My Fake Boyfriend Is the School Bad Boy novel Chapter 206

Chapter 206 He Reads The Eviction Notice

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I looked at her swollen, red hands. I looked at the deep lines of premature aging etched around her eyes. She did not deserve this pain.

She deserved rest. She deserved the house in the hills.

I realized what I needed to do.

The choice sat before me, clear and undeniable. I held the power to fix the destruction. I held the power to resurrect the diner and secure our future. I just needed to surrender. I needed to sacrifice my own heart.

I needed to call Arthur Steinmann.

I reached into the front pocket of my gray sweatpants. My fingers brushed against the cold metal of my cell phone. I could power the device on. I needed to navigate the automated menu and demand a direct line to the corporate headquarters. I needed to tell the billionaire patriarch I accepted his terms. I needed to ask for the blank check.

If I surrendered, he would reinstate Pete’s lease. He would clear my academic record. He would fund my medical track. He would buy the

house in the hills.

But the cost required me to shatter Ryder’s heart.

I pictured Ryder standing in his massive bedroom. I pictured him holding the ruined biology practice test. I pictured him climbing through my window in the freezing rain. He surrendered his inheritance to protect my honor. He fought his own blood to keep me safe.

If I made this phone call, I betrayed his sacrifice. I became the exact transaction the elite believed me to be. I proved his father right.

I pulled the phone from my pocket. My hands shook. The cold metal bit into my palms.

I must protect my mother. I must choose the diner.

My chest ached. The pain radiated through my ribs, deep and profound. I loved Ryder. I harbored a consuming devotion for the boy with the golden flecks in his hazel eyes. He stood against his own family to protect me. Now, I needed to break him to save my mother.

I stared at the black screen of the phone. I gathered the courage to press the power button. I prepared to execute the betrayal.

A loud rumble broke the silence of the empty street.

The deep, mechanical growl of a heavy diesel engine echoed off the brick buildings. I lifted my head.

A battered blue Ford truck turned the corner.

The vehicle moved down Fourth Street. The heavy tires hissed against the wet asphalt. The headlights cut through the gray morning mist, casting long beams of yellow light across the cracked pavement. The truck pulled up to the curb, parking directly behind the metal trash

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Chapter 206 He Reads The Eviction Notice

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The engine shut off.

My pulse hammered a frantic rhythm against my throat. I dropped the cell phone back into my pocket. I abandoned the betrayal.

The driver-side door opened with a loud creak.

Ryder stepped out onto the asphalt.

He wore his scuffed combat boots, dark jeans, and the familiar black leather jacket. He looked exhausted. Dark shadows pooled beneath his hazel eyes. The harsh lines of stress framed his jaw. He spent the previous day locked in a massive legal battle with his private trust lawyers. He fought to secure his own independence from the Steinmann empire. He came here to find comfort. He came here to find me.

He shut the truck door. He walked around the rusted hood of the vehicle

He stopped. He saw the dark neon sign. He saw the locked metal security grate covering the front windows of the diner.

He shifted his gaze. He saw my mother sitting on the wooden bench, her face buried in her hands. He saw the tears shining on my cheeks.

The exhaustion in his posture vanished. A sharp, lethal tension replaced it. He recognized the aftermath of a corporate strike. He knew his father’s methods. He understood the visual language of elite destruction

Ryder crossed the damp sidewalk in long, determined strides. He bypassed the wooden bench. He walked directly to the heavy glass door

of the establishment.

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