My Fake Boyfriend Is the School Bad Boy novel Chapter 217

Chapter 217 Ryder Goes To Find Hugo

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The rain battered the thin glass of my bedroom window. I sat on the edge of the mattress. My biology textbook rested on my lap, open to

the chapter on cellular division. The words blurred into meaningless black shapes. I could not focus on the stages of mitosis. My mind

remained trapped in the public library.

I will destroy the one person you forgot to protect.

Chloe Vance delivered the threat with a smile. She possessed a secret. She hired a private investigator to dig through the dark corners of the student forum. She planned to drop a bomb on the school board the second I opened my mouth at the academic tribunal.

I closed the heavy textbook. I dropped it onto the floorboards.

I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs. The cramped room felt like a concrete cell. The walls pressed inward. I tried to identify her target. I tried to guess the secret.

My mother harbored zero secrets. She woke up, scrubbed dishes at the diner, and came home.

Ryder carried a massive disciplinary file, but his infractions existed in the public record. The school board already knew about the parking lot fights and the broken curfews. Chloe could not weaponize his past. The administration already used it against him.

That left the B-wing.

Chloe mentioned my friends in the scholarship corridor. I thought about Sofia working weekends at the grocery store. I thought about Hugo. Hugo relied on a pristine math grant to stay enrolled at Crestview Prep. If Chloe found a flaw in his application, she could ruin his entire future. She could steal his tuition.

The front door of the house clicked open. The hinges groaned.

Footsteps moved down the narrow hallway. The heavy tread of combat boots stopped outside my bedroom.

Ryder pushed the door open. He wore his damp black t-shirt and dark jeans. He spent the entire day dealing with the fallout of his arrest. The police dropped the property damage charges after the garage owner refused to provide security footage, but the elite damage was done. The news vans broadcasted his face across the city. The billionaire heir became a cautionary tale.

He stepped into the room. He took one look at my face and stopped.

The exhaustion in his posture vanished. The protective, lethal focus returned. He crossed the floorboards. He crouched beside the mattress, bringing his face level with mine.

“What happened?’ Ryder demanded. His hazel eyes scanned my expression. He searched for the source of my panic.

She found something. I whispered. My throat felt raw. “Chloe approached me at the public library. She told me to drop the appeal for the

tribunal.

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Chapter 217 Ryder Goes To Find Hugo

Ryder tightened his jaw. The muscle ticked beneath his pale skin. “Did she threaten you?”

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“She threatened someone else.” I lowered my legs. I gripped the edge of the mattress. “She hired an investigator. She claims she found a

massive secret involving the B-wing. She promised to release the file to the school board if I take the verbal test on Friday. She wants to

destroy my community to force my surrender.”

Ryder stood up. He ran a hand through his dark, tangled hair. He paced the narrow length of the room. The cramped space failed to

contain the volatile energy radiating from his chest.

“She bluffs, Ryder stated. ‘She wants to rattle your focus. She knows you possess the intellect to ace the test. She needs you to forfeit.”

“She did not look like she bluffed. She looked victorious.”

Ryder stopped pacing. He stared at the blank wall above my desk. His brilliant, calculating mind went to work. He processed the variables. He understood the elite playbook. The wealthy students used information as a weapon. They hoarded secrets to maintain their dominance.

“If she holds a weapon, we disarm her, Ryder said. He turned to face me. “We find our own leverage. We dig into her pristine record.

“I tried that,” I reminded him. I searched the student forums weeks ago. Chloe Vance projects total perfection. She possesses top grades. She leads the cheer team. She volunteers at the local hospital. She leaves zero digital footprint.”

“She leaves a footprint, Ryder corrected. A cold, sharp light sparked in his eyes. “Everyone leaves a trail. The affluent elite believe they are invisible because they pay people to clean up their messes. But the people they pay belong to the working class. The elite ignore the shadows, Raisa. The B-wing lives in the shadows.”

“What are you talking about?”

The school network, Ryder explained. He stepped closer. “The administration pays an outside tech firm to manage the firewalls, but the daily server maintenance falls on the student work-study program. The scholarship kids run the back end of the Crestview grid. They see the deleted emails. They see the hidden files. They see the IP addresses.”

I shook my head. “The B-wing students will not help us. Trent Lawson threatened to pull their grants. They stepped back. They are

terrified.

“They are terrified of Trent, Ryder agreed. “They are not terrified of me.”

Ryder reached into his pocket. He pulled out his cell phone.

“I spent four years watching the social hierarchy,” he continued. His voice dropped to a low rumble. I know the names. I know the favors. Hugo manages the senior network logs every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. He needs the work-study hours to maintain his math grant. I possess a connection with Hugo.”

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