Chapter 1

They all called me a bastard, a lowlife tramp.

It wasn't until I ranked first in the city and got accepted into college that all the insults and rumors went silent.

The parents who once abandoned me for money suddenly showed up, fighting over who would get to sponsor my college tuition.

The ex who dumped me just a month before the big exam came crawling back, begging for a second chance.

But I only had hatred for them.

*****

During the first half of my senior year, a video went viral at our school.

In the video, I was acting intimately with an older man.

That ten-second clip exploded across the entire school and even the whole town. People hurled the nastiest, most vicious insults at me and my adoptive father.

To prove my daughter's innocence, my adoptive father chose to take his own life.

He jumped from the seventh floor, leaving a short note behind.

All it said was, "Curse me all you want, but don't you dare insult my daughter. I will use my death to prove that she and I are innocent. I hope the rumors end with my death. Stop hurting my daughter."

But even after my adoptive father passed away, the rumors didn't stop. If anything, they just got worse.

The school called me in for a meeting, insisting that I either take a leave of absence or drop out altogether. They said the incident had caused way too much negative attention and damaged the school's reputation.

My boyfriend, Derek Mathis, just ghosted me. No matter how many times I tried to reach out, nothing ever came back.

People around me mocked and ridiculed me nonstop. The constant verbal abuse felt like it was suffocating me.

During that time, I kept wishing the police would actually catch the person who spread the video, so I could finally get some justice and clear my name.

But who would've guessed that the person behind all those rumors was actually my classmate, Joyce Pratt?

She was always nice to me, got great grades, and was the teacher's favorite.

*****

When the cops showed up, Joyce totally started freaking out and ran up to the rooftop, guilty as hell, threatening to jump off the building.

Her whole scene drew a massive crowd downstairs. Everyone was just there to watch the spectacle.

She began sobbing, claiming she didn't mean it and begging me to forgive her.

But I could tell those tears were totally fake.

Her whole suicide threat was nothing but a melodramatic performance. Nothing about it was real. But in the end, I became everyone's target.

People kept saying Joyce was innocent and that I should be forgiving.

They claimed we were just classmates and that there was no reason to take things this far.

They just kept on talking... Once again, they used their words to pressure and taunt me.

Back when the rumors were everywhere, none of them spoke up for me.

But now they expect me to just forgive and move on, to act all magnanimous.

I felt like everything I knew crumbled.

I dropped to my knees in front of Joyce, my eyes red with tears. "I forgive you. Just give me back my dad. If only you could bring him back, I'd do anything, anything at all."

The cops, the teachers, and the principal just watched in silence.

Joyce went blank for a moment, then broke down sobbing again, saying she'd jump and pay with her life. But her hands clung to the railing tightly.

She wasn't really trying to die. She was just wielding the threat of death to force me to forgive her.

"Then why don't you just die!" I yelled, voice trembling with fury.

My mind was full of one thought. If she didn't want to jump, I would push her.

The cops must've read my mind. One of them grabbed me, stopping me cold, while the others rushed over and yanked Joyce off the railing before anything else could happen.

What really broke me was that she got off scot-free. Just a week later, she was back in school, acting like it was just another Tuesday, while I was the one kicked out and left with nothing.

But the real hit was finding out Derek had hooked up with Joyce.

Someone just had to post a picture of them holding hands on the school forum, like they were the latest campus hot couple.

The caption: [A match made in heaven.]

That was when I finally realized they'd been childhood sweethearts all along.

Once again, I was the clown, the butt of everyone's jokes.

That night, I cut my wrist with a knife.

The blade was cold. The rumors were just as cold.

There was really no difference between the two. They both stabbed straight into my heart.

What pulled me back from the edge was a phone call.

Victor Norton, my adoptive dad's closest friend, called up and told me he'd been holding onto some money my dad had left for my college tuition.

Thirty thousand dollars. That was his full military discharge payout.

He used to tell me, "When you get into college, I'll drive you there myself. You've gotta see what campus life is really like."

Dad never had much schooling, and never any spare cash, either. His only wish was for me to get into college, find a decent job, and live a life nowhere near as tough as the one he endured.

If I died, wouldn't that just mean those lowlifes win?

No! I would survive, and I'd crush the exams, to fulfill my dad's biggest wish. I would survive, and I'd crush the exams, to fulfill my dad's biggest wish.

And when the exams were over, every jerk who ever hurt me... I'd settle the score with all of them, one by one.

*****

It didn't take long before I ended up at some no-name high school.

It wasn't far from my old school, just across the road.

In that worn-out school, with the salty sea breeze lingering in the air, I studied like a maniac.

The first practice test came and, no surprise, I scored top of the whole school.

Being number one at a dump like this didn't mean squat. But I was just twenty points short of the top kid at the fancy school across the street.

That score was enough to make my homeroom teacher's jaw drop.

The guy was bald, and he went over my test paper seven or eight times before finally looking up at me. "You didn't cheat, right?" he asked, half-suspicious, half-joking.

I met his gaze head-on and said, "Next practice exam, I'll be number one in the whole city."

He didn't say anything. That afternoon, he drove into the city and made copies of piles of study materials. His beat-up old car was packed full.

He lugged all the papers to my house and told me, "Study hard. You can definitely get into university."

Since this school started, only a few had made it into a four-year university.

He had really high hopes for me.

I nodded and said, "Thank you."

*****

By the end of the first semester senior year, my grades had caught up with the top kid at the fancy school across the street.

Most people figured I must have cheated my way to those scores.

I didn't explain. I didn't care.

In those six months, I learned to feel nothing about it all, to just shut everyone out.

During the holidays, Derek suddenly called me out of the blue, wanting to meet face to face.

I wasn't about to invite any drama into my holiday, so I blocked him everywhere and ghosted him.