, only her father knew.

No fourth person.

But she had been so friendly to me yesterday.

Why would she deliberately slander me?

Weren't we friends?

I waited anxiously for class to end.

Hearing that Brooke was at the gym, I stormed over, seething with anger.

At first, she denied making the post.

But when I pointed out that only she at school knew I had accepted her clothes,

her demeanor shifted; she adopted a defiant, "what have I got to lose" attitude.

"Was anything in the post wrong?"

"When you were at my house, you were so broke you even took my old clothes, and you accepted a bank card from my dad with two hundred thousand dollars on it!"

"If that's not being a shameless homewrecker, what is?"

Brooke glared at me hatefully.

"Skylar, I'm telling you, if anything happens to my parents' marriage, I'll never forgive you!"

As her words landed, the surrounding students burst into an uproar.

They seemed surprised that I had actually accepted money from an older man.

And two hundred thousand dollars at that.

This seemed to confirm the rumors that I was a homewrecker and a gold-digger.