Chapter3

It was him.

Liam, wearing the bespoke suit I had bought him months ago under the guise of "money saved from working part-time," pushed through the final row of students and strode briskly toward the wreckage of the scene.

I watched him approach.

"Liam," I called his name, my voice thick and bubbling with blood.

He walked right past me.

He bolted straight to Chloe, sweeping her into his arms. He cupped her cheeks to urgently inspect the two scratch marks. "What happened? Who did this?"

"Liam!" I screamed. "Look at me."

He finally lifted his head from Chloe's face. A flash of panic flickered in his eyes, and he instinctively turned his head, utterly avoiding my gaze.

Chloe's tears fell on command. She buried her face into his chest. "Liam! She's out of her mind! Not only is she pretending to be the owner of the car, but she dared to scratch my face—just look at me!"

"Liam, my face hurts so much... What if it leaves a scar..." Chloe sobbed against his chest, her shoulders trembling.

Liam looked down, his thumb gently brushing the bloody scratch on her cheek. He straightened up, his gaze sweeping over my shattered phone on the ground. The screen was spiderwebbed into oblivion, but the fragments of a chat log—"Borrowing a car, rental fee is one bouquet of roses"—were still faintly visible through the cracks.

His expression settled into an icy composure.

He looked at me, his eyes now filled with nothing but raw disgust.

"Aria." He said my name as if I were a complete stranger. "How did I never realize you were this vicious?"

Watching Liam shield Chloe's silhouette, my heart felt like it had been violently whipped. The pain stole the very breath from my lungs.

"I'm vicious?"

I laughed until tears spilled down my cheeks.

This was the same boy who, when a fan shoved me outside the hockey arena, charged forward to fight them. He had rushed out before he even had time to take off his skates, nearly breaking his neck on the concrete stairs. This was the same boy who sneaked under my dorm window one random night to leave a bouquet of violets, looking up into the dark to say, "Aria, I'll bring you these every year."

Three years of a secret romance, and this was all it amounted to.

I pointed at the champagne-drenched Bugatti, my voice trembling. "Liam, you asked to borrow the car last night. This is my car."

"Yours?"

That flicker of guilt flashed in Liam's eyes again, but this time he ruthlessly suppressed it. He tightened his grip around Chloe and pulled his lips into a mocking smirk.

"Aria, if you're going to lie, could you at least make it believable?" He looked me up and down, his gaze pausing with disdain on my faded, washed-out jeans. "Your dad manages a garage. What exactly did you buy a car with? That pocket change from your part-time job wouldn't even buy a single screw on this machine."

The surrounding crowd erupted into vicious laughter.

"I think you're just insane with jealousy." Liam pitched his voice just loud enough for everyone to catch exactly what was being said. "Chloe let this slide, and you actually stepped all over her?"

Chloe cried even harder against his chest, her shoulders shuddering dramatically, yet she managed to sneak a fleeting glance in my direction. That single look was entirely triumphant.

Liam looked down to wipe the smeared lipstick from the corner of her mouth. Then, he lifted his head, his gaze anchoring back onto me. "Whoever dares to hurt my girl pays the price."

"What do you think you're doing!"

I stared at Liam, my nerves pulling taut. He threw a meaningful glance to two fraternity guys standing nearby. Without hesitation, they lunged forward and pinned me hard against the ground.

Liam pulled a cigarette from his suit pocket. It was the exact brand I had run across two avenues last week just to endure the rain and buy for him.

He took a long drag, then leaned sharply over me. His eyes radiated a bone-chilling cruelty. "You forced my hand."

The glowing cherry of the cigarette was crushed mercilessly against the back of my hand.

"Ah—!"

My entire body convulsed uncontrollably as the searing burn melted a blackened, bloody pit into my flesh.

Chloe crouched down, tilting her head to admire the gruesome wound, and covered her mouth with a delicate giggle. "Doesn't that keep her in line?"

Liam straightened up, spat the cigarette butt onto the pavement, and ground it out with the tip of his leather shoe. He jerked his chin at the two fraternity guys holding me down.

"Haul her up."

I was violently yanked up to my feet, glaring absolute daggers at him. "Liam! This car is mine! You took my property to play the rich prince, and karma is going to tear you apart!"

He looked down his nose at me, a cruel smirk curling the corners of his mouth.

"You're the owner?" He cocked his head, his tone dripping with ultimate contempt. "Since you're so deeply attached to this car, I'll let you get a little more intimate with it."

He raised his hand and pointed to the Bugatti's carbon-fiber tail.

"Take the hemp rope and tie her hands to the spoiler struts. Let her drag behind the car and properly reflect on how to be a bottom-feeding beggar."