CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
DONUTS & COFFEE
Here’s the thing about high school: gossip fades fast. Unless, of course, it’s scandalous enough to survive the weekend cycle. Unfortunately, the rumors swirling around my mum’s alleged affair with Valentina’s dad weren’t going anywhere.
Some students whispered it like fact. Others spun it into something even worse; claiming I might actually be his daughter. That maybe that’s the real reason Valentina hated me so viciously. And honestly? I could see how they’d buy into the theory. The twisted logic practically wrote itself.
If only they knew who my real father was. Forget gossip, I’d probably get expelled on the spot. Headlines would write themselves. I was standing by my locker the next morning, clutching the strings of my backpack in one hand and m
