My Fake Boyfriend Is the School Bad Boy novel Chapter 210

Chapter 210 Showing Up In The Rain

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The battered blue Ford truck sat parked at the curb. The rain slicked the rusted hood. A parking enforcement officer stood near the

bumper, writing a ticket for an expired meter.

Ryder stopped. He looked at the vehicle. He rested his hand on the wet metal of the driver-side door. A quiet grief settled over his sharp features. He said goodbye to the one piece of his life he built himself. He rebuilt that machine. Now, it belonged to the corporation.

He pulled his hand away. He turned his back on the truck.

“The bus stop sits two blocks from here,” he said.

We walked down the wide avenue. The cold rain soaked through my oversized cotton hoodie. It plastered Ryder’s dark hair to his forehead. We reached the glass transit shelter. A battered city bus idled at the curb.

I stopped under the plastic awning. I turned to face him. The guilt gnawed at my chest.

“You gave up everything,” I whispered. My throat burned. “Your trust fund. Your home. Your truck. You have nothing.”

“I have my freedom, Ryder countered. He reached out and framed my face with his cold, wet hands. “I chose you. I chose the truth. My father expects me to crawl back. He expects the poverty to break my resolve. I refuse to give him the satisfaction. He lost his leverage today. He will reinstate the diner lease to save his corporate image. He cannot risk the public scandal.”

“He will try to hurt you,” I said. “He will find another way to strike.”

“Let him strike,” Ryder said. A fierce, unyielding light burned in his eyes. “I know his playbook. I know his weaknesses. He views the world as a spreadsheet, Raisa. He does not understand loyalty. That is his blind spot. We will use it against him.”

“Where will you go?” I asked. The panic spiked in my veins. “You lack a coat. You lack cash.”

“I need to make a stop, he explained. “I need to collect a few things before the estate security changes the gate codes. Go home, Raisa. Tell your mother she can keep her kitchen.”

He leaned down and kissed my forehead. His lips felt cold against my damp skin. He offered a promise in that touch. A promise of

survival.

He stepped away. He turned and walked down the gray street. The rain swallowed his silhouette.

I boarded the city bus. I paid the fare with the loose coins in my pocket. I sat in the back row. The heater blasted warm air against my wet clothes, but the chill remained deep in my bones.

I rode the bus back to the East Side. I watched the towering glass skyscrapers fade into the distance. The cracked concrete and failing brick buildings returned. The disparity between our two worlds never looked so sharp..

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Chapter 210 Showing Up In The Rain

I stepped off the bus at the corner of Fourth Street. I walked to my house. I climbed the wooden steps of the front porch. I pushed the

door open.

My mother sat at the small kitchen table. She stared at a stack of unpaid bills. She looked up when I entered. Her eyes looked red and

swollen.

“Did you speak to Pete?” she asked. Her voice lacked hope.

I walked into the kitchen. I pulled a wooden chair out and sat across from her. I reached across the chipped formica table. I took her

calloused hands in mine.

“The diner is safe, I told her.

She blinked. Confusion replaced the despair. “What do you mean?”

Arthur Steinmann controls the property company,” I explained. I kept my words clear and measured. ‘He ordered the eviction to punish me. Ryder found out. We went to the corporate headquarters. Ryder confronted his father in the main boardroom.”

He fought his own father for us?” she asked. She gripped my fingers tight.

“He surrendered his inheritance,” I said. The raw truth brought fresh tears to my eyes. “He left his credit cards and his truck keys on the table. He walked out of the building. He gave up his entire life to stop the eviction.”

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