No—an absolute idiot.
He’d believed in love. In loyalty. In honesty. He thought he’d foundthe girl. He’d changed for her, softened for her. Tried becoming the man she deserved. She’d been a sweet freshman—shy, innocent, claiming she was saving herself for someone special. And he’d been patient. Gentle. Not pushing. Ready to wait as long as she needed.
Until one stupid, ordinary afternoon, he happened to learn the truth.
She’d lived in the dorms then. He’d decided to surprise her. Her roommate told him she was in the shared kitchen. He walked down the hall, pushed the door halfway open… and froze when he heard a voice he knew by heart.
“Jasper?” Mary had laughed.“Come on, Ian, I don’t need him. You know that.”
He stood in the doorway, pulse slamming in his ears.
“I’m only with him because it’s convenient,” she continued, her tone annoyingly casual.“But I loveyou.”
His mind refused to process the words.
“I just get jealous,” the guy—Ian—murmured.“He has money. He has a future. He’s useful.”
“Exactly,” she said.“Let me squeeze as much out of him as possible, then I’ll drop him.”
Something inside him snapped at the sound—quiet, sharp, sickening.
“I mean, I don’t even let him touch me.” Mary laughed softly.“He still thinks he’ll be my first.”
His throat went dry.
“He’s got connections, status, all that crap. Useful assets. You don’t mind our little‘platonic phase,’right?”
He didn’t remember walking. Didn’t remember closing the kitchen door behind him. One second he was frozen at the threshold, and the next he was standing in front of them, staring at the girl he thought he knew.
“What do you mean—‘useful,’Mary?” he asked, voice low.“What the hell is going on?”
She whipped around, eyes widening.
“Jas…Jasper—” Her voice softened instantly, slipping into the tone she always used when she wanted something. Sweet. Innocent. Manipulative.
He heard every layer this time. Every lie.
“You used me?” he said.
She shook her head quickly, stepping toward him.
“No, that’s not—baby, you misunderstood—”
His stomach twisted.
Where was the shy, blushing girl who used to hide behind textbooks? Where was the student who clung to his every word, who let him teach her to drive, who looked at him like he hung the damn moon?
She never existed.
There was only this girl.
The girl who looked at him now with fear, not love. The one who laughed with another man, calling him kitten, talking about how to drain Jasper dry before leaving him behind like a chewed-up piece of gum.
Mary reached for him again.
“You’re overreacting,” she whispered urgently.“Just let me expla—”
“I understood everything just fine.”
