My Fake Boyfriend Is the School Bad Boy novel Chapter 203

Chapter 203 My Mother Loses Her Job

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The alarm clock buzzed at five in the morning. I hit the plastic button to silence the noise. The sky outside my narrow bedroom window remained pitch black. The cold spring air seeped through the thin glass. I sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled my faded gray

sweatpants on.

I felt the massive weight of the previous night settling over my shoulders. I remembered the sleek black town car parked across the street. I remembered the pristine leather seats and the soundproof cabin. I remembered the billionaire patriarch sitting in the shadows, holding

a blank check and a lethal ultimatum.

End the relationship. Walk away from Ryder.

I refused. I stepped out of the luxury car and chose my pride. Arthur Steinmann promised a swift retaliation. He promised to dismantle

my mother’s life.

I kept the encounter a secret. I did not want to terrorize my mother with the threat of a corporate war. I believed I possessed time. I believed billionaires operated through complex corporate channels,

I walked into the small kitchen. My mother stood at the counter. She poured cheap coffee into two ceramic travel mugs. She wore her pink diner uniform beneath a heavy wool sweater.

‘Drink this, she instructed. She handed me a mug. The heat radiated through the ceramic, warming my cold fingers. “We need to leave in ten minutes. Pete expects a large delivery truck this morning.”

‘I can handle the inventory boxes, I offered. “You stay on the register.”

“We will manage. She offered a tight smile. The deep circles under her eyes betrayed her exhaustion. “We must adjust the budget this week. The school suspended your campus access. The board plans to revoke your medical scholarship. We lost our safety net.”

‘I mailed the petition for the Academic Tribunal yesterday,” I reminded her. I took a sip of the bitter coffee. “Mr. Harrison signed the document. If the board approves my request, I can take a public test and fix my grades.”

“We cannot rely on a school board,” my mother stated. She picked up her worn leather purse. “We must rely on our own hands. I will ask Pete for weekend overtime shifts. We will save every spare dollar. We will survive this storm, Raisa. We possess the strength.”

Her resilience carved a massive hole in my chest. She carried my burdens without complaint.

We left the house. We locked the front door and stepped out onto the cracked concrete sidewalk.

The walk to the diner took twenty minutes. The East Side streets felt empty and hollow. The failing laundromat down the block sat dark.

A stray dog scavenged near an overflowing trash bin. The gray sky promised another day of relentless spring rain.

We turned the corner onto Fourth Street.

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Chapter 203 My Mother Loses Her Job

My footsteps slowed. I gripped my ceramic mug tight.

:))

“What is wrong?” my mother asked. She noticed my hesitation.

I pointed down the block. “The neon sign is dark.”

At six in the morning, Pete’s Diner should buzz with activity. The bright red neon sign should cast a warm glow across the wet pavement. The smell of frying bacon and fresh coffee should fill the crisp air. The metal security grate should sit rolled up in the ceiling housing.

Instead, the metal grate remained locked over the front windows. The street sat in a profound silence.

Pete stood on the curb outside the establishment. He did not wear his stained white apron. He wore a heavy winter coat over a plaid shirt. He held a piece of crisp white paper in his large hands. Two line cooks stood beside him. They smoked cigarettes and kicked at the loose

gravel in the gutter.

My mother rushed forward. Her worn sneakers slapped against the wet concrete. I hurried to keep pace with her.

“Pete, my mother called out. “Did the power fail? I can help scrub the counters while we wait for the electric company to fix the grid.”

Pete looked up. He possessed a gray, defeated complexion. Deep lines of sheer exhaustion etched into his skin. He looked like a man who

just lost a war.

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