Chapter1
I thought three years of walking on eggshells with Liam would earn me an equal kind of love. To protect his fragile pride, I hid my true identity as the primary heir to the Vanderbilt empire. I choked down cheap sandwiches with him, playing the part of a broke college student surviving on a full scholarship. I thought this was the ultimate proof of our love.
But today, the combination lock on my dorm closet was snapped in half.
Underneath a heavy textbook on my desk lay a note from my roommate, Celia: Chloe, I'm attending the annual Gala with Liam tonight. I borrowed your knockoff dress. Don't be so stingy.
Trembling with a mix of shock and rage, I dialed my boyfriend Liam's number. His voice oozed with undisguised disgust over the speaker.
"Chloe, isn't it enough that you stalk me? Now you're framing Celia for theft? This dress is her family's haute couture. A broke loser like you hasn't even seen anything like it! We are done after tonight. It's time you realize the class difference between us."
The line went dead.
Staring at the broken lock on the floor, I suddenly found the whole thing hilarious.
What they stole was the very last heirloom my mother left me—an authentic, 18th-century royal antique gown valued at fifty million dollars.
I finally understood that some people's hearts could never be warmed. And some debts had to be paid in blood.
The dial tone from the phone drenched me like freezing rain.
I stared at the screen for a few seconds, opened WhatsApp, and sent Celia an ultimatum.
You absolutely cannot afford to pay for that dress. Return it tonight, and I'll pretend this never happened.
The two gray checkmarks at the bottom of the chat quickly turned blue. Read.
A full ten minutes passed without a single reply.
I didn't shed a tear; there was only a painful, hollow ache of fury in my chest. I grabbed my coat and marched straight to the end of the sorority hallway, pounding on the door of our Resident Assistant, Sarah.
"Pull up the hallway security footage for me." My voice came out incredibly hoarse.
Seeing my pale, ghostly face, Sarah didn't ask a single question. She immediately queued up the afternoon's recording.
The screen flickered to life. 3:45 PM.
The footage showed Celia swaggering toward my room, swinging a pair of bolt cutters in her hand.
But my eyes were securely nailed to the man trailing closely behind her.
Liam.
The exact same man who, just ten minutes ago, had called me a broke loser and dumped me over the phone.
In the video, he was far from an oblivious, innocent bystander. He stood at the end of the hallway, keeping watch for Celia. When Celia pried my closet open and yanked out the heirloom dress from its garment bag, Liam leaned in and kissed her on the lips with a smug smile.
I couldn't hear what Celia said, but Liam pointed at my nameplate. The mockery in his eyes was so thick that even the grainy security camera couldn't blur it.
A loud ringing filled my ears. The very last thread of my sanity snapped completely.
This was the love I had protected for three years. I couldn't even bear to order a large coffee, all so I could save up to buy him the most expensive law school prep books. And in return, he helped a vain roommate—who built a fake socialite persona on Instagram—steal my only surviving piece of memory.
"Chloe..." Sarah looked deeply uncomfortable, awkwardly patting my shoulder in sympathy. "Don't be too sad. It's not worth it over a knockoff dress, and that guy is absolute trash. Let's call campus security. You should be able to get your stuff back."
Call campus security?
I slowly unclenched my tightly balled fists. Deep, bloody crescents dug into my palms where my nails had gouged the skin.
"No need," I stood up.
Sarah froze. "But she stole..."
"If campus security gets involved, the worst she gets is a dorm disciplinary violation." I stared at the screen as the two of them walked away with their arms wrapped around each other, my eyes growing completely cold. "That's way too easy on them."
That dress was a genuine piece, insured as a royal artifact for fifty million dollars.
Right now, they were definitely wearing my mother's life's work, basking under the flashing cameras at the most exclusive Gala. The higher they climbed, the more thoroughly their bones would shatter when the fall finally came.
"I'm going to wait until they incriminate themselves completely, and make it hurt deep in their bones." I turned, yanked the door open, and stepped out into the freezing winter night.
