Chapter 9
Stella started crying.
It was ugly.
Loud.
Humiliating.
“It’s not fair,” she sobbed. “That was supposed to be my money. My life.”
Cyrus gave a short, contemptuous laugh.
“Life isn’t fair to the incompetent.”
Then he opened the car door for me.
As I stepped inside, I looked back at Stella.
I didn’t feel angry anymore.
I didn’t even feel triumphant.
I just felt sorry for her.
The floating text flickered one last time.
Wait. Did the male lead just call our female lead trash?
I think I’m on Clare’s side now.
Stella is kind of pathetic.
Harvard? Clare got into Harvard?
Okay, that’s actually impressive.
This isn’t a forced romance. This is a power couple.
I bow to Queen Clare.
System error.
Main character status transferred.
New protagonist: Clare Davis.
With a soft crackling pop, the glowing text shattered into a million tiny points of light and vanished.
The silence in my mind was immediate.
Total.
Blissful.
Cyrus slid into the car beside me, and the heavy door shut, cutting off Stella’s cries from the street outside.
The engine started.
“Are you all right?” he asked, his hand settling on my knee, his thumb moving slowly in a calming circle.
I leaned my head against his shoulder and breathed in the scent of cedar and cold air.
“I’m perfect,” I said.
He tilted my chin up and looked at me with that familiar, thrilling intensity.
“Good,” he said. “Because the Harvard reading list for incoming freshmen is extensive. I expect the first three books to be finished by the time we arrive in the Hamptons this weekend.”
I smiled and tugged lightly at his collar before kissing him.
“Yes, sir,” I whispered.
Some people might call him a control freak.
Maybe he was.
But as I sat there with my Harvard acceptance letter in my bag and the man who had handed me the world beside me, I knew the truth.
He didn’t want to control my life to ruin it.
He wanted to shape it into something extraordinary.
And I was more than willing to let him.