Emma sat hunched on the edge of her bed, tears carving silent paths down her cheeks. The dim afternoon light filtering through the dorm window seemed to mock her misery.
"Seriously, what the hell is wrong with Jason?" Lily slammed her phone down with enough force to make the desk lamp tremble. Her voice cracked with indignation. "Didn't he used to say he'd always be there for you? Now that you're actually in trouble, he just ghosts you completely?"
Emma's shoulders shook as she buried her face in her hands. The memory of Josh's cruel words still echoed in her mind, each syllable a fresh wound.
Lily grabbed her phone again, fingers flying across the screen as she searched through her contacts. "Wait—he didn't block me. Let me text him right now."
Her thumbs moved with fierce determination:
"Jason, I need to tell you something urgent. Emma broke up with Josh, and now he's demanding she pay back over $5,000 he transferred to her during their relationship. Emma doesn't have that kind of money. Can't you just help her out this one time? If you step up now, she'll finally see how different you are from Josh. I swear she'll love you for real this time. She'll definitely be your girlfriend."
The three dots indicating Jason was typing appeared almost immediately, making Emma's heart skip. But when his reply came through, it hit like a bucket of ice water:
"Not my problem. She was hooking up with someone else while I was the fool chasing her around like a lost puppy. Why would I pay for that mess?"
Lily's jaw dropped, but she quickly recovered, typing frantically:
"Don't be like that! $5,000 is nothing for you now—I know you're doing well. If you help her, she'll be so grateful. You two could finally be together for real. Isn't that what you always wanted? And why did you delete Emma anyway? She's completely devastated about it."
This time, Jason's response came back even colder than before:
"Five grand might be nothing, but it's not my responsibility. Let me make this crystal clear—Emma and I are done. Forever. Don't drag me into her drama ever again. And honestly? I should've deleted you along with her."
"What the actual hell?" Lily stared at her screen in disbelief. "Who talks like that? Just because he has some money now, he thinks he can treat people like garbage?"
She tossed her phone aside with disgust. "And guess what? He deleted me too. Can you believe that petty behavior? It's only $5,000! He's supposedly rich now but suddenly stingier than a miser."
From across the room, Hailey and Samantha—who had been listening to this entire exchange—shared an exasperated look and rolled their eyes in perfect synchronization.
"Seriously, Lily," Samantha said with brutal honesty, not bothering to look up from her textbook. "Even if he's swimming in money, why should he pay Emma's debts? That's not his responsibility, and it never was."
"Thank god he finally grew a backbone," Hailey added, flipping a page. "If this was the old Jason, he probably would've transferred the money before Lily even finished typing."
Emma's sobs intensified, her voice muffled by the pillow she clutched like a lifeline. "Why is he acting like this? He wasn't like this before... he used to be so sweet to me."
Samantha let out a exerted laugh.
"Oh, come on, Emma. Get real for five seconds." She finally looked up, her expression sharp as a blade. "The guy chased you for three entire years. Three years! He practically worshipped the ground you walked on, and you treated him like he was invisible. Then you turned around and started dating Josh—that wannabe rich boy with his fake designer everything—and you even slept with him."
Emma flinched as if she'd been physically struck.
"Now Josh screws you over completely," Samantha continued relentlessly, "and you expect Jason to swoop in like some kind of knight in shining armor and save you? That's not how the real world works. If you want to fix this mess, talk to your dad or figure out how to pay Josh back yourself. Maybe—just maybe—if you actually turn your life around, Jason might respect you again. But don't hold your breath."
"I know I messed up," Emma whispered, her voice barely audible as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "But can't people change? He doesn't even have a girlfriend now... doesn't that mean we could still have a chance? $5,000 really is nothing to him, and if he helps me, I'll finally be his. For real this time."
Lily nodded eagerly. "Exactly! He bought that expensive Rolex yesterday. If he can afford luxury watches, then $5,000 is literally pocket change. Sure, back when he was broke, Emma didn't really notice him. But now that he's actually got money, if he treats her well, why wouldn't she want to be with him?"
Samantha threw her hands up in defeat. "You two are completely delusional. I'm done with this conversation." She grabbed her headphones and turned back to her books.
But Emma suddenly sat up straighter, her tears pausing as a memory surfaced.
"Wait... the Rolex was yesterday. But today, I saw him driving a Mercedes G-Wagon. And he was wearing a completely different watch—a Patek Philippe."
"What?!" Lily nearly choked on her own saliva. "You mean he's not just well-off—he's actually rich rich? That's not just a lucky windfall. A G-Wagon alone costs more than most people's annual salary. And a Patek Philippe? Emma, do you have any idea what those cost? That's like the Rolls-Royce of watches! Which model was it? Do you know the price?"
"I'm not exactly a watch expert," Emma admitted, fumbling for her phone with trembling fingers. "Let me look it up right now."
She quickly searched for Mercedes G-Wagon models, her eyes widening as she scrolled through the results. At first, she assumed Jason must have been driving the base model G550—expensive, sure, but not completely outrageous for someone who'd had a lucky break.
But then she saw a photo that made her blood run cold.
The brand-new Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG. The exact same model she'd seen Jason driving.
Her eyes moved to the price tag, and her world tilted on its axis.
Starting at $275,000.
She'd underestimated everything. Badly.
"Two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars?!" Lily leaned over Emma's shoulder, her voice climbing to a near-shriek. "Oh my God... that's not just better than Josh's BMW—it's in a completely different universe!"
Emma sat frozen, her lips parted in shock as the magnitude of her mistake began to sink in.
But she wasn't finished yet. Emma had always been fascinated by luxury brands, spending countless late nights scrolling through online catalogs and dreaming of a lifestyle she couldn't afford. The watch on Jason's wrist had been distinctive—something she'd never seen before but somehow looked incredibly rare and expensive.
Her fingers moved across the screen with desperate urgency.
And then she found it.
Patek Philippe Nautilus, Rose Gold, Limited Edition.
Retail price: $250,000.
Emma inhaled so sharply that Lily thought she was having an asthma attack. The car had been shocking enough, but the watch? That revealed everything about Jason's true financial status.
Anyone could lease or finance a luxury car. But a Patek Philippe? That was pure liquid cash, a statement that money was just a number. The old saying hit her like a physical blow: Poor men buy cars to impress. Rich men collect watches for themselves.
Heat flooded Emma's cheeks as her perception of Jason underwent a complete transformation. Without even realizing it, her feelings toward him were shifting dramatically.
Emma: Favorability +8
"Three hundred and fifty thousand... for a watch?" Lily's voice was barely a whisper. "Jesus Christ. Jason isn't just lucky—he's seriously, genuinely wealthy. Maybe all those years, he wasn't some broke college student after all. What if he was hiding his money this whole time? Playing poor while secretly being loaded?"
Her tone had shifted completely—mockery replaced with awe and barely concealed greed. Like Emma, Lily was quick to change allegiances when serious money was involved.
Emma bit her lip so hard she tasted blood, her pulse racing with a mixture of regret and desperate hope. "No matter what happened before, Jason's the real deal now. I can't waste any more time—I need to fix things with him immediately."
She frantically scrolled through old group chats on her phone, searching through digital memories. Years ago, Jason had been so desperate for any scrap of her attention that he'd joined every single group chat she was part of. Even though he'd deleted her from his personal contacts, there might still be traces of him in these old conversations.
She found one and immediately tagged him with shaking fingers:
@Jason, I really want to meet up and clear the air between us. Can we please talk? It's important.
For exactly three seconds, Emma's heart soared with hope.
Then Jason left the group chat.
Just like that. No explanation. No hesitation.
Gone.
Hailey and Samantha, who had been pretending not to listen while absorbing every word, exchanged a meaningful glance across the room.
Neither could quite believe what they were witnessing. Jason—the same guy Emma had dismissed like he was nothing more than an annoying fly—was now cruising around in a $300K Mercedes and casually wearing watches that cost more than most people's houses.
The irony was almost too perfect to be real.
Emma had thrown away a guy who had been nothing but loyal and devoted, choosing instead to chase after Josh—a fake rich boy with delusions of grandeur. Only now was she discovering that genuine wealth had been right beside her the entire time, begging for her attention.
Now she was drowning in regret. But Jason? Jason was completely done with her games. He didn't want to see her face, hear her voice, or acknowledge her existence.
His immediate exit from the group chat said everything that needed to be said.
Hailey and Samantha felt no sympathy whatsoever for Emma's tears. They simply looked at each other and shared the same unspoken thought:
She got exactly what she deserved.
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