Chapter 165

I clenched my teeth, each word pushed out through pure fury. "You called it 'pursuing,' but everything you did was harassment. You even tried to get her drunk, and now you’re pretending none of it happened? You’re disgusting."

Michael grew more flustered by the second.

After I finished, he paused, then suddenly straightened up and said, like it was nothing, "I already said I was young and reckless. Yeah, maybe I used the wrong approach, but I really did like her.

“People change, right? I’ve grown up, and I wouldn’t do something like that now. What, you think nobody’s allowed to make mistakes? Besides, it’s not like I committed some huge crime.”

Then, that same smug, dismissive look I remembered crept back onto his face. “You’re accusing me of trying to force her–do you have proof? Sure, maybe I got carried away, but I never actually forced her.”

I drew in a slow, shaking breath, then lunged.

Michael flinched and stumbled back, instantly yelping like a coward. “Hey! You can’t just attack someone! Do you even know how wrong that is? Did everyone see that? She tried to hit me! If this goes to the police, I’ll be the victim here!”

Jonathan stepped in, catching me by the shoulders, his voice low and strained. “Elise, calm down. I’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“Wasn’t I already clear enough?”

My eyes burned red as I stared straight at him. “Why is it that someone like him gets away without facing any consequences? Just a few words and everything’s supposed to be forgiven? Do you even realize–”

My throat suddenly tightened.

He didn’t just harass Gabrielle. He harassed me, too.

Back then, he stalked her for nights, following her home, waiting for a chance to force himself on her.

That night, I was the one who showed up just in time to stop him. Gabrielle and I nearly risked everything trying to fight him off.

I still remember it, every detail sharp and vivid. It happened in a pitch-black alley behind campus. Gabrielle had taken a tutoring job across the school and was walking back late.

The path was barely lit and completely deserted. I’d been in the dorm, uneasy for some reason, so I went out to find her. I never expected to hear her scream.

When I ran toward the sound, I saw Michael on top of her, trying to tear at her clothes.

Rage flooded me, and I didn’t even think. I just charged at him, ready to fight with everything I had.

Michael was a man, after all, and it didn’t take him long to overpower both of us.

But we fought back with everything we had. Even if it meant getting hurt, we were ready to go down swinging. We weren’t about to let him walk away unscathed.

In the end, he fled, panicked and shaken.

After that night, he held a grudge. He stopped chasing after Gabrielle and turned his attention toward me instead.

From then on, Gabrielle and I made sure never to go anywhere alone. Every time we left the dorm, we stuck together.

About a month passed without anything strange happening. Slowly, we let our guard down again.

Then, one night, I was walking alone through an alley when I suddenly got the feeling that someone was following me.

At first, I thought I was just being paranoid. But a few steps later, I heard it, the unmistakable sound of footsteps behind me, quickening and getting closer.

My heart dropped. I remembered the things Michael had said before, and it didn’t take much to guess who it was.

I picked up my pace, but the alley was long. I hadn’t planned to come this way at all, but the usual route had been blocked off by construction barriers. I didn’t have much of a choice.

I’d let my guard down because nothing had happened for a while, and that’s when it hit me.

This was a trap.

He’d planned it from the beginning, forcing me into this alley, lying in wait. He hadn’t let go of what happened that night, and he’d just been biding his time.

Chapter 166