Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Two months after your silent breakup with Julian Ashford.
He hadn’t sent you a single message.
You spent three days gripping your phone, hesitating over his name, and in the end, you still couldn’t hold out. You decided to swallow your pride first.
But that evening, after you packed your things and headed for the basketball court to corner him, someone you had barely ever noticed stepped into your path.
You admitted it: you were a gold digger, through and through.
But you were good at hiding it. At school, you treated everyone the same. You always wore the exact right amount of friendly smile, warm but not overeager, polite but not fake. Only when it came to choosing a boyfriend did your principles become immovable.
He had to be rich.
And, of course, handsome.
Julian Ashford was the closest thing to your ideal in all eighteen years of your academic life. His family ran a massive business, old money with deep roots. People said the Ashfords were second only to Northbridge’s Sterling Group. As for a billionaire dynasty like the Sterlings, you didn’t even dare dream that high.
Julian was cold, arrogant, and impossibly particular about everything. You chased him for months before he finally, reluctantly agreed to be your boyfriend. But once you were together, he kept complaining that you weren’t clingy enough, weren’t considerate enough, weren’t putting him first. Every other week, he threatened to break up with you.
“Let’s just end it. You only went after me for my money anyway.”
“I saw you talking to the basketball captain last time. What, are you interested in him now? Don’t be fooled by the McLaren. It’s used. Barely worth anything.”
“Block his number right now, and I’ll forgive you.”
He had said things like that more times than you could count. By now, almost every good-looking boy in your contacts had been inspected and policed by him.
Two months ago, Julian had fought with you again. The reason? You were twenty minutes late to his birthday.
“That proves you don’t care about me at all!” He frowned, his voice full of accusation. “You’ve never been late to a school assembly. So the dean of students matters more to you than I do? Fine. Let’s break up. We should both take some time to cool off.”
This again.
Irritation rose in your chest. How was that the same thing? Unlike him, you didn’t have a powerful family backing you. You couldn’t afford to casually offend the dean of students.
At the time, you were already sick of his unreasonable tantrums, so you simply followed his lead.
“Fine,” you said, looking up at him. “Then let’s break up. Don’t contact me again.”
That day, Julian Ashford’s face had gone white in an instant. He stared at you for a long moment, then snatched up a five-figure bottle of wine from beside him and smashed it hard against the floor.
After that, he really didn’t contact you again.
Chapter 2
Two months passed. You’d calmed down by then, but the more time went on, the more panicked you became.
There was no helping it. Julian was still the best option you had access to right now. Who didn’t like money? Your family was ordinary, and your parents spoiled your younger brother rotten. Whatever good things there were, they always saved for him. You were desperate to get out of that kind of environment, but you weren’t smart enough to do it the easy way. Even if you studied yourself to the bone, your grades only hovered around the seventieth or eightieth spot in the year.
Your biggest advantage was really just your face…
Thinking that, the last bit of hesitation in your heart disappeared.
It was just after school. You knew Julian had been playing basketball on the court every afternoon these past few days, so you quickly packed up your things and ran toward the gym, planning to intercept him once and smooth things over with a little softness and a little coaxing, then put the whole mess behind you.
But the moment you reached the gym entrance, an unfamiliar yet strangely familiar voice stopped you in your tracks.
“Chloe Bennett.”
You froze and looked back.
It was Ethan Sterling.
Ethan Sterling was Westbridge Academy’s famous academic ace, the kind of student who sat at the top of the year ranking every single time.
He was six-foot-two, with the kind of face people noticed whether they wanted to or not. In the last campus heartthrob poll, he had even beaten Julian Ashford by a narrow margin.
One of those votes had been yours.
There was no deeper reason. Ethan’s looks just happened to hit your exact type. Your Libra sense of justice had kicked in, and you had cast your vote fairly.
Other than that, you barely had anything to do with him.
He was always alone. He rarely talked to anyone in class.
There were plenty of rumors about him around school. Someone said they had seen his mother picking through leftover vegetables at the farmers’ market. Someone else said his father had died years ago, and that his grandmother was seriously ill, with hospital bills running into the hundreds of thousands every year.
In short, Ethan’s family situation was supposed to be brutally difficult.
Every year, he applied for a need-based scholarship. After school, he worked part-time at bubble tea shops and convenience stores. In the cafeteria, he only ever bought the two cheapest vegetable sides.
The portions were so small that even a girl might not be full afterward, let alone a teenage boy his size.
Chapter 3
Once, when your heart had softened, you had taken five hundred dollars from your allowance and quietly slipped it into Ethan Sterling’s pencil case without leaving your name.
Now, standing at the gym entrance and hearing him call your name, your brows pulled together sharply.
He couldn’t have found out about the five hundred dollars, could he?
According to every novel you had ever read, boys from poor families were usually proud to the bone, with self-esteem sharper than glass. He would definitely think you had been humiliating him.
Had he come after you now to pick a fight?
Before you could even prepare a response, Ethan’s next words froze you in place.
“Chloe Bennett, I like you.” His voice was quiet, but clear enough for every word to land. “Will you be my girlfriend?”
You went completely blank.
Students streamed in and out of the gym entrance. Almost on instinct, you glanced back toward the basketball court and realized Julian Ashford had come out at some point.
He had just finished playing. Sweat still clung to his forehead, and a few of his friends were gathered around him, all watching you and Ethan with open interest. They did not even bother lowering their voices.
“Hey, isn’t that Julian’s girlfriend?”
“What girlfriend? Ex-girlfriend. Didn’t you hear? They broke up two months ago.”
“Damn, Chloe Bennett actually grew a spine this time. Before, she would’ve been chasing after Julian like her life depended on it. Did she already find herself a backup?”
“Tsk. Ethan Sterling, huh? Academic ace, sure, but he’s still on a need-based scholarship.”
“Julian, you think Chloe’s going to say yes?”
Their comments crawled over your skin. Embarrassment flooded through you, and you looked toward Julian without thinking, wanting to give him some kind of signal, some look that said not to misunderstand.
But from beginning to end, he never once looked your way.
He only bounced the basketball in his hand, slow and careless, the corner of his mouth curved in a mocking smile, as if he were watching something that had nothing to do with him at all.
“What does it have to do with me whether she accepts?” he said with a scoff. “Ethan’s so outstanding. If he’s interested in Chloe Bennett, she’s the one reaching above her station.”
Your heart dropped hard.
So Julian had never liked you that much after all.
Back then, if you hadn’t chased him so relentlessly, he probably never would have agreed to date you in the first place. And when he agreed to break up, maybe it had been a relief.
That was fine.
At least you hadn’t had time to beg for him back.
At least you still had that much dignity left.