Chapter 2

Maybe my repeated rejections only triggered his competitive ego, because instead of backing off, he escalated.

When I gave him the silent treatment, he mobilized every resource and social tie at his disposal.

The very next day, our study group leader was suddenly replaced.

I found myself inexplicably assigned extra tasks, stuck handling administrative duties that were never my responsibility.

The following week, the student club president stepped down out of nowhere, and a mountain of extra paperwork landed squarely on my desk.

Whenever these tasks were handed out, everyone else mysteriously vanished.

Leaving only me and Mason.

He knew exactly how to pull the strings. He knew how to trap me.

Because I couldn't just walk away; I needed these club credentials to qualify for my grants.

"Elena, you had top SAT scores. Why did you stay in town instead of going Ivy League?"

While I was focused on crunching the club's budget spreadsheets, Mason sat beside me, propping his chin in his hand, watching me.

I gave him a fleeting glance and stayed silent.

I wasn't about to tell him that I had zero money, or that I had to take care of my elderly grandmother.

Going out of state meant a flood of living expenses I could never afford.

I had dreamed of going to a prestigious university out of state, but it was over three hundred miles away. I couldn't afford the constant train tickets back and forth.

More importantly, if I left, no one would look after Grandma.

Back then, she took me in against the wishes of her own relatives. She fed me, clothed me, and scrimped every penny to send me to college. I only had her, and in a very real sense, she only had me.

Even now, in her seventies, she woke up at five every morning to run a small breakfast cart just to help scrape my tuition together.

A guy born with a silver spoon like Mason could never understand a life like that.

"If you ever need any help, you can just tell me, you know," he added softly when I didn't answer.

If I didn't already know his reputation as a notorious playboy, I might have actually believed he cared.

But survival didn't leave room for wishful thinking. I never took risks I couldn't afford. My background gave me zero margin for error.

"I'm done with these. Hand them over to the advisor yourself. I have somewhere to be."

"Where to? I'll come with you."

"No need. Just submit the files."

I was in my junior year and would be applying for jobs soon. An older student had advised me to get a comprehensive health screening early to rule out any underlying issues.

Strangely, even though the clinic was packed that day, all my appointments went through with ridiculous speed.

There were dozens of people waiting ahead of me, yet the nurses kept calling my name first.

It didn't take long for me to figure out why.

The moment I stepped out of the ultrasound room, I saw Mason leaning against the corridor wall.

He was smiling at me playfully.

"How did the checkup go?"

Right. In this city, there was nothing the Vance family couldn't arrange with a single phone call.

What was skipping a little line to them?

For the first time in twenty years, I tasted the sweet convenience of privilege.

My feelings were a tangled mess. I hadn't missed the annoyed muttering of the patients behind me.

"We were here first! Why does she get called ahead of everyone?"

Mason looked at me with eager anticipation, like a little boy waiting to be praised for doing a good deed.

I had always despised that kind of nepotism, yet today, I was the one benefiting from it.

At the end of the day, he had helped me.