Chapter 5

Molly's POV

I rushed forward and grabbed Luna by the wrist.

“You said I’d hooked up with a rich man,” I demanded coldly. “Show me your evidence. If you can’t, keep your mouth shut, or I’ll sue you for defamation.”

Luna gave me a mocking smile, jealousy and disgust flashing in her eyes, then wrenched her hand free.

“Evidence?” Luna laughed and deliberately raised her voice so the entire classroom could hear. “Molly, your family owes millions, and your mother is still lying unconscious in the hospital. You’re desperate to make every dollar count, so why would you get a physical? If your sugar daddy didn’t demand it, did you do it because you had nothing better to do?”

My nails dug into my palm. In one respect, Luna was right. I had gotten the physical so I could sell myself. But of course I couldn’t admit that in front of my classmates! Besides, from another perspective, if Harrison was satisfied with my medical report, he would marry me. What we had was nothing like a kept-woman arrangement.

While I was thinking, Luna took my silence for guilt, and her smile deepened. She turned sideways and tipped her chin toward the back corner. “Ward, haven’t you always liked Molly?”

Ward was leaning back in his chair with his legs crossed, idly waving his phone around. At the sound of his name, he looked up.

“Here’s your chance.” Luna’s tone was airy, as if she were recommending a newly opened restaurant. “She needs money, and your family has plenty. Spend a little and you can sleep with her. What a bargain.”

Several muffled laughs sounded around the classroom. Blood rushed to my face, then drained just as quickly, leaving my hands and feet cold.

Ward had pursued me during our sophomore year and sent me flowers for an entire month. I hadn’t accepted them once. He eventually gave up, and when people asked him why, he said it was because he had learned I had a boyfriend. Judging by that, he probably wouldn’t involve himself in my dispute with Luna. What she had said was disgusting.

Yet the next second, Ward rose unhurriedly, pulled a stack of cash from his bag—about five thousand dollars—and placed it neatly on the corner of the desk in front of me. His gaze traveled over me from head to toe as if assessing my price.

“Luna’s right,” he said with a smile. “You need money now, so why not be with me? I promise you’ll never want for food or clothes.”

“I brought you the deal.” Luna propped her cheek on one hand, looking so smug that even her eyebrows seemed to smile. “Molly, shouldn’t you pay me a finder’s fee?”

Two or three more boys crowded over. Joining in, they copied Ward and put money on the desk, one bill and then another, until they had made a small stack. Someone whistled and said, “Miss Molly, how much for one night? Name your price.”

A hand reached toward my face. I slapped it away in disgust and glared fiercely at the people insulting me.

“Listen carefully.” I looked at them one by one, my gaze moving from Ward to the other boys. “Don’t think anyone will forget a single word you said today. If you join Luna in spreading rumors, I’ll sue every last one of you.”

Ward froze for a moment, then burst into laughter, his shoulders shaking.

“Sue me?” He wiped the corner of his eye. “Molly, can you afford a lawsuit? Your fiancé—no, your ex-fiancé, Joyce—has already broken off your engagement. He has a new girlfriend now. He won’t spend money on his bankrupt ex. Lawyers aren’t cheap, and you still want to take us to court? If you’re not awake yet, you can sleep in my arms for a while. Ha!”

“Molly, if you don’t have the money, I can lend it to you. We can negotiate the interest,” someone called out amid the jeering.

Another wave of laughter rose around me. I stood there listening, suddenly wanting to fling the stack of money on the desk into Ward’s face. But I knew I couldn’t. People were watching my every move, waiting for me to lose control, waiting for me to become the “young lady who showed her true colors the moment she went bankrupt” that they claimed I was.

I refused.

Just then, the door opened. The teacher walked in with his lesson plans under one arm and swept his gaze around the classroom, his face darkening. “Why are you all standing there? Get back to your seats.”

The boys became like chickens grabbed by the throat. In an instant, their arrogance vanished, and each looked more obedient than the last. The teacher eyed the pile of cash on the desk and snapped, “Whose money is that? Are you waiting for me to take it to lost and found?”

The boys who had put down money stuffed their bills back into their pockets one by one. As Ward walked away, he arched an eyebrow at me and slowly tucked his cash back into his bag, acting as though he hadn’t said a word.

Luna also sat up straight and flashed me a smug, contemptuous smile.

Clutching my phone, I returned to my seat, sat down, and set my bag on my lap. I glanced at the screen. A small dot at the top showed that it was recording.

That was right. Before I had even stepped through the classroom door, I had pressed the record button. Every word Luna had said, every remark from Ward, the jeers from those boys, and even the faint sounds of those bills landing on the desk were all there, clear and complete, without a second missing.

I pressed stop and watched the file save successfully. The duration in the upper-right corner read eleven minutes and forty seconds. I locked my phone, turned it over, and laid it facedown on the desk.

Luna, did you think I came here to beg you to keep quiet? I came to collect evidence. Just wait. Soon you’ll find out whether I was telling the truth when I said I would sue you.

After finally making it through the class, I packed my things, ignored Ward’s lecherous stare, and left the school without stopping.

With my medical report in hand, I practically ran to Harrison’s office.

Marcia’s medical bills climbed day by day. Our family’s debts came due one after another. What I owed wasn’t a few million. It was a number with no end in sight.

Harrison was the last lifeline I could grasp.

I stood outside his office, my palms slick with nervous sweat. I took a deep breath and knocked.

“Come in.” Harrison’s deep, unreadable voice came from inside.

I pushed the door open and entered. Harrison sat behind his desk with his sleeves rolled up to his forearms and several documents spread before him. He lifted his eyes to me.

I placed the envelope on his desk and stepped back half a pace.

“Mr. Harrison, this is my medical report.”

He reached for it and turned through the pages one by one. I watched his expression with complete concentration, terrified that he might show the slightest hint of dissatisfaction. His eyelashes were long, casting small shadows in his eye sockets when he lowered them. I found myself counting each page he turned. One page, two pages, three.

The office held only the faint rustle of paper and the ticking of the clock on the wall.

My heartbeat was impossibly loud. I was standing there, waiting for a man to finish reading my medical report and decide my future...

“Molly,” Harrison said.

As Harrison slowly raised his head to look at me, I held my breath without meaning to.