Chapter1

"I don't think I've ever seen you take that necklace off."

At 1:00 a.m., Vanessa's voice suddenly broke through the heavy dark of Room 201, thick with quiet curiosity.

I shifted in the top bunk, my fingertips instinctively finding the cold bit of metal at my collar.

"You even wear it in the shower. Anyone else would think it's some kind of lucky charm." She chuckled from the bottom bunk, the bedsprings groaning faintly.

"Just something I wear," I deflected.

"Let me guess. A promise ring kind of deal from a boyfriend?"

I wasn't one to play the victim. Here in the Ivy League, I kept my family background meticulously hidden. The massive allowance wired into my account every month sat completely untouched. In circles like these, flaunting wealth without carrying weapons just made you a fool.

But I genuinely believed Vanessa was different.

During the second week of classes, my acute gastritis flared up. I was curled up in bed in the middle of the night, holding back cold sweats from the searing pain. Without a single complaint, she threw on a jacket and rushed out, running two blocks at one in the morning to find a pharmacy that was still open. When she came back, her hair was plastered to her face from the pouring rain, but the medicine box she had shielded against her chest with her own body was completely dry.

I leaned against the headboard, watching her twist off the medicine cap, and asked why she was being so good to me. Without even looking up, she simply replied, "We're roommates. We look out for each other. My little brother has bad health too, so I'm used to taking care of people."

That was the first time I felt that in this university where everyone wore a mask, there was at least one person I didn't need to guard myself against. She had never seen my family's money and didn't know who my parents were; she was good to me simply because I was Maya.

Later, when I missed Advanced Calculus, she transcribed the notes out by hand for me word for word, even jotting down the professor's slips of the tongue in the margins.

In my heart, she was my only sanctuary here.

"Not a boyfriend," I finally said, the metal in my palm growing warm under my tight grip. "Someone who saved my life."

The bottom bunk fell completely silent.

I pulled the chain out from my collar, my fingertips tracing the uneven craters on the back.

"I was kidnapped when I was eight. Locked in the basement of an abandoned warehouse. No light, freezing, and starving. I just kept crying."

"Oh my god..." Vanessa sucked in a sharp breath.

"Another little boy who had been taken found me." I closed my eyes. "He was terrified my crying would alert the kidnappers. He picked up a snapped silver chain from the ground and wedged it between my teeth. I clamped down into the soft metal, leaving several deep indentations. Later, when the chain was violently torn apart, he took half and shoved the other half into my hand. He said we'd see each other again."

I let out a long breath. "Since then, I've never taken this piece off."

The rustle of movement came from below as she climbed out of bed. Vanessa padded barefoot to the side of my bunk, her hands firmly gripping my arm through the duvet. "That is so incredibly painful... Maya, how did you even survive that?"

The pale glow of a streetlamp eked through the gap in the curtains. I could clearly see the moisture shimmering in her eyes and the deep crease between her brows.

"It's in the past," I said, covering her hands with mine. "I'm just still looking for him. If I see this necklace, I'll know instantly. I made that bite mark myself."

Vanessa didn't respond right away. Her thumbs stroked back and forth across the back of my hand, pausing for about two seconds as if searching for the right words. Then she said, "You're such a good person. The universe will definitely make sure you two reunite."

The tail end of that sentence pitched up slightly, a shift so brief it was almost negligible. But looking back on it years later, I realized that was probably the unsuppressed thrill of someone whose lie was exactly about to pay off.

I slept like the dead that night. I even fell back into a long-forgotten dream of escaping that warehouse.

I foolishly believed that baring my deepest scars to my only roommate would finally help me leave that basement behind for good.

At 2:00 a.m., Vanessa was wide awake. Barefoot, she slunk to the head of my bed. After confirming the steady cadence of my breathing, she used her fingertip to delicately hook the pendant away from the hollow of my neck. She disabled her phone's flash and, relying entirely on the sterile glow of the screen, brought the camera lens less than two inches away.

One shot of the front to capture the contour.

She flipped it over, locking the focus onto the chaotic craters hovering above my collarbone—recording a crystal-clear image of the unforgeable bite mark.

She sent the entire gallery of macro shots to a contact saved simply as "E."

Beneath the images, she added a brutal confession:

"Jackpot, babe. Play the hero. She's loaded — enough for your startup and that car we wanted."

And sleeping less than three feet away, I remained completely oblivious.

When I woke up the next morning, the backside of the pendant was pressing sharply into my collarbone. Vanessa stood at the bathroom sink applying her eyeliner. Catching sight of me sitting up in the mirror, the corners of her mouth curved upward.

"Morning, Maya." She capped her lipstick and turned around. "Don't forget the club rush this afternoon. I'm introducing you to that absurdly gorgeous senior who just won the massive venture capital prize."

She walked over, reaching out to smooth my sleep-rumpled collar. As her fingertips brushed against the edge of my chain, they lingered for half a second longer than necessary.

"Trust me. You're going to feel like you've known him your entire life."

I nodded, tucking the pendant safely back beneath my heavy shirt, and smiled back. "Alright. I'll follow your lead."