She Didn’t Fix Her Reputation. She Threw It Away. Chapter 25

She Didn’t Fix Her Reputation. She Threw It Away. Chapter 25

Beckett’s appearance was just a strange, jarring interruption.

My life moved on.

After finals, I finished the semester with a GPA that put me in the top one percent of my class.

My paper on the burden of proof in environmental litigation was accepted for publication in the Reed College Law Review.

But the biggest surprise was waiting for me in the dean’s office.

“Claire,” Dean Miller said, setting down my file and beaming at me. “Given your academic performance, and especially your leadership of the debate team, the college has decided to formally nominate you as a candidate for the Rhodes Scholarship.”

The room was filled with applause.

There was no jealousy, no whispered questions about how a transfer student could have earned such an honor.

The professors and my classmates were all genuinely, unequivocally proud of me.

I stood and thanked them, a steady warmth spreading through my chest.

In New York, every achievement I’d ever had was credited to the Wells name.

Here, this was mine. All mine.

Julian finally worked up the courage to ask me out.

It was after a late-night debate practice.

He stood in front of me, clutching a stack of books to his chest, looking endearingly nervous.

“Claire,” he said, “are you… are you free this weekend?”