My Fake Boyfriend Is the School Bad Boy novel Chapter 165

Chapter 165 Catching Me With The Box

The tears soaked the knees of my wet denim jeans. The pain felt unbearable. The weight of his unspoken love crushed the remaining

breath from my lungs.

I ruined my midterms this morning.

🙂

“You finished early, Raisa, Mr. Harrison noted just a few hours ago. He smiled with pure pride. “I expect nothing less than perfection from

my top student.”

“Have a good day, Mr. Harrison, I whispered, handing over a test filled with deliberate errors.

I sat in his classroom and wrote the wrong chemical equations. I sat in the calculus room and butchered the formulas. I surrendered the Valedictorian rank. I threw away the prestigious medical scholarship. I destroyed my mother’s dream. I walked out of the brick building with a hollow chest, believing I sacrificed my future for a boy I fell for a few weeks ago.

I sacrificed my future for a boy who built his entire world around my shadow.

It was worth it.

The ruined test papers sitting on the teacher’s desk did not matter. The prestige did not matter. The Ivy League track meant nothing compared to the contents of this cheap cardboard box.

Chloe held the blackmail. She possessed the photograph of our signatures. If I kept my perfect grades, she planned to expose the fake contract. Principal Miller would expel Ryder. His father, the ruthless head of the Steinmann corporate empire, would drag him into a corporate prison. The golden fire in his hazel eyes would die. The boardroom politics would crush his spirit.

I refused to let Crestview take him from me. I refused to let the Steinmann empire ruin a boy who kept a frayed hair tie hidden on his top

shelf.

I traded my crown to buy his freedom.

The roar of the shower plumbing filled the background. The steady drum of water hitting tile provided a soundtrack to my breakdown. The damp chill of my rain-soaked clothes sank deep into my skin, but a profound, overwhelming warmth radiated from the items in my

lap.

I felt anchored. For the first time since I stepped onto the Crestview campus, I did not feel like an imposter. I did not feel like a charity case on a medical scholarship. I belonged. I belonged to the boy in the next room.

I needed to gather the items. I needed to put the lid on the box. I needed to stand up and pretend I never found his secret. If he knew I found the box, he would read the devastation on my face. He would demand the truth about the midterms. He would march to the administration and confess the fraud to reverse my sacrifice.

I needed to protect the lie.

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13:51 Fri, Jul 10

Chapter 165 Catching Me With The Box

My freezing hands refused to move. The emotional shock paralyzed my muscles. I sat frozen on the polished hardwood floor, surrounded by the expensive suits and the custom silk ties. The heavy scent of his cologne wrapped around my senses, offering a false sense of

security.

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The rushing water stopped.

The silence in the adjoining bathroom felt deafening. The ambient noise vanished, leaving a heavy, tense void in the massive bedroom. The metallic scrape of shower rings sliding across a metal rod echoed through the open doorframe.

“Maria?” Ryder’s voice called out from behind the heavy bathroom door.

I slapped my hand over my mouth.

‘Did you leave the fresh towels on the bench?” he asked. The rough gravel of his voice echoed off the tile.

I squeezed my eyes shut. I begged my lungs to remain silent. I prayed my erratic pulse did not give me away. I needed to move. I needed

to hide the box.

Panic spiked in my veins. My pulse hammered a frantic rhythm against my sternum.

I wiped my wet cheeks with the back of my hand. I scrambled to arrange the items inside the box. I snatched the chewed yellow pencil. I picked up the block eraser with the blue ink star. I reached for the glossy photograph of the freshman girl in the gray sweater. I shoved

them all into the cardboard base.

I reached for the lid resting against the baseboard. My fingers slipped on the smooth wood.

Footsteps sounded on the bathroom tile.

He moved with quick, heavy strides. He did not wait for Maria to answer. He did not know I was here. I invaded his private sanctuary without warning. I stood in his closet, holding the physical proof of his deepest vulnerability.

The bathroom door swung open wider. A fresh wave of warm white steam rolled into the cold bedroom air.

I froze. I clutched the bottom of the open cardboard box. The lid sat three feet away on the rug. I lacked the time to cover the evidence. I

lacked the time to stand up.

Ryder stepped out of the bathroom.

He wore a pair of gray sweatpants. They hung low on his hips. He did not wear a shirt. His broad chest and sculpted torso glistened with drops of warm water. He held a thick white towel in his hands, rubbing the damp strands of his dark hair.

The tension from the rainy truck ride was gone. The defensive anger vanished. In the privacy of his own room, the Crestview delinquent dropped his armor. He looked relaxed. He looked entirely unguarded.

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13:51 Fri, Jul 10

Chapter 165 Catching Me With The Box

He tossed the damp towel onto the unmade mattress. He turned his head.

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