He Thought I Was Being Good, I Was Just Getting Ready to leave Chapter 04

He Thought I Was Being Good, I Was Just Getting Ready to leave Chapter 04

Emotional wounds are the cleanest cut of all.

After I got back from the hotel, I came down with a fever. In my hazy dreams, I saw myself at nineteen, the girl Harrison had long since forgotten.

Harrison had always been gorgeous. Even without money or power, he could’ve had anyone he wanted.

But on top of that, he came from an incredibly wealthy family.

He went for glamorous, sexy women, from movie stars to supermodels. No exceptions.

No one would’ve ever thought he’d look twice at a good girl like me. All I had going for me was that I followed the rules.

But maybe that was exactly the point. After feasting on rich, exotic dishes for so long, he started to feel bored. And then he happened to glance my way.

It was dusk on a quiet campus path. The first time I saw him, he had a girl hanging on his arm.

Vanessa Hart, so beautiful that even though there was no official “campus beauty” title anymore, everyone still called her that.

He was incredibly generous. Everyone knew his name, and rumors spread across the whole school.

Every time Vanessa went out with him, she’d come back with gifts worth tens of thousands of dollars.

She wanted to be an actress. With a casual wave of his hand, Vanessa, who had zero credentials, landed magazine covers and endorsement deals.

When she clung to him and whined, I looked up.

Harrison’s expression was blank. The cigarette between his fingers glowed and faded. Maybe he was annoyed.

He tilted his head toward me to distract her. “Who’s that?”

Vanessa immediately got alert and blocked his view with her hand. “She’s a good girl. Not our kind of people.”

I lowered my head and walked away quickly. Harrison gave an indifferent shrug and didn’t say anything more.

I’d been a good girl my whole life, the kind that never caused any trouble.

My mom raised me on her own. Her love came wrapped in layers and layers of rules.

My curfew was always nine o’clock. My hair couldn’t go past my shoulders, and my bangs had to stay above my eyebrows.

Under her suffocating care, I grew into the most obedient version of myself.

I was old-fashioned, docile, and followed every single rule society laid out.

Once, when I was sick, I still dragged myself to return library books on time because I was terrified of late fees.

I thought my whole life would stay like that, neat, orderly, predictable.

Until Harrison reached out his hand.

That hand was exactly like the fruit Eve offered Adam in the garden.

Temptation. Ruin. Fog.

Later, Vanessa found out about us. She was shocked. Then she said the same thing she’d said before, but this time the roles were reversed.

She said, “Harrison’s not your kind of person. Don’t fall for him.”

I told her I wouldn’t.

But later, all that unreturned love wrapped around my bones like thin wire, coil after coil.