Chapter 3

"Samuel, is Samantha really mad at me? Do you think she'll ever forgive me?" Sophie asked, her voice shaky with anxiety.

"I swear I didn't do it on purpose. I just couldn't stand looking at that photo. How was I supposed to know the coffee would spill right then and totally wreck the hard drive?" she added, her voice getting more desperate.

"You think I shouldn't have messed with the wallpaper, right?" she asked, her eyes searching his face for comfort.

Just when I thought Samuel would at least scold Sophie and tell her to stop messing around, his gentle, helpless voice sounded beside me. "I'm not mad at you."

"But you did mess up, so no coffee for a month," he added.

Then he turned to me with a grin and explained, "She's always been like this, gets in trouble and immediately starts crying. Not letting her have her favorite coffee for a whole month is punishment enough. She'll remember this for sure."

"Can you tell her I'm not mad at her? Don't let her keep beating herself up," he said.

I could hardly believe my ears.

If it had really been my project that got trashed today, all those months I poured into it would've gone down the drain.

And Sophie, the one who caused all this, only got banned from coffee for a month? Seriously?

My heart just kept sinking, bit by bit.

I managed a smile that was even uglier than crying. But I just couldn't stand by and watch Samuel lose this once-in-a-lifetime chance.

Even though his words just now left me completely numb.

But after three years together, I just couldn't bring myself to walk away.

I turned to Sophie at the elevator and said, slowly and clearly, "I'm not mad at you."

As soon as she heard that, Sophie instantly stopped crying and broke into a grin, her face shining with the triumphant glow of someone who'd just won.

Right now, my emotions were a tangled mess.

Honestly, I really did love Samuel.

I admired his drive, the way he never gave up on his dreams, no matter what.

I always thought Samuel and I were partners in crime, soulmates who always had each other's backs. I never questioned what we had.

But right then, I started to doubt.

"Samantha, I know you switched that wallpaper on purpose today, just to mess with me, right?" Sophie said, her voice sharp and accusing.

"You knew I'd freak out and try to change it back, so you made up some excuse to leave your desk, just to set me up," she went on, bitterness clear in her tone.

"You've always thought you were better than me, like I only got this job because of Samuel. We're both women. Of course I can feel how much you hate me," Sophie added, her voice shaking with anger.

"Plus, you knew you had a friend who could fix the hard drive, so you weren't even worried about me breaking it. From the start, you just wanted to ruin me, make me look bad in front of the director, and grab that Astulan spot for yourself.

"Gotta hand it to you, Samantha, you really know how to play dirty," she finished, her words dripping with sarcasm.

In the car, Sophie had been sitting silently in the back seat, but out of nowhere, she piped up in a voice that sounded sweet on the surface, but was laced with poison underneath.

I was just about to shoot back at her ridiculous accusations.

But Samuel, sitting in the driver's seat, spoke up first, his voice tinged with exhaustion and disappointment. "Samantha, you know the truth."

"Even if we rush over there now, chances are the hard drive's toast," he said.

I sensed something was off and motioned for him to keep going.

"If you end up missing out on the Astulan exchange because of this project... then that Future City internship your dad pulled some strings to get you—guess you wouldn't be able to go either, right? So, maybe you could... give it to Sophie?" Samuel asked, his voice hesitant and uncertain.

My mind buzzed, like a string inside me had just snapped. Rage flooded in, ready to drown out every shred of reason I had left.

"Samuel, do you have any idea how many people my dad had to beg, how much effort he put in just to get me that internship? And now you want me to just give it away because you said so?" I shot back, my voice shaking with anger.

"And anyway, why are we even trying to fix the hard drive right now? Don't you get why we're in this mess in the first place?" I snapped, my words sharp and biting.

"How do you even have the nerve to say that?" I spat, fury making my voice tremble.

I glared at Samuel as he drove, and for a second, he felt like a complete stranger—so unfamiliar it made my skin crawl. The way he acted just made me sick to my stomach.

It felt like an invisible hand was squeezing my heart so tight I could barely breathe.

A kind of humiliation I'd never known before just crashed over me.

I didn't even have to look back to know exactly how Sophie was grinning in the back seat, all smug and satisfied.

Earlier, when he stopped me from calling Oakley, I could tell myself it was just because he couldn't stand the thought of his little sister losing her shot at the future.

Even when he took Sophie's side and tried to play it down, it pissed me off, but I could still let it slide and not totally lose it with him.

But now? What the hell was he even doing?