My Fake Boyfriend Is the School Bad Boy novel Chapter 173

Chapter 173 Locking The Front Wooden Door

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My mother walked to the stove. She turned the burner on. She placed a metal kettle over the blue flame. She grabbed a towel from the counter and walked over to me. She draped the dry fabric over my head, rubbing the moisture from my dark hair.

“Did someone hurt you?” she asked. Her tone held a lethal edge.

“No,” I replied. “Nobody hurt me.”

“Then why do you look like the world ended?”

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She walked back to the stove. The kettle whistled. She poured the boiling water into a ceramic mug. She dropped a tea bag into the water. She carried the steaming mug to the table and set it in front of me. She pulled out the chair across from mine. She sat down. She folded her rough, calloused hands on the formica surface.

“Talk to me,” she said.

I wrapped my cold fingers around the hot ceramic mug. The heat burned my palms. I welcomed the pain. It grounded me.

‘I made a massive mistake, Mom. My voice cracked. “I lied to you. I lied to the school administration.”

She did not gasp. She did not interrupt. She maintained steady eye contact.

“A month ago, Trent Lawson cornered me in the cafeteria,” I began. “Ryder intervened. He stopped Trent. But Ryder possessed a disciplinary warning. One more fight, and Principal Miller planned to expel him. To protect his record, we drafted a fake dating contract.”

My mother’s brow furrowed. “The piece of paper you mentioned on Saturday morning.”

“Yes. We wrote clear rules. We agreed to pretend we were together to convince the administration the fight was just a misunderstanding over a girlfriend. We used the contract to survive the semester. It was a transaction.”

“A transaction that turned real,” she observed. She remembered our morning conversation. She remembered the midnight silk dress.

“It turned real for me, I confirmed. “And it turned real for him. But the paper still existed. I kept it inside my black leather planner. Yesterday, I left the planner on a table in the cafeteria. Someone took it.”

The kitchen felt silent, save for the steady hum of the old refrigerator. The rain battered the windowpanes.

“Who took it?” she asked.

‘Chloe Vance. The name tasted like ash. She found the signatures. She found the specific clause where we agreed to deceive the principal

about the parking lot fight.”

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Chapter 173 Locking The Front Wooden Door

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My mother processed the information. She understood the vicious nature of the affluent elite. She knew the social hierarchy of Crestview

Prep relied on destruction.

‘She blackmailed you, my mother guessed.

A fresh wave of nausea hit my stomach. The hardest part of the confession arrived. I needed to construct the lie of omission. I needed to

build a wall around the ruined midterms to protect my mother’s heart.

If I told her the absolute truth, if I confessed 1 bombed the biology and calculus exams to hand Chloe the Valedictorian rank, my mother would break. She sacrificed her youth to pay the rent. She plunged her hands into scalding dishwater to secure my future. The medical school scholarship represented her ultimate victory. I threw the victory away. I could not inflict that pain on her today. She carried

enough weight.

I swallowed the acid in my throat. I looked into her tired brown eyes.

She wanted money,” I lied. The deception burned my tongue. I forced my hands to remain still around the ceramic mug. She demanded a massive cash payment. She knew Ryder possessed a trust fund. She threatened to expose the contract to the school board if he refused to

pay.”

“Did he pay her?”

“No.” I said. The tears blurred my vision. “He refused. He told her to send it.”

My mother let out a slow breath. “And she sent it.”

“She leaked the photograph to the entire senior class an hour ago. Three hundred students saw our signatures. The group chat exploded. The administration monitors the chat logs. Principal Miller possesses the proof right now. They know we forged the relationship to bypass

the probation rules.”

I paused. I let the final, devastating truth fall onto the formica table.

“Miller will suspend us both. The disciplinary hearing is inevitable. I lost my pristine record, Mom. I am so sorry.”

I dropped my head forward. I stared at the dark surface of the tea. The tears breached my defenses. They fell from my eyelashes and splashed into the hot liquid. The quiet sobs tore through my chest. I braced myself for her anger. I waited for the crushing disappointment. I expected her to lecture me about the consequences of associating with the Crestview delinquent.

The yelling did not come.

My mother did not raise her voice. She did not scold me for the forged document. She did not express disappointment in my lack of

judgment.

She stood up from the plastic chair.

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13:53 Fri, Jul 10

Chapter 173 Locking The Front Wooden Door

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