Chapter 1 Crashing Down...

"Miss Evans, I'm sorry to call you early in the morning but the payment for your grandmother’s VIP suite just bounced."

"What do you mean it bounced?" I asked in a shaky voice as I stood outside the campus coffee shop holding my phone tight. "I have over fifty thousand dollars in that account. It’s my academic grant fund. It pays for her care."

“I can only see what the system is showing me,” the hospital billing lady replied, sounding flat and completely unsympathetic. “The transaction was declined due to insufficient funds. I ran the card three times to be sure.”

"But that is impossible! Please run it again. There has to be a glitch in the hospital system."

"There is no glitch, Miss Evans. And you have until tomorrow morning to clear the balance, or we will have to move her to the general ward and her current treatments will be paused."

“No, you can’t do that!” I yelled into the phone. People walking past me stared, but I ignored them. “She needs that specialised care! It keeps her breathing! Please just give me an hour; I will go to the bank right now.

“Tomorrow morning, Miss Evans. That is all the time I can give you.”

The line went dead. I stared at my cracked phone screen, panic rising in my throat.

‘This is a mistake… it has to be.' I muttered to myself over and over. ‘There is no way the money is gone. I just checked it last week.’

I ran all the way to the bank branch which was just down the street. My lungs ached with every breath but I did not care. I pushed the heavy glass doors and skipped the line, running right up to the front desk.

“I want to check my balance. Now.” I slapped my ID card on the marble counter.

The teller looked at me as if I was crazy, then slowly typed on her keyboard. “Checking… okay, Chloe Evans. Your current balance is twelve dollars and forty-three cents.”

“That is impossible." I slammed my hands on the counter. "There should be fifty grand in there! My university grant just deposited last week! Run it again! You have to run it again!"

"Let me check the recent transactions," the teller said, looking incredibly annoyed by my outburst. "Ah. Yes. The funds were withdrawn yesterday afternoon."

"By who? I didn't take it out! I was in class all day yesterday!"

"It was a counter withdrawal made by the secondary account holder. Your legal custodian."

“My stepmother?” My stomach dropped to the ground. "But I turned eighteen! She isn't supposed to have access anymore! It's my money!" 

"She was still listed as a joint signer on this specific student account," the teller explained dryly. "Unless you actively removed her, she had full legal rights to withdraw the funds. “There’s nothing we can do, Miss Evans.”

"But why didn't I get a text alert?" I demanded, gripping the edge of the marble counter. "The bank always texts me for large transactions!"

"The secondary account holder logged into the online portal and updated the contact number and email on file yesterday morning, Miss Evans. Right before the withdrawal was made. There’s nothing we can do."

“Are you kidding me?” I shouted as tears blurred my vision. “That’s theft! She stole my money! She completely drained me! I am broke!”

“Lower your voice miss or I will call security to escort you out. We do not tolerate screaming in this branch.”

“Fine! Keep your bank!” I snatched my ID and stormed out.

My hands were shaking hard as I pulled out my phone and dialed her number.

“Hello,” my stepmother, Linda answered on the 4th ring. She sounded like she was chewing on something expensive, probably a fancy brunch.

“Where is it, Linda?” I demanded, not even bothering to say hello. “Where's my grant money?”

“Oh that.” She let out a high-pitched laugh. “Do not take that tone with me, Chloe. I am still your mother.”

“You are my stepmother,” I said, “and you stole fifty thousand dollars from me! GranGran needs that money to live. How could you do this?”

“Your grandmother is old and sick, Chloe. She already had a good run. Throwing more money at that hospital is just a waste of good cash.”

“It wasn’t your money to spend! Why did you take it? What could you possibly need it for?”

“Well, if you must know, your sister Mia really needed a pick-me-up. She was feeling so stressed about her midterms.”

“So you stole my grant?”

“I bought us first-class tickets to Paris for next month, and I got Mia that limited edition designer handbag she has been crying over.”

“A handbag?” I screamed into the phone. “You stole her life support money for a stupid handbag?”

“It’s a Birkin, Chloe. You won’t understand fashion even if it hit you in the face. Anyway, consider it payback for us housing you all these years. We let you sleep under our roof so you owe us. Bye now.”

Before I could say another word, she cut the call.

I stood on the sidewalk but felt numb inside. I couldn’t breathe well as my chest felt tight. My legs too felt like jelly and I had to lean against a brick wall just to stay upright.

“I need Liam,” I said to no one in particular. “I just need Liam.”

Liam was my boyfriend of two years and the only good thing in my life right now. Anytime my step-family treated me like garbage, Liam was always there to hold me and tell me it would be okay. He always promised we would graduate together and move away from my toxic family.

I wiped my eyes and started running toward the campus library. Liam had mentioned he had a study session today in the back aisles of the third floor. I just needed him to hug me; I needed his comfort more than anything in the world right now.

I pushed through the wooden doors of the library. It was quiet inside, smelling of old paper and dust. Students were hunched over their laptops, completely ignoring the girl running past them with tear-stained cheeks.

“Third floor,” I whispered to myself as I took the stairs two at a time.

I walked past the dusty shelves of the history section. "Liam?" I called out softly so I wouldn't disturb anyone. "Liam, are you back here?"

I heard a shuffling sound, followed by a soft, breathy giggle.

“Shh, someone’s coming,” a girl’s voice whispered from the aisle.

“I don’t care,” a familiar male voice replied. “Let them look.”

I turned the corner around the bookshelf, my heart pounding in my chest.

“Liam?” I said.

I froze. My entire world stopped spinning.

There he was… my sweet, loving boyfriend, Liam. He had a girl pushed up hard against the bookshelves; his hands were buried in her hair and they were kissing like the world was ending.

The worst part was not that he was kissing someone else… it was the girl.

She pulled back and looked at me.

It was Mia, my stepsister.

“Oh look who it is,” Mia said, wiping her mouth with a satisfied smirk. “The poor little orphan.”

“Liam?” I choked out, tears instantly filling my eyes. “What… what is this?”

Liam did not even have the courage to look guilty. He just sighed heavily and stepped away from Mia, fixing his wrinkled shirt. “Chloe. What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in class?”

“I’m supposed to be in class?” I yelled. I’m sure the librarian at the front desk heard me but I didn’t care anymore. “You are cheating on me! With my stepsister!”

“Keep your voice down,” Liam snapped, looking around nervously. “You are embarrassing yourself.”

“I am embarrassing myself?” I laughed. “My grandmother is dying; my stepmother just drained my account, and I come here to find my boyfriend swallowing my stepsister’s face!”

“Don’t talk to him like that,” Mia sneered, stepping forward. She crossed her arms, showing off her expensive new manicure. “It’s not his fault you are a boring broke nerd.”

“You shut up, Mia I fired back. “Your mother just stole my money to buy you a purse.”

“And it is a nice purse,” Mia laughed, entirely unbothered. “Face it, Chloe. You have nothing. You are nothing. You are just poor and pathetic.”

“How could you do this to me Liam?” I asked, looking him straight in the eyes. I felt like I was dying inside. “Two years. We’ve been together for two years. I loved you.”

“It was getting old, Chloe,” Liam said coldly, crossing his arms. “You are always working, always studying, always complaining about your grandmother. It is exhausting being around you. Mia is actually fun.”

“Fun? She’s just a spoilt brat.”

"I said shut up," Liam warned, raising his voice.

“No, I won’t.” I took a step closer to Liam, my hands balled into tight fists. “You are a coward, Liam. You are a disgusting, cheating coward. “How long now?”

“Are you really going to let her talk to you like that baby?" Mia pouted, stroking Liam’s chest like I was not there. "She is so annoying.”

"I told you to stop causing a scene," Liam stepped into my face.

"Or what? What are you going to do, Liam?" Tears were spilling down my cheeks. 

"This,” Liam said, raising his hand high in the air, pulling back to slap me.

I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the impact.

But the hit never came. 

Instead I heard a whoosh, followed by a sickeningly loud crack.

“ARRRGGGHHH!” Liam screamed in agony.

I opened my eyes to see Liam on the floor, holding the side of his head, rolling and groaning in pain. Next to him on the carpet was a thousand-page hardcover textbook on Macroeconomics.

It had flown completely out of nowhere and smashed directly into Liam's head.

“What the hell?!" Mia shrieked as she dropped to her knees next to Liam. "Liam are you okay? Who did that?!”

I looked around, completely stunned.

Then my eyes landed on him.