Chapter 30: I Am Like a Stray Dog

Chapter 30: Chapter 30: I Am Like a Stray Dog

"You’re just a dead weight. Stop clinging to Julian." The year I started college, Jake Abbott and I were classmates. Even though we weren’t in the same department, we were both freshmen.

I was meek by nature, so I ignored him.

But he was relentless. "Cecilia Caldwell, what gives you the right to be so proud? You’re nothing but a parentless little bitch living off the Fletcher family. Julian’s only keeping you around to warm his bed. You really think you’re some high-and-mighty young lady?"

The people around Jake Abbott all snickered. "She’s a certain ’type’ of lady, just not the high-class kind."

My face flushed crimson, and I was so humiliated I wanted to cry.

Jake Abbott and his cronies surrounded me, spewing filth.

I panicked and tried to run, but when I turned, I saw Julian Fletcher standing nearby, his face dark.

I looked at him, silently pleading for help.

That was the first time he had ever been so cold to me. He just shot me a look of disgust before turning and walking away.

It was precisely because Julian turned a blind eye that Jake Abbott grew bolder and lost all restraint around me.

Finally, in the autumn when I turned twenty, on the day of Julian Fletcher’s mother’s birthday party, Jake Abbott found his chance. He pinned me down in the grass of the back garden.

He pressed down on me, his voice a sickening, threatening whisper. "Cecilia Caldwell, since so many guys get to touch you, why don’t you let me have a feel, huh?"

"You can’t just sleep with Julian all the time... Let me get a taste too, huh?"

I struggled to push him off, but I couldn’t move him at all.

I tried to scream, but he clamped a hand over my mouth. "You scream, and I’ll kill you."

I wasn’t afraid of death, but he was just too strong.

"Cecilia Caldwell, isn’t it obvious you like Julian? The Fletcher family was kind enough to take you in, and this is how you repay them? Trying to use some marriage contract to force him to marry you?" Jake Abbott sneered. Watching me struggle desperately, he continued, "I’ll be honest with you. It was Julian who sent me here to teach you a lesson. To make you remember your place. You’re nothing but the Fletcher family’s bitch."

Slowly, I stopped struggling, my eyes filled with despair.

He thought I’d resigned myself to my fate. He slowly loosened his grip and started frantically tearing at my clothes.

I seized the chance, grabbed a rock off the ground, and smashed it against his head.

Wincing in pain, Jake Abbott stared at me for a moment before scrambling away.

That day, I hugged my knees to my chest and hid in the back garden for a long, long time.

Until night fell, until the autumn rain had soaked me to the bone.

It was in that moment that the idea of escaping the Fletcher family first took root in my mind.

’I have to escape.’

’I have to get out of here.’

’Otherwise, sooner or later, I’ll die in this house.’

’I’ll die at the hands of Julian Fletcher.’

I threw myself into my studies, desperately trying to earn every possible honor and scholarship. But no matter how hard I worked, it was never enough to overcome a few words of slander.

Rumors flew around campus that Julian Fletcher and the school’s "goddess," Erin Whittaker, were together. They were called the golden couple, a perfect match.

And I was cast as the malicious villain who framed her, slandered her, and plotted against her.

Jake Abbott led the charge, calling me promiscuous, saying I threw myself at every guy, and claiming I’d even tried to seduce him.

I had no energy to explain myself. I knew it was a trap—the more you try to prove your innocence, the guiltier you look.

The more desperately I tried to explain, to clear my name, the deeper I fell into their trap.

They mocked me mercilessly, trampled on my dignity, and piece by piece, drove me to the brink.

In my junior year of college, there was an opening in the exchange student program. The spot was reserved for a student who excelled in all areas, especially academics.

I saw that opportunity as a ray of hope. ’If I can just secure that spot,’ I thought, ’if I can just get away, everything will be okay.’

But I could only watch, helpless, as the spot I had worked so painstakingly to earn was taken by Julian Fletcher and given to Erin Whittaker’s younger sister.

I broke down, screaming and crying, demanding to know why.

Why, if he despised me so much, would he refuse to let me go?

He said, "You’ll have plenty of other opportunities. You don’t have to study abroad. Erin’s sister has been in poor health since she was little, and this spot is very important to her. Can’t you just let her have it?!"

’Let her have it...’

I was expected to give everything to Erin Whittaker.

By what right?!