Chapter 9
Violet's POV
"Watch your words, Violet." Ethan stepped forward, eyes turning sinister. "Sienna needs that principal position. It's very important for her Ivy League graduate school application. And you? Even if you get into the orchestra, you're just a bottom-tier musician on a dead-end salary. Withdrawing from the selection is good for everyone."
"Absolutely impossible." I met his gaze without yielding, saying word by word: "That position is something I earned through my own ability. I'd rather die on stage than withdraw."
"You don't have the capital to refuse." Ethan suddenly smiled, an extremely nasty smile. He bent down slightly, looking into my eyes. "Violet, did you forget? You owe me."
"What do I owe you?" I looked at him in disbelief. "If it's because of three years together, that's because I was blind! If it's because of hospital medical bills, I'll pay you back with interest!"
"Medical bills? That's nothing." Ethan shook his head contemptuously. "As long as you go to the administration office tomorrow and submit a withdrawal application, that huge sum you owe me, I can be magnanimous and write it off. After that you go your way, I absolutely won't trouble you."
"You're a complete lunatic." I gritted my teeth, thinking that to help Sienna force me to withdraw, he'd started spouting nonsense. "When did I ever owe you a huge sum? Ethan, to slander me, you can even make up this kind of lie?"
Ethan's smile faded. His eyes showed a certain arrogant certainty: "Your student loan. That forty-five thousand dollar student loan that was about to crush you—I've already paid it all off for you."
The room fell into deathly silence.
My breathing stopped for a second.
The forty-five thousand dollar student loan was the reason I worked three part-time jobs every day and couldn't even afford a cup of coffee. It was the heaviest mountain on my back.
"You're lying." I stared at him, voice dry.
Though Ethan was a rich kid, his usual spending all relied on his family's allowance. He couldn't possibly come up with that much cash to pay off my loan. Moreover, why would he do this?
"Don't believe me?" Ethan shrugged, pointing at the silver-gray phone in my pocket. "Then verify it. Call your loan bank right now and see if your account balance is zero."
Looking at his confident appearance, the unease in my heart began to magnify infinitely.
I fumbled the phone from my pocket, fingers trembling as I dialed the Federal Student Loan Service Center's customer service number.
After a long waiting tone, the call connected.
"Good evening, Miss Kane. How may I help you?" The polite voice of a customer service representative came through the receiver.
"I want to... check my loan account balance." I swallowed, staring hard at Ethan in front of me.
The sound of keyboard typing came through. A few seconds later, the representative gave an answer: "Miss Kane, your account status is currently 'settled.' Your entire loan balance was paid in full via wire transfer this Monday."
My head exploded with a "boom," as if someone had punched me in the face.
Settled? Really settled?
"Wait," I urgently interrupted the representative, voice trembling. "May I ask... who paid this money? What's the payer's name?"
Ethan stood across from me, lips curling in a triumphant arc, as if he'd already seen me surrender.
The customer service rep on the other end paused, seemingly verifying information, then answered clearly: "The payment was from a private trust account. The authorized person's surname is... Hall. A Mr. Hall."
"Smack." The phone slipped from my stiff fingers and hit the floor.
The phone hit the floor, screen glowing weakly.
I stood frozen, mind in chaos.
"Did you hear?" Ethan looked at my shocked expression, seeming very satisfied.
He took a step forward. His leather shoes creaked on the old wooden floor.
He looked down at me condescendingly, tone carrying condescending charity: "As long as you're obedient and withdraw from the selection, consider this money my breakup fee to you. If you're willing, I can even send you money every month, enough for you to move out of this moldy dump and rent a decent apartment."
He reached out to touch my face: "Violet, you don't need to make yourself so miserable. Just nod your head and your life can completely change."
I jerked my head away, dodging his hand. My stomach churned.
Humiliation.
This was naked humiliation.
He thought he could buy out my efforts with money, buy out my dignity, even buy out the meaning of that violin my grandmother left me.
He thought that backed by the Hall family's wealth, he could dismiss me like giving alms to a beggar, paving the way for his new love.
"Take your hand away." I looked up, staring hard at him, voice cold as ice. "You think this money can make me submit? You think I'd give up the opportunity I fought desperately for, for your little charity?"
Ethan's brows furrowed, seemingly surprised by my reaction.
"Don't be ungrateful." He withdrew his hand, tone becoming impatient. "Forty-five thousand dollars! You couldn't earn that much working part-time your whole life! Sienna needs that position. What do you have to compete with her? Even if you go, you'll just be a joke!"
"That's my business." I took a deep breath, suppressing the trembling in my chest, pointing at the shabby table beside me. "Write an IOU."
Ethan froze: "What?"
"I said, write an IOU!" I raised my voice, pulling out a pen and old notepad from the drawer, slamming them on the table. "Forty-five thousand dollars. I won't short you a penny. I'll pay back the Hall family with interest. Now, write the IOU, then take your money and get out of my apartment!"
Ethan's face instantly turned livid.
He looked at the paper and pen on the table, then at me. The arrogance in his eyes was finally replaced by humiliated rage.
"Are you insane?" He suddenly swept his hand, knocking the paper and pen to the floor. "What will you use to pay it back? By frying potatoes at the fast food restaurant? Or by playing that broken violin on street corners? Violet, don't think too highly of yourself! You're just a poor wretch who can't even afford tuition. One of Sienna's fingers is more noble than you! I must have been blind to fall for a poor, stubborn fool like you!"
His curses were like sharp blades, mercilessly cutting open the last bit of decency between us.
I looked at the man before me.
This face I once deeply loved for three years now twisted into something utterly strange and disgusting.
Three years of feelings, in his eyes, were nothing but a transaction that could be casually priced. And I was just a bottom-dwelling ant who didn't know what was good for her.