End Game

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Aurora

The crowd's roar thundered around me, but my thoughts were elsewhere. The energy in the stadium pulsed, but it barely registered as I sat beside Callie, watching UCLA's football team in action. She was bouncing with excitement, eager to watch Samuel, but I couldn't stop replaying the events of the yacht ride in my head. It had been a week, and the sting of William's betrayal hadn't dulled.

I still couldn't believe he'd told Nate about my family—about my background. It was bad enough that Nate had probably pieced some of it together, but having William openly discuss my family's wealth felt like a knife in my back. He knew how much I wanted a fresh start, but apparently, that didn't matter to him.

William had flown back to Yale the following morning, but I was still furious with him, and he knew he had crossed the line by revealing everything to Nate. And because of this, I felt forced to reveal the truth about my family to Callie, even though I had wanted to share that information with her on my own terms.

William and I had yet to speak since he left.

Not even a text.

My eyes drifted to the field, catching sight of Nate in his football gear. I hadn't come to the game to see him—I was here to support Samuel—but I couldn't help but watch him as he moved. He was different on the field—focused and intense but graceful in a way I hadn't noticed before. The way he cut through the defence, commanding the crowd's attention, made my heart beat faster. He was... really good. Better than I'd allowed myself to admit.

The crowd erupted as Nate scored another touchdown for UCLA, but the noise faded into the background. I sat there, staring at the field, my mind far from the game. My thoughts circled back to William, to the yacht, to Nate. The frustration I felt was still buried beneath the surface.

Callie must've noticed my silence because she leaned in, nudging me. "You okay? You've been zoning out for most of the game."

I sighed, pulling my gaze from the field. "It's William."

She turned to me, her face immediately serious. "You still haven't talked to him since he left?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Not a word. I can't get past what he did."

Callie frowned. "Yeah, I understand. Especially after you asked him not to say anything... that was horrible of him."

"Yeah," I breathed out, leaning back in my seat. "I never thought William, of all people, would betray me like that."

My life back in Connecticut was the one thing I had tried so hard to keep separate. Here, at UCLA, I was just Aurora. I was determined to leave that part of me behind when I came to college. A fresh start, to find people who liked me for me, not for what I came from.

But William shattered that.

Everything I had built here crumbled when he revealed my family's wealth to Nate. I've never fit into the mould of the spoiled rich girl, the socialite who breezes through life on her parents' money. I hated that image, the assumptions that came with it, and the judgment in people's eyes when they learned the truth. People would either distance themselves, intimidated by the privilege they assumed I flaunted, or they'd latch on, seeing me as some golden ticket to a world they thought was glamorous.

Neither option felt real. Neither one saw me.

William took away the one thing I had control over—how people saw me and how I presented myself. And now, I couldn't shake the feeling that things would never be the same.

I clenched my jaw, the anger bubbling up again just thinking about it. "I feel so exposed, Callie. And I'm sorry for withholding that part of myself from you, too. I'm trying to be... normal, you know? I didn't want him or any of you to see me as this spoiled rich girl from some ridiculous family."