2026-09-18 19:24:07Jake woke up on his old dorm bed. The mattress was thin. The room smelled like laundry and cold coffee. For a few seconds he forgot everything. Then the night before came back all at once—Lily standing in the hallway, asking for five minutes, and him saying no.
Sam was already awake, sitting on his bed with his phone. He looked over when Jake sat up.
“You slept?” Sam asked.
“A little.”
“She texted me too, you know. Lily. Asked if you were really here. I didn’t answer.”
Jake rubbed his face. “Thanks.”
Sam set the phone down. “People are talking already. Someone posted a blurry video of you walking into Brightwood yesterday. Comments are going crazy. Half of them say it’s fake. The other half are trying to figure out who the rich guy is that picked you up from the police station.”
Jake stood and pulled on the same jacket from yesterday. It still felt too new. “Let them talk.”
“You going to class?”
“Yeah. Normal day. As normal as it can be.”
Sam watched him for a second. “You sure you’re ready to walk around like nothing happened? Ryan’s still acting like the king of campus. And Lily… she’s not going to stop.”
Jake didn’t answer. He just grabbed his bag and left.
The hallway felt longer than usual. Students glanced at him as he passed. A few whispered. One guy from his history class actually stopped walking.
“Hey… Rivera? That you? People are saying some crazy stuff.”
Jake kept moving. “Don’t believe everything you hear.”
Outside, the morning was cool. The campus paths were busy with people heading to early classes. Jake walked with his head up. He had done this walk a hundred times before. Today every step felt heavier.
His phone buzzed.
Lily: I waited outside your building for almost an hour last night. I just want to talk. Please.
Jake locked the screen without answering.
He made it to the economics building without running into anyone important. The lecture hall was half full. He took his usual seat near the back. A few people turned to look. He ignored them and opened his notebook.
Halfway through the class the door opened. Lily walked in late. She froze for half a second when she saw him. Then she sat three rows in front, like she always did. She never turned around.
Jake stared at the back of her head the whole time. The professor’s voice faded into background noise. All he could think about was the night at the pool—the smile she gave Ryan, the way she denied everything, the way she looked at him in the hallway last night like she was the one who had been hurt.
When class ended he stayed seated until most people left. Lily stood slowly. She glanced back once. Their eyes met. She took a step toward him, then stopped when two of her friends called her name. She left with them.
Jake waited another minute before standing.
In the hallway outside, Ryan Blake was leaning against the wall with two of his usual friends. He saw Jake and pushed off the wall with a grin that did not reach his eyes.
“Well, look who decided to show his face,” Ryan said loud enough for people nearby to hear. “The scholarship kid who thinks he’s special now. Heard some rich guy picked you up like a lost dog. That true?”
Jake kept walking.
Ryan stepped into his path. “I’m talking to you. You hit me at my own party. You think that’s just going to disappear?”
Jake stopped. He looked at Ryan the same way he had looked at the security guard the day before—calm, tired, not impressed.
“Move,” Jake said.
Ryan’s smile got meaner. “Or what? You going to cry to your new sugar daddy?”
A small crowd was forming. Phones were already coming out. Jake felt the familiar heat in his chest, but he kept it down. He was not going to give them another fight to film.
“I said move.”
Ryan leaned closer. “Lily told me you two were never really together. Said you made the whole thing up in your head. Funny how that works, right? Poor kids always invent stories.”
Something in Jake’s face must have changed, because Ryan’s grin widened.
Before Jake could answer, a clear voice cut through the hallway.
“Is there a problem here?”
Emily Rose walked up from the side. She carried a stack of books and looked completely unbothered by the small crowd. Her eyes moved from Ryan to Jake and back again.
Ryan’s expression shifted. He knew who Emily’s family was. Most people on campus did.
“No problem,” Ryan said quickly. “Just catching up with an old friend.”
Emily raised one eyebrow. “Looks more like blocking the hallway. You should move.”
Ryan held up both hands and stepped aside with a forced laugh. “Whatever. See you around, Rivera. Or whatever your name is now.”
He and his friends walked off. The small crowd slowly broke up.
Emily looked at Jake. “You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t look okay.”
Jake gave a short, tired breath. “It’s been a long few days.”
Emily shifted her books. “I heard some of the talk this morning. About Brightwood. About a Montgomery connection. Is it true?”
Jake met her eyes. He could have lied. He didn’t.
“It’s true.”
Emily nodded once, like she had already guessed. “That’s going to change a lot of things around here.”
“I know.”
She was quiet for a second. Then she said, “For what it’s worth, the way Ryan and some of the others treated you at that party was wrong. Money doesn’t change that.”
Jake almost smiled. “Thanks.”
Emily adjusted her books again. “I should get to my next class. But… if you need someone who isn’t going to suddenly act different around you, I’m around.”
She walked away before he could answer.
Jake stood in the emptying hallway. His phone buzzed again.
Lily: I saw what just happened. Ryan is being an idiot. Can we please talk after your next class? Just us. No one else.
Jake stared at the message. The old part of him—the part that still remembered quiet study nights and shared coffee—wanted to say yes. The newer part, the part that still tasted chlorine and blood, wanted to delete her number.
He typed slowly.
After class. The bench by the old library. Ten minutes. That’s all.
He sent it before he could change his mind.
The rest of the morning passed in a blur. Jake went to one more class. He barely heard a word. When it ended he walked across the grass toward the old library. The wooden bench under the big oak tree was empty.
He sat down and waited.
Lily appeared a few minutes later. She walked fast, like she was afraid he would leave. She sat on the far end of the bench, leaving space between them.
“Thank you for coming,” she said.
Jake didn’t look at her. “Ten minutes. Talk.”
Lily twisted her hands in her lap. “I know I hurt you. I know what I said at the party was terrible. I panicked. Ryan had the car. The cameras were everywhere. I didn’t know how to stop it once it started.”
“You could have said no,” Jake said. “You could have told the truth.”
“I know.” Her voice cracked a little. “I was scared of what people would say. Of what my parents would say. Of looking like the girl who dated the poor kid while the rich one was offering everything.”
Jake finally turned his head. “So you chose the rich one in front of thousands of people and left me on the ground.”
Lily’s eyes filled. “I’m not asking you to forgive me today. I’m just asking you not to hate me forever. What we had… it was real for me. Even if I was too much of a coward to show it when it mattered.”
Jake looked at her for a long time. The girl who used to make him laugh in the back of the coffee shop. The girl who had stood in a tiny swimsuit and denied he existed.
“I don’t hate you,” he said quietly. “But I don’t trust you either. Not yet. Maybe not ever.”
Lily nodded, wiping at her eyes quickly. “That’s fair.”
A group of students walked past on the path. One of them glanced over and whispered something to the others. Phones came out again.
Jake stood. “Time’s up.”
Lily stood too. “Will you at least answer if I text sometimes? Just so I know you’re okay?”
Jake didn’t promise anything. He just said, “We’ll see.”
He walked away first. Behind him he heard Lily stay on the bench. He did not look back.
The campus kept moving around him like nothing had changed. But everything had. The tension between what used to be and what was now sat heavy in his chest. Lily wanted a way back in. Ryan still wanted a fight. And Jake was still figuring out who he was supposed to be in the middle of it all.
He kept walking. The next step would come soon enough.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 9
Jake barely slept. The dorm room stayed quiet, but his mind did not. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Lily on the bench, then Lily at the pool, then Lily in the hallway asking for five minutes. The three pictures kept mixing until he gave up and sat on the edge of the bed while it was still dark.Sam snored lightly on the other side of the room. Jake pulled on jeans and the same jacket from the day before. He left a short note on the desk so Sam would not worry and slipped out.Campus at early morning felt different. The paths were almost empty. Mist hung low near the grass. Jake walked without a real plan. His feet took him toward the old library again. The bench under the oak tree was empty. He did not sit. He just stood there for a minute, then kept moving.By the time the first classes started, the air had changed. People looked at him longer. Phones came out more often. Someone in the hallway actually said his name and the word “Montgomery” in the same sentence. Jake pretende
Chapter 8
Jake walked away from the bench without looking back. The path under the old oak trees felt longer than usual. Students passed him in groups. Some stared. Some whispered. He kept his eyes forward.His phone stayed quiet for almost an hour. That almost felt worse than the constant messages.He went to the library and tried to study. The words on the page did not stick. Every few minutes his mind went back to Lily on the bench—her red eyes, the way her voice cracked, the way she said “what we had was real.” Part of him wanted to believe her. The bigger part still heard her telling the whole party she never knew him.Sam found him at a corner table two hours later.“You talked to her,” Sam said. It was not a question.Jake nodded once.“And?”“She said she panicked. Said she was scared of what people would think. Said it was real for her.”Sam dropped into the chair across from him. “Do you buy it?”“I don’t know.” Jake closed the book he had not been reading. “I told her I don’t trust h
Chapter 7
Jake woke up on his old dorm bed. The mattress was thin. The room smelled like laundry and cold coffee. For a few seconds he forgot everything. Then the night before came back all at once—Lily standing in the hallway, asking for five minutes, and him saying no.Sam was already awake, sitting on his bed with his phone. He looked over when Jake sat up.“You slept?” Sam asked.“A little.”“She texted me too, you know. Lily. Asked if you were really here. I didn’t answer.”Jake rubbed his face. “Thanks.”Sam set the phone down. “People are talking already. Someone posted a blurry video of you walking into Brightwood yesterday. Comments are going crazy. Half of them say it’s fake. The other half are trying to figure out who the rich guy is that picked you up from the police station.”Jake stood and pulled on the same jacket from yesterday. It still felt too new. “Let them talk.”“You going to class?”“Yeah. Normal day. As normal as it can be.”Sam watched him for a second. “You sure you’re
Chapter 6
Jake rode back to the estate in silence. The car was quiet. The driver never spoke. Outside the windows the city turned into trees and long private roads. Jake kept his old phone in his hand, screen still dark. Lily’s last messages sat there like open wounds.I need time.He had sent those three words and meant them. But the words kept looping in his head anyway.When the car stopped under the covered entrance, Harrison was already waiting. He opened the door without a word. Jake stepped out. The clean clothes from that morning still felt like they belonged to someone else.“Your grandfather is in the study,” Harrison said. “He asked to see you when you returned.”Jake nodded and walked inside. The big hall still made him feel small. He climbed the stairs slowly. His side hurt less today, but the memory of the pool and the bottle still sat under his skin.Richard looked up from his desk when Jake entered. The old man set his papers aside.“You went to Brightwood,” Richard said. It was
Chapter 5
Jake kept walking through Brightwood Shopping Center. The floors were shiny. The air smelled clean and expensive. People in nice clothes moved past him without looking twice. No one knew who he was yet. That felt strange.His new jacket still felt stiff. The black card sat in the inside pocket. He had not used it. He did not even take it out. Part of him still expected someone to stop him and ask what a kid like him was doing there.Near the main entrance a security guard stepped in front of him. The man looked Jake up and down—old sneakers, plain pants, no fancy watch.“Whoa. Where do you think you’re going?” the guard asked. His voice was already bored and mean.“Inside,” Jake said. “I’m here for lunch.”The guard laughed. “Lunch? Here? Look, this isn’t the place for people like you.” He pulled a crumpled ten-dollar bill from his pocket and held it out. “Take this. Go find a burger place down the road. That should cover a meal.”Jake’s face got hot. He did not take the money. “I don
Chapter 4
Jake barely slept that night. The bed was huge and soft, but every time he closed his eyes he saw the pool lights again. He saw Lily’s face when she said she didn’t know him. He saw Ryan’s smirk. The black card Richard had given him sat on the nightstand like it might disappear if he looked away too long.His old phone buzzed under the pillow. He pulled it out.Sam: Dude where are you?? Police said some guy in a suit took you. Call me.Sam: Jake I’m serious. People are saying you got arrested or worse.Sam: Please just tell me you’re alive.Jake sat up slowly. His side still hurt. He typed back with one hand.I’m okay. Long story. Don’t tell anyone you heard from me yet.Sam answered almost right away.What the hell does that mean? Are you safe?Safe. Just different. I’ll explain when I can.Jake turned the phone off before more messages came.Across the room the new phone from the estate glowed softly. He walked over and picked it up. One message waited.Young Master, your grandfathe
