Chapter 1

1.

I stood at the hospital entrance, my legs trembling beneath me.

In my hand, I clutched the five hundred thousand dollars I had just received from selling my kidney.

My face was deathly pale, but a small, satisfied smile tugged at my lips.

With this money, Quinn's illness could finally be cured.

Trading a piece of myself for his life was worth every bit of the pain.

I ignored the post-surgical exhaustion and forced myself to run, stumbling toward his hospital room.

Every thought in my head was filled with worry for the man lying weak on that bed.

"Hey, Quinn, your little trailer-trash girlfriend isn't even here. Who are you putting this show on for?"

"Back off! I'm perfecting my performance. How else am I supposed to keep her fooled?"

A familiar voice, full of arrogant laughter, drifted from the room. My hand froze on the doorknob.

What did he mean by... keeping me fooled?

A burst of laughter erupted from inside.

"Man, Quinn is a genius! He fakes a medical report and has that woman spinning in circles. She actually thinks he has terminal cancer."

"I heard she emptied her entire savings for him. Do you know how much it was? A measly sixty thousand bucks!"

"God, sixty thousand? Quinn spends more than that on a single bottle of scotch at the club. That woman really has no shame, thinking that little bit of change is enough."

The words hit me like physical blows, leaving me numb from head to toe.

Quinn Lucas faking cancer... was all a lie?

Inside the room, the man who was supposedly too weak to move suddenly threw off the covers and jumped out of bed.

One of his friends expertly handed him a lit cigarette.

Quinn took a drag, his face obscured by a cloud of smoke.

The tender, loving expression I had known for two years was gone, replaced by a cold, unfamiliar mask.

"Whatever. She's poor anyway. The fact that she managed to scrape together sixty grand was more than I expected."

The room filled with more cruel mockery.

"Oh, looks like Quinn might actually feel bad for her! Better watch out, if Janessa finds out, she'll raise hell."

"As if. Quinn just thinks she's a pathetic charity case. He only hid his status as the Lucas family heir to date that nobody to get back at Janessa for that school rivalry. Janessa is his true love. He actually lived in that dump of an apartment for two years just for her."

"That woman should be thanking Janessa. If it weren't for her, a girl like Aria Vance would never have even breathed the same air as a man from high society."

I stood outside the door, my body shaking uncontrollably. My mind was a chaotic blur of betrayal.

Quinn exhaled a slow ring of smoke, his voice indifferent.

"I was just surprised it was that easy to make her go broke. I should've faked being sick sooner."

"Well, Janessa should be satisfied now."

Those two icy sentences shattered the last remains of hope in my heart.

My already pale face turned a ghostly white, and the world began to tilt around me.

A passing nurse noticed my state and hurried over.

"Miss? Are you okay? Do you need help?"

I snapped back to reality. Hearing footsteps near the door, I whispered a quick thanks to the nurse and dragged my heavy feet toward the restroom.

In the mirror, I saw a stranger with a face as white as paper.

Those heart-piercing words kept echoing in my skull.

I never imagined that Quinn, the guy I thought was a struggling student like me, was actually the crown prince of the Lucas empire.

Our entire relationship had been a carefully crafted scam.

Sweet memories of the past two years collided with this brutal new reality.

We had met because of a cliché accident.

Two years ago, I was working a late shift at a grill bar.

A drunk customer started getting handsy with me, and the manager just looked the other way.

I was ready to smash a bottle over the guy's head when a large, warm hand stepped in, pulling me behind his back.

In that moment, looking at his silhouette, my heart skipped a beat.

It was a cheesy trope, but for an orphan like me, that protection felt like the most precious thing in the world.

Later, he told me he was an orphan too, working three jobs just to survive. He claimed he had to drop out of college because he couldn't afford tuition.

We shared the same background, or so I thought. We fell in love.

To save money for a future home, I moved out of the dorms and into a tiny, ten-square-meter studio in the slums with him.

The life was hard, but I never complained. I thought we were building a future together.

Then, a month ago, he told me he had cancer and needed a fortune for treatment.

I loved him more than my own life. I couldn't let my only family die.

I gave him my entire life savings of sixty thousand dollars, earned from four years of grueling part-time work.

But Quinn told me the treatment would cost five hundred thousand.

Desperate and seeing him "wither away" on that bed, I suppressed my fear and went to the black market.

I sold my kidney for the remaining five hundred thousand dollars.

I thought this sacrifice would save him and bring our hopeful life back.

I was so wrong.

His background was a lie. The cancer was a lie.

I even began to wonder if that night at the bar was a setup too.

Tears streamed down my face, and the heavy bag of cash in my arms felt like a mockery of my stupidity.

I had given up a vital organ for a liar.

As for the "Janessa" they mentioned, I could only think of Janessa Sterling, the girl a year below me.

In my sophomore year, I won a five-thousand-dollar scholarship in a speech contest. I needed that money for my tuition.

Janessa came in second.

When I went up to get the award, she whispered in my ear, "Nobody steals the spotlight from me."

I thought it was just a spoiled girl's petty grudge.

I never thought she would make me pay such a devastating price.

I wiped the tears from my face and dialed my advisor, Professor Miller.

Two weeks ago, he had offered me a chance to study abroad on a full scholarship.

I had turned it down instantly, my head filled with saving Quinn's life.

Now that the truth was out, there was no reason to throw away my future for a monster.

I was done playing cat and mouse with these bored rich kids.

"Professor, I want to accept the offer to study abroad."