PopularNovelChapter 300 Mila sat beside her, forcing a smile.
This was her first real taste of what power could do a storm that shattered her resolve, leaving no room for pride.
Just as Miranda was getting worked up, threatening to report what had happened, Mila's phone buzzed with an unfamiliar number.
She answered.
A young man's voice cthrough, laid-back as ever.
"That grant you applied for? It's been approved, but nothing's finalized yet. Things can always change... Mila, let's talk. Cto this address tomorrow night." He recited the nof a hotel and a room number.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtIt sounded less like a request and more like a statement-he assumed she'd show up, and before Mila could respond, he hung up.
Mila stared at her phone, her face blank. It took her a long moment before she suddenly reached for Miranda, who was still rambling on, and asked quietly, "Miranda, compared to the Montgomerys, how does your family stack up?" "Huh?" Miranda froze, caught off guard by the question. She didn't answer right away, just made a gesture with her hand-one high, one low.
Mila didn't get it.
Miranda explained, "If the Montgomery family is a skyscraper, my family's a little cottage. If they're an aircraft carrier, we're a toy plane. Get it?" She got it.
There was no point asking the Waynes for help. If she wanted the scholarship and the grant, there would be a price to pay.
She'd have to agree to Lysander's offer to keep her.
Mila agonized all night, then finally sent a text to that number with no nattached. Just a few simple words: "I don't want the grant anymore." After that, she blocked and deleted the number in one go.
No scholarship, no grant. That just meant she'd have to work a few extra jobs over the summer to get by. She'd survived worse-she could get through this too.
Selling her body was out of the question.
That was her line in the sand, a line that, once crossed, would drag her into an abyss she'd never escape. She couldn't do it. She wanted to live with her integrity intact.
For a long tafterward, she couldn't make sense of it.
All she'd done was fall for someone. When she was rejected, she let go, never tried to force anything, never made a scene-so why was she being pushed into this corner? Why? Did having power and money mean you could just trample people, treat them like they were nothing? At nineteen, Mila couldn't understand.
She thought she'd done the right thing, chosen the right path..
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmwas years before the path.. but it truly realized: when you're up against power, there's no such thing as fairness. A wolf never needs a reason to hunt. It fixates on its prey, sinks its fangs in, and enjoys the feast-proud of its brutality.
Under the night sky, the service station was eerily quiet.
In the backseat of a black SUV parked in the shadows, the blanket rustled. Mila Xer head out, her ed Mila Roked Keelanket eyes sharp and bright in the dark, but her face was pale as chalk. The cold had woken her.
Even though the blanket was warm, a chill seeped into her bones, as im she'd been transported back to that hopeless chapter of her past, shivering uncontrollably. Back then, as a teenager, she'd made the wrong decision and stumbled straight toward hell.
Or had she really chosen wrong? The truth was, she'd never had a real choice. No one ever gave her one. Every so-called option was just another trap.
In the darkness, Mila closed her eyes.
Visit our social media platform to read fascinating stories every day and connect with the community!
