"And after that, his girlfriend got beaten bloody by those thugs, and it cost her the SATs. But he still never blamed me. Doesn't that prove I matter more to him?"
I dug my nails into my palm, my body shaking and refusing to stop.
Every night, Alden and I studied at school until nine.
When we finished, he'd ride me home on his bike, all the way to my door.
A month before, Alden had been walking me through a problem when his phone suddenly rang.
One glance and his face changed. He tossed out a single line:
"Let me step out and take a call. Wait here for me."
I waited for him at the school, all the way to ten. He never came back, and his phone wouldn't connect.
The building had long emptied out when those thugs kicked the door open and stormed in.
As they pinned me to the floor, their mouths kept up a filthy, leering taunt:
"Damn, knew that little bitch was right, you really were waiting up here! Can't touch them, but I sure as hell can deal with you!"
They tore at my clothes, grinning like animals. I screamed, sobbed, fought with everything I had,
and they slapped me across the face more than a dozen times until my eardrums bled.
If a patrolling security guard hadn't heard the noise and called the police to save me, I might have been finished that night.
Alden rushed to the hospital and held me, his eyes red. He said:
"I'm sorry. My mom suddenly took ill, so I ran home. I never thought those thugs would... I'm sorry... Grace..."
"Thank God you're okay. Otherwise I'd never have forgiven myself, not for the rest of my life!"
Alden and Aunt Camila James had only ever had each other. I knew how much she meant to him.
So I just told myself it was bad luck, a senseless disaster that had landed on me.
My eardrums were permanently damaged. The SAT listening section, once my strongest subject, fell apart in my hands.
When the test ended, I crouched at the school gate, crying so hard I could barely stand.
Three full years I'd fought for the elite university, only to lose at the final moment to an accident like this.
In front of every parent and reporter there, Alden made his promise, word by word:
"Don't be scared! If you retake the year, I'll retake it with you!"
"And if you don't want to retake it, whatever school you go to, I'll go there with you!"
When Aunt Camila found out, she landed in the hospital from sheer rage, forcing him to cut me off, refusing to let me drag down his future.
But Alden said, firm and unshaken:
"Mom, I'm sorry. But I choose Grace."
Aunt Camila wept and raged, came to my door and threw herself down screaming, forcing me to break it off with Alden.
She even hung a banner under my apartment and cursed me out for being shameless, for seducing her son!
It didn't stop until I talked Alden out of doing anything rash for my sake.
I was genuinely curious. Alden had merely floated an idea, and Aunt Camila could make a scene like that.
So if Alden truly got dragged off to vocational school by Louisa, how far would Aunt Camila go then?
Alden's beating of that boy blew up after all.
The male classmate was badly hurt, and his parents went straight to the police.
I was getting my burn treated at the hospital when Aunt Camila's calls came flooding in.
The second I picked up, hysterical sobbing tore through the line:
"Alden is about to be a student at the elite university! Do you have any idea a record like this will ruin his whole life?!"
"Why didn't you stop him?! Why did you have to make him fight someone over you?!"
"You jinx, you killed your own parents, and now you're ruining my son! You little slut! I'll make you pay for hurting my son!"
Aunt Camila had lost it completely. She came to my home, splashed gasoline, and tried to light it to burn me alive,
