Chapter 1

The bass from the Homecoming DJ shook the gym floor, but out here in the east hallway, it was just a dull thud.

I leaned against the brick wall, staring down at the crinkled papers in my hand.

Transfer Application: Maple Creek High, Ohio.

Both our parents’ signatures were right there on the bottom line. I had practically gone to war with my family to get them. I screamed at my father. I voluntarily froze my trust fund. I completely threw away my Yale debate camp spot. I even emailed the admissions office at Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland to reject their offer.

All to follow Duke Brooks to a public school in the middle of nowhere.

I was smiling. I couldn't wait to see his face.

I walked into the sports equipment storage room. But before I could push the door open, a voice drifted through the crack.

"Bro, you really pulled it off. Faking being bullied for two months just to get Delphine to transfer?"

My hand stopped mid-air. I froze. Faking being bullied?

"She’s been your best friend since elementary school," another guy chimed in. "You really okay with sending her off to that hick town alone?"

A familiar laugh cut through the air. Duke’s laugh.

"It’s just another public school in the same state," Duke sneered. "How bad can it be?"

"Damn. Cold-blooded."

"Look, she’s been clinging to me like a golden retriever for years."

"It’s exhausting. She acts like she's so far above everyone else with that Windsor money. Having her constantly breathing down my neck is suffocating. This is the perfect way to get rid of her."

My blood turned to ice.

Over the last two months, Havenwood High had suddenly turned into a war zone for Duke. He got shoved into lockers. People poured Gatorade over his head. Someone planted a stolen test in his backpack.

I took the fall for that test. That’s exactly why Yale pulled my recommendation.

Just last week, I jumped in front of him in the parking lot and took a heavy punch to the shoulder from a pissed-off linebacker. My collarbone bruised for days.

I remembered exactly how Duke looked afterward. His hair was plastered to his forehead with sticky soda, his eyes red.

“Delphine, I can’t go to a new school alone,” he had whispered, his voice cracking perfectly. “I’d be lost without you.”

And I, like a complete idiot, looked at the boy I had secretly loved for years and promised, “Wherever you go, I go with you.”

Inside the room, the guys were still laughing.

"Aren’t you scared she’ll meet someone else at Maple Creek?" Liam asked, sounding amused. "Girls like her don’t stay single long."

Duke laughed harder.

"Her? She took a punch for me last month and didn’t even flinch. You think she’d ever look at anyone else?"

"She acts like she’s some untouchable heiress, but I’ve never even thought of her as anything more than a backup. Ship her off to Maple Creek for two years. By the time she comes back, Jen and I will probably have a kid. "

Jen.

Jennifer Carter.

The sweet, innocent transfer student with the soft southern drawl. The one who always looked at Duke like he was a god.

My heart sank into a bottomless pit. It was hollow. Suffocating.

For a split second, my hand gripped the door handle. I wanted to kick the door open. I wanted to scream at him.

I wanted to ask why he lied to me.

I wanted to ask if he felt even a single second of guilt when he watched me take a fist for him.

I wanted to ask if our ten years of friendship meant absolutely nothing to him.

But as my fingers tightened around the metal, my father’s voice suddenly echoed in my head. Cold, aristocratic, and precise.

“Delphine, never do unnecessary things. People don’t rot overnight. By the time you notice the smell, they’ve been garbage for a long time.”

He was right.

I stepped back from the door.

I didn't bust in. I didn't demand answers.

Instead, I pulled my phone out of my purse, opened the voice memo app, and hit the red record button. I held it right near the crack of the door.

When the laughter inside finally started dying down, I tapped stop. Saved the file. Backed it up to the cloud.

I turned around and walked away.

Maple Creek? I thought, unlocking my phone and pulling up my father's contact.

Not a chance in hell.

Since you want to banish me to the edge of the world to play house with your little charity case, fine.

I’ll go to the one place you can never reach in this lifetime.