Chapter 9
Nadia’s POV
Before I could stop it, my phone blew up with non–stop payment notifications.
Five minutes later, I checked my balance and saw seven hundred grand in it.
That meant, even after paying off the four–hundred–grand high–interest loans, I’d still have three hundred grand left over
I stood there in shock. Whether I wanted it or not, this money was mine now.
With no other choice, I accepted the generous donations and promised the livestream. viewers that I would share all my study tips and exam prep strategies from high school as a way of thanking them for their kindness.
Seeing how quickly my debt was wiped clean, some of my classmates tried to get in on the sympathy, too, and started begging the internet for help.
But what they got instead was a flood of brutal comments.
“Take a good look at yourselves. We donated to a top scorer for good luck. What do you losers bring us? Misery and stupidity?”
“Exactly. If you weren’t so greedy, how could that girl have tricked you?”
“Go ask Ivy for the money! We’ve got cash, but we’re not charity cases for dumb criminals!”
I hadn’t planned to hold anything against my classmates anymore, but watching them get roasted online? It felt amazing.
There was nothing sharper than the judgment of internet strangers.
Now that my name had been cleared, a dozen reporters surrounded me for an interview. They wouldn’t let me leave.
By the time it was over, it was already 10 PM.
I checked my phone again, and my balance had gone up by several hundred grand more.
I let out a helpless laugh. Were people seriously trying to crowdfund my entire college life.
now?
While I was still thinking about what to do with the money, Bentley suddenly blocked my path.
Out of nowhere, he showed up with a bouquet of white roses and shoved them into my
arms.
“Nadia,” he said, “I know I messed up before. I was blinded by Ivy and hurt you so badly. Can you please forgive me? If you give me another chance, I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You’re drowning in hundreds grand of debt. How exactly are you planning to make it up to me?”
A flicker of embarrassment crossed his face. “Well, since the livestream viewers gave you a few hundred grand more, and you don’t really need all of it, maybe you could lend it to
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me? Just help me pay off the debt first. We’ve been together for so long. You wouldn’t just watch me suffer, right?”
I let out a cold laugh.
So that was what this was all about.
For a second, I thought he was actually sorry. Turned out, he was just trying to take advantage of me again.
Why was I even surprised?
In my last life, this was the same man who blamed me for Ivy’s accidental death.
He was never going to change. He was only nice when it benefited him.
Without saying another word, I grabbed the bouquet of roses and slammed it right into his
face.
“Get lost. Or I’ll tell everyone what you’ve done and let the internet tear you apart.”
Back then, when Ivy threatened to start a smear campaign if I didn’t go on the class trip, Bentley had supported her.
Well, since I already took the blame for something I didn’t do, I might as well own it now.
The threat clearly worked. His legs went weak. The rose thorns had cut his face, but he didn’t even care. He just stumbled away, disappearing down the hallway.
With dirt like that on him, I doubted he’d have the guts to come near me again.
His family might be well–off, but a few hundred grand in high–interest debt would keep him plenty busy.
As for Ivy, she still hadn’t “woken up.” No matter how hard the nurses tried to press her pressure points, she kept pretending to be unconscious.
Eventually, they had no choice but to wheel her into the operating room to prepare for
defibrillation.
The moment she heard the word “shock,” she miraculously snapped awake in terror.
She tried to run, but the police were already waiting at the door.
As such, she was promptly arrested.
With solid evidence of identity theft and fraud, stealing classmates‘ IDs to take out high–interest loans, lyy was sentenced to ten years in prison.
On top of that, because she cheated on the exam, her acceptance to a top university was revoked.
To set an example, the high school principal banned her from ever repeating a grade.
And the Department of Education issued a formal statement that Ivy was permanently. disqualified from taking any future entrance exams.
Even if she got out of prison, she’d be thirty. A college entrance exam wasn’t in the cards
anymore.
After her arrest, Ivy desperately tried to contact me from jail, begging me to sign a letter of
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forgiveness to reduce her sentence.
Even my adoptive mom, who’d finally recovered, came to plead on her behalf.
She said that if I just signed the papers, Ivy could get a lighter sentence.
I looked her straight in the eyes and ripped the letter in half.
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“Mom, whatever relationship we had is over. You swapped me and Ivy at birth and raised me under false pretenses for eighteen years. I never held that against you. I even used my scholarship to pay for your surgery. We’re even now. But if you come looking for me again, I won’t be so nice. I may be young, but Mike isn’t someone you want to mess with.”
Her face turned pale as such, and she never showed up again.
Of course, I only dropped Mike’s name to scare her. Deep down, I had no plans to recognize him as my father.
The new school year was about to start, and I was finally ready for a new chapter.
Whether I was the maid’s daughter or a rich man’s heiress, it didn’t matter.
I was who I was, the one and only Nadia Green.
