Chapter 1

The acceptance letter from the Atheria Art Academy felt heavy in my hands. It was thick, creamy paper, the kind that promised a future. My own name, Chloe Miller, was printed in elegant script right below the academy' s crest. I got in. The scholarship, a full ride, was mine.

A wave of relief washed over me, so strong it almost made my knees buckle. For years, this was the only thing I' d wanted.

The only thing we' d wanted.

I looked over at Jake Davis and Noah Stone, who were standing beside me on the sprawling lawn of my family' s estate. They were my childhood friends, the brothers I never had. They held identical envelopes from Atheria. We had made a pact to open them together.

"Well?" I asked, my voice trembling with excitement. "What are you waiting for?"

Jake, always the leader, flashed his signature charismatic smile. He tore open his envelope, his eyes scanning the page. A wide grin spread across his face. "I' m in!"

Noah, quieter and more reserved, ripped his open next. His shoulders relaxed as he let out a long breath. "Me too. We did it, Chloe. All three of us."

We should have been celebrating. This was the culmination of years of hard work, of my parents funding their private tutors, buying them the best art supplies, treating them like their own sons. This was our shared dream.

But then Jake' s smile faltered. He exchanged a look with Noah, a silent conversation passing between them that I wasn' t part of.

"Chloe," Jake started, his tone suddenly serious. "There' s something we need to tell you."

I clutched my letter, a knot of dread forming in my stomach. "What is it?"

"Noah and I... we' re not going to Atheria."

The words hung in the air, sharp and unbelievable. I stared at him, sure I had misheard. "What? What are you talking about? We' ve planned this since we were ten."

"We' ve decided to go to Northwood Community College instead," Noah added softly, refusing to meet my eyes.

"Community college?" The words came out as a shocked whisper. "Why? You got into the best art school in the country. This makes no sense."

Jake' s expression hardened, a defensive glint in his eyes. "It' s because of Emily."

Emily Reed. The new girl. She had appeared a few months ago, all wide, innocent eyes and a story about a difficult life that had both Jake and Noah tripping over themselves to be her hero.

"We can' t just leave her behind," Jake said, his voice filled with a righteousness that grated on my nerves. "She needs us. She' s going to Northwood, so we' re going with her."

I wanted to scream. I wanted to shake them. Emily didn' t need them; she was using them. But I knew they wouldn' t see it.

"You' re throwing away your future for a girl you' ve known for five minutes?" I tried to keep my voice steady, to reason with them. "Jake, Noah, think about this. All the work, all the money my parents invested in you..."

I was about to say more, to remind them of everything, but the air in front of me shimmered.

Glimmering, golden letters began to form, hanging in space like a phantom message only I could see.

"If the supporting character continues to hinder, the male leads will design to lose her scholarship documents. She will then fall down the stairs while looking for them, resulting in permanent leg paralysis, spending the rest of her life in a wheelchair."

My blood ran cold. My breath caught in my throat. What was this? I blinked, but the words didn' t disappear. They floated there, a cruel, impossible sentence.

Then, more words appeared beneath the first.

"She deserves it! Anyone who obstructs the plot will face consequences!"

A wave of horror washed over me. The plot? Male leads? Supporting character? It sounded like something out of a cheap novel. But the threat felt chillingly real. Permanent leg paralysis. A wheelchair.

The words I was about to say died on my lips. I looked at Jake and Noah, at their determined, foolish faces, and I saw them not as my friends, but as agents of a destiny I wanted no part of. They weren't just making a stupid choice; they were a threat to my very future.

My family and I had supported them for years, given them every opportunity, and this was how they repaid us? By becoming pawns in a story that would see me crippled? No. I refused to let that happen.

I swallowed the bitter taste of betrayal and forced a calm expression onto my face.

"If you' ve made up your minds," I said, my voice flat and distant, "then go to community college."

They seemed surprised by my sudden compliance, but relieved. They didn' t understand. They forgot that without my family' s connections, without the portfolio C.V.s my father' s assistant had painstakingly curated for them, without the letters of recommendation from influential artists my father had called in favors for, they wouldn' t have even gotten a rejection letter from Atheria, let alone an acceptance.

They thought they were choosing a different path.

They had no idea they had just chosen to walk off a cliff.