The Million-Dollar Tutor Was Never a Love Story

"Fifty bucks an hour? Giselle, are you that desperate?"

The taunt had barely landed when a harsh scraping sound cut through the air.

A thick red marker slashed across the corkboard, drawing a massive X over my flyer and obliterating the bolded "TUTOR" in one brutal stroke.

Laughter erupted from the crowd gathered around.

I turned. Aston was twirling the marker between two fingers, sauntering out from the ring of spectators with that infuriating smirk plastered across his face.

His navy varsity jacket hung open, everything about him screaming entitled asshole.

As the sole heir to the Whitmore fortune, he was untouchable royalty at St. Jude's Prep—and also the school's biggest academic disaster.

"If you're that desperate, why don't you come scrub my pool?" Aston ripped down my flyer and crumpled it into a ball, tossing it into the trash. "A hundred an hour. Call it my good deed for the year."

Laura, the cheer captain, looped her arm through his and added with a cold laugh:

"Aston, don't bother. If she spends her weekends cleaning your pool, she probably won't even afford used textbooks next semester."

They played off each other perfectly, waiting for me to crumble under their humiliation.

I didn't even blink. Compared to scraping together next month's dialysis payment, their little power games were nothing.

I simply unzipped my worn backpack, pulled out a fresh flyer, and pinned it firmly back onto the board with a thumbtack.

"If you're not hiring, don't waste my printing paper." I dusted off my hands. "Black and white printing. Five cents a sheet."

Aston's smile vanished. What he couldn't stand most was this—my complete indifference, like his privilege was crashing into dead water.

His expression darkened as he stepped forward, about to unleash—

Sharp heels clicked down the hallway, instantly silencing the laughter. The crowd that had been circling us moments ago instinctively parted.

Mrs. Whitmore strode toward us with her assistant in tow, radiating an ice-cold authority that demanded submission.

She didn't even spare her son a glance, but Aston immediately straightened his spine, dropping the cocky act as he muttered, "Mom."

Mrs. Whitmore walked straight up to me. Behind her sunglasses, she scanned me up and down like I was merchandise waiting to be appraised.

"Giselle Rivera. The girl who's glued to the top spot?"

"That's me, Mrs. Whitmore." I met her gaze without flinching.

"Come with me." She turned on her heel, leaving no room for discussion.

I didn't ask why. In a place this brutally hierarchical, her last name was an absolute command.

I shouldered my bag and followed her assistant down the corridor, all the way to the end of the hall where she pushed open the heavy wooden door to the principal's office.

The thick door shut behind me, sealing off the noise outside.

Inside the spacious office, the principal—usually so self-important—now stood in the corner wringing his hands like an anxious underling.

Mrs. Whitmore pulled a folder from her bag and slid it across the desk. Inside was my transcript—all A's—alongside a glaring past-due notice from a public hospital.

"I've done my homework on you, Giselle. Your mother's waiting for a kidney. You're six hundred dollars short on next month's dialysis." Her tone was flat, clinical. She'd just laid my most humiliating secret bare.

I stared at the notice, nails digging into my palms, forcing myself to swallow every emotion threatening to surface.

"What do you want? Cut to it." I looked up and held her stare.

That blunt response earned me a raised eyebrow. Mrs. Whitmore's manicured fingers tapped twice on the paper.

"Aston has less than a year to fix his transcript. I'm not expecting a perfect score. What I need is for you to drag his GPA above the passing line."

"The Whitmore family just donated a building to Yale. The board will reserve a spot for him, naturally. But I will not allow the Whitmore heir to be unable to produce a single respectable transcript—to become the laughingstock of high society."

Pull the school's biggest academic failure into respectability in one year?

"That's not something regular tutoring can accomplish." I stated the facts calmly. "His foundation is too weak. Two hours after school won't make a dent."

"Which is why I'm not hiring you for two hours." She didn't hesitate. "You'll move into the estate. Twenty-four-seven oversight of his schedule and academics."

"Mrs. Whitmore, you can't be serious!" The principal finally burst out from the corner.

Worried about his precious college acceptance rate, he jumped in. "Giselle has to submit her early applications to the Ivies next month! If she spends her entire senior year babysitting Aston—"

"Five million dollars."

Mrs. Whitmore didn't even turn her head as she cut him off.

She locked eyes with me and dropped her final card: "Plus your mother gets transferred to the best private hospital in the country tonight. Within thirty days, she'll have a healthy living donor kidney. All expenses covered."

The office fell into dead silence, nothing but the low hum of the air conditioning.

Five million. Even if I worked minimum wage for the rest of my life, tutored for thousands of hours, I'd never touch a fraction of that sum. The cost? Gambling away my own future to clean up after the asshole waiting outside.

But she wasn't just buying my time. She was buying my mother's life.

This wasn't a choice at all.

I didn't give myself even half a second to hesitate. I grabbed the pen from the desk. I didn't even glance at the fine print—I flipped to the last page and signed my name.

"We have a deal, Mrs. Whitmore." I slid the contract back across the desk.

She seemed mildly surprised by how quickly I'd caved. Mrs. Whitmore stood, smoothing the wrinkles from her blazer.

"Tomorrow morning, eight sharp. The driver will pick you up. I don't want to see anything lower than a B on Aston's next report card."

Without another word, she left with her assistant in tow.

As the door clicked shut, the principal turned to me, devastated. "Giselle, have you lost your mind? Application season is almost over! You're throwing away your future for money—"

"If I can't keep my mom alive today, what's the point of tomorrow?" I cut him off, folded the hospital notice into my pocket, and slung my faded backpack over my shoulder. "Thanks for your concern."

I pushed open the heavy door and immediately spotted Aston leaning against the wall outside. The moment he saw me, his blue eyes filled with mockery.

He straightened, one eyebrow arched. "What? Did my mom just expel you?"

I stopped and looked at him.

Ten minutes ago, he was just a bullying nuisance. But now, this useless shell of a human had automatically converted into five million dollars and my mother's life.

Even if he was a lost cause, I'd have to drag him kicking and screaming into the Ivy League.

"Sorry to disappoint you."

I stepped closer and gave him a smile with zero warmth behind it. "Starting tomorrow, every minute of your day belongs to me."

Aston's smirk froze. His brow furrowed instantly.

Before he could respond, I added quietly, "Enjoy your last day of freedom."

I brushed past him and headed for the stairs, my mind already racing through exactly how ruthless I'd need to be to drag this idiot past the finish line.