February.
Six months, and I still felt like this.
My grades were good—no, not just good. Since Sebastian left, they’d been fucking fantastic. Every bit of focus I had was going into them. Into myself. Into proving I could be more than what they all thought I was. More than the version of me he left behind.
Charlotte and Oliver had stepped in after both my parents stopped speaking to me—financially and otherwise. The trust set up on my mother’s side would be released when I turned twenty-one, regardless of whether I had a relationship with them, and I did intend to use it. It was mine. But I didn’t want to coast there.
Char was pregnant, and even though I knew the Langleys had more money than they could ever spend, it wasn’t Oliver’s responsibility to carry me until then. I needed to stand on my own two feet first—to prove to myself that I could.
And I could goddamn well do it. So as soon as I graduated—no, fuck that—beforeI did, I’d have a job, I’d have my trust, and I’d turn myself into a powerful man.
Just like him.
More than him.
Maybe then he’d actually answer my texts.
So I studied harder. Made sure I was at the top of all my classes and tuned out all the white noise around me.
When class ended, I walked up to the professor and asked about the last exam. He smiled and assured me I’d earned a top grade. Something like pride curled in my chest—right up until someone slammed into my shoulder.
It was one of the girls from before. She was smirking, her friends trailing behind.
“Looking for a hot date?” she whispered, her gaze flicking to the professor and then back to me before she walked away.
Heat crawled up my neck, and I pressed my lips into a hard line to keep from answering. Not for my sake—I didn’t give a fuck what they thought about me. But I actually liked Professor Flintwood. He was almost seventy and married, and the last thing he needed was me handing them more gossip. After all, every time I opened my mouth, it turned into another rumor.
“Is everything alright, Mr. Bennett?” he asked.
I gave him a tight smile. “Everything’s fine.”
When I stepped out of the classroom, my phone vibrated again.
Creep
hey
That was it. Almost four fucking hours, and all I got was ahey.
I stared at the screen until the letters blurred and my lungs felt too tight for air.
Doesn’t matter. Don’t care. You’re doing fine. You have a whole life that isn’t tied to him anymore. Remember?
But my thumb hovered over the keyboard like it had a mind of its own—itching to type, to poke, to pull a reaction out of him. Pathetic.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
Another sharp laugh drew my attention to a group of girls, the same ones from the classroom. They weren’t even looking my way, but my blood was already boiling. One more word from them and I knew I’d snap.
I quickened my pace, trying to avoid them, but they were directly in my path. Just as I was about to pass, one of them spoke. “Bet he can’t pay what Sebastian Langley could.”
I stopped. My jaw twitched.
Okay. No. Absolutely not.
So much for Bennett politeness.
Turning around, I walked straight back to them. One girl looked away, but I knew exactly which one had opened her mouth.
