I Helped Him Get Into an Elite University—Then He Dumped Me Before Day One Chapter 06

I Helped Him Get Into an Elite University—Then He Dumped Me Before Day One Chapter 06

Her words landed like a poisoned barb, striking the one place I least wanted touched. 

I lifted the glass in front of me and took a slow sip. 

No matter how ugly that part of my past was, it was never mine to choose. 

“But the life I have now is one I built step by step with my own hands. Every dollar I’ve earned and every step I’ve taken has been clean and aboveboard. As for whether my position is secure, that’s not something any of you need to worry about.” 

I set down my glass and rose to my feet. 

A reunion built on hypocrisy, snobbery, and malice was boring beyond words. 

“Sorry. I have somewhere else to be.” 

With that, I picked up the coat draped over the back of my chair, turned, and headed for the door. 

“Wait, Claire!” 

A tall figure suddenly stepped in front of me, carrying 

with him a scent I knew all too well. 

It was Adrian. 

He caught my arm and pulled me into the shadowed corner by the stairwell, then fixed me with an intense 

stare. 

“Why did you leave without saying a word back then?” 

“Why did you block every way I had to contact you?” 

The expression on his face, that wounded look of why 

did you leave me behind, was so absurd it almost made. 

me laugh. 

I curved my lips faintly, my tone as calm as if I were 

stating a simple fact. 

“Because the job was done. There was no reason to stay 

in touch after that.” 

“The job?” 

Adrian frowned, as if he genuinely did not understand 

the word, or perhaps simply refused to. 

He took a step closer, speaking with the kind of 

stubborn confidence that bordered on obsession. 

“Claire, stop pretending.” 

“You left because I got together with Hannah, didn’t you? You were hurt. You were miserable. That’s why you ran off overseas, right?” 

He searched my face as though he expected to find some trace of heartbreak there, but there was nothing. 

Then, suddenly serious, he said, “I looked for you for a long time. You’ve always mattered to me.” 

“I…” 

He did not finish the sentence, but the emotion in his 

eyes was nearly spilling over. 

The truth was, there had once been the faintest flicker 

of feeling. 

In those rare moments when he was not unbearable, 

when he frowned slightly while listening to me explain 

a problem, or when he sat there in awkward silence 

while I cleaned and dressed the cuts he got from fighting, something in me had stirred. 

But that tiny spark had been crushed almost as soon as it appeared, ground flat by the way he and his friends. made a joke of me as his pathetic tagalong, and by the way he took everything I gave him as though it were his due, only to sneer at me for being stiff and boring. 

I looked at him, my gaze clear and steady, and told him 

each word plainly. 

“Adrian Sterling, my leaving had absolutely nothing to 

do with whoever you were dating.” 

“And since we’re being honest, let me be very clear. 

The reason I got close to you in the first place was your 

family’s money.” 

“That’s impossible.” 

His voice rose sharply, laced with anger and a flicker of 

panic he could not quite hide. 

“You’re lying. Claire, you’re not that kind of person.” 

“For three years in high school, I tried over and over to 

give you money, to buy you things, and you turned me 

down every time. You wouldn’t even take a pen from me. How could this ever have been about money?” 

The way he offered up those details, as if they were definitive proof that his judgment had to be right, was 

so naive it was almost laughable. 

Looking at him like that, earnest to the point of 

absurdity, I could not help letting out a quiet laugh. 

“You really are naive.” 

“What is that supposed to mean?” 

I did not answer. I simply stepped around him as he 

stood there frozen in place, and walked away.