Reborn I Smiled as My Boyfriend's Ivy League Dream Burned

Ten minutes before the college application deadline.

That's when I found the post. The class beauty, the obsessive little stalker who'd been chasing my boyfriend for three years, had written it herself:

Switched all of my dream guy's elite-university programs over to the vocational school near mine. I'll be on him every single day. No way I don't lock this down!

In my last life, I logged into Alden James's application portal the second I saw it.

With one minute left, I changed every choice back.

Then I told Alden, and I told his mother, the one who'd gone half-mad wanting her son to be a star.

The James family called the police on the spot. Louisa Fox was dragged through the mud until her name was ruined, and that same night she jumped to her death.

Afterward, Alden and I both got into the elite national university together. We went from school uniforms to a wedding dress.

The day my water broke, our house caught fire in the dead of night.

When Alden smashed through the door and charged in through the flames, I thought he'd come to save me.

Instead he stood there watching me collapse into the fire, screaming in agony, then turned around, picked up a small box, and walked off with the photo inside.

"It's my fault. I was too young back then. I never understood who I really loved."

"If you hadn't snitched and gotten her killed, the one standing beside me right now would have been her."

"Today's the anniversary of her death. Grace Simmons, you and the baby can pay for her life together."

A roof beam snapped my spine. I burned alive in our marriage home.

Just before my consciousness slipped away, I heard Alden murmuring as he cradled Louisa's photo:

"If I could do it all over, I'd choose her."

Then I opened my eyes again.

I was back on the day Louisa changed the application.

This life.

I quietly backed out of the post.

"Gracie? What are you looking at? You're so absorbed."

Alden leaned in, curious, trying to peek at my phone.

I calmly switched off the screen. "Nothing."

The clock struck the hour. The last chance to change any application was gone.

This life, Alden was destined for that vocational school out in the middle of nowhere, tangled up forever with the woman he truly loved, Louisa.

I just didn't know whether Alden's mother, the one who'd gone mad wanting her son to make something of himself,

would ever let the two of them off the hook.

I turned to Alden and asked,

"Did you come to see me for something?"

"Did you forget? Today's the graduation dinner! I just passed my driver's test a couple of days ago, so I came to pick you up!"

He reached for my hand on instinct. I pulled away.

"Let's go, then. The teachers and everyone are waiting."

I ignored the hurt in Alden's eyes and headed for the passenger seat on my own,

only to find Louisa already sitting there, watching me with a challenge in her eyes.

"Sorry about that. I get a little carsick, so I took the front."

Alden's face darkened instantly. He went straight over and hauled her out.

"Who said you could sit here? This seat's for Gracie."

He turned to me, exasperated, explaining,

"Gracie, don't get the wrong idea. She was in the back this whole time. No idea what set her off this time always stirring something up"

Then he said to Louisa, a note of irritation in his voice,

"Let me say this one more time. The person I like is Gracie. I see you as nothing more than an ordinary classmate. If you keep pulling stunts like this with no sense of boundaries, I really will stop talking to you."

He guided me into the passenger seat, then pointed out everything he'd set up in there, fishing for praise like a kid showing off.

"Look, it's all the cartoon plushies and stickers you like. From now on this is your seat, only yours. Do you like it?"

I let out a small, dry laugh and said nothing.

If he were truly sick of her,

why would he have gone out of his way to drive over and pick her up? Why make her his very first passenger?

I remembered a lot of things from before.

Back when seats were being assigned, Louisa had shamelessly insisted on sitting beside Alden, and she'd thrown every single thing I'd laid out on my desk straight into the trash.

She'd sneak into the classroom when he wasn't around and slip on his uniform jacket, drink from his water bottle, then come parade in front of me to brag that they'd had an indirect kiss.

She'd even tried to tear Alden and me apart, hiring people to spread filthy rumors that I was tangled up with some street thugs.

Every time, sure, Alden would put on a cold face and warn her off. But which of those times did he ever truly stop her?

Every line Louisa crossed, every provocation she aimed at me,

he'd brush aside with a weightless little "Then I won't talk to you anymore,"

and somehow that was supposed to sound like a threat?

I pushed open the door to the private room of the graduation dinner,

and the moment everyone saw Alden and me walk in shoulder to shoulder, they broke into one collective cheer.

"Finally! Alden! Grace! Kiss already!"

Three years of pent-up energy let loose all at once.

Even our homeroom teacher laughed and shook his head.

"All right, all right, leave the two of them alone."

Through the laughter, someone suddenly spotted Louisa hovering behind us,

and their expression curdled instantly. They curled their lip in contempt.

"I knew Louisa would shamelessly tag along no matter what."

"Honestly, I give up. No shame at all. What's the point of fawning over him like that? They've already gone public."

"Alden and Grace are headed to the same Ivy as a couple. With her grades, what's she looking at, some second-tier state school?"

The room erupted in laughter,

and Louisa went white in a heartbeat, her eyes snapping to Alden on instinct.

Alden frowned and spoke up, almost reflexively.

"Enough. Don't say things like that."

"Don't drag Louisa and me together in front of Grace."

There was even a thread of displeasure in his voice when he said it.

But I saw it clearly.

The flicker of reluctance in his eyes when he looked at Louisa.

At the table, Alden orbited me nearly the entire meal.

Wiping my hands for me, placing food on my plate.

The girls beside us were green with envy.

"Alden's just too sweet to her"

Right. Alden had always been everyone's idea of the perfect boyfriend.

He'd remember my period and have a cup of brown-sugar ginger tea waiting for me.

And once, because I said I was feeling down, he'd skipped evening study hall and driven all over the city through the night just to find me a cake.

Who could have imagined that a man like that, in my last life,

could watch me, pregnant, collapse in the smoke and get crushed into pulp under a falling beam.

A few rounds of drinks in, one of the guys got hammered.

He looked over at Louisa, bleary-eyed, and suddenly laughed.

"Hey, no, seriously, Louisa, the stuff you used to do chasing Alden was actually wild."

"I even heard that when the classroom was empty and Alden was asleep at his desk, you snuck a kiss on his lips."

"And that you cornered Alden in the equipment room, pulled your uniform zipper down to your chest, and asked if he'd go out with you."

"Best part was senior year, that one party. You got wasted and crawled right into Alden's lap, said you'd do anything if he'd just like you back."

The whole table burst out laughing.

Louisa bit down hard on her lip, her face ghost-pale,

but Max Lambert, riding the liquor, kept going with the crude talk.

"Alden's not into you, so why not give me a look? You're so pretty, I've wanted you for a long time."

"You like fawning over people, don't you? Fawn over me. I wouldn't say no."

And with that, his hand actually slid right onto Louisa's thigh.

"Get off me!"

Louisa's eyes flooded red in an instant, and she turned to Alden, tears welling.

But Alden acted as if he saw nothing at all.

Head down, he kept peeling shrimp for me, focused.

The light in Louisa's eyes guttered out. She shoved Max away hard.

"Don't touch me!"

Max stumbled into the corner of the table, and the wine splashed across the hem of my dress.

Alden's face changed in a flash. He was on his feet almost before the words registered.

A fist slammed into his face.

"You son of a bitch, you wanna die?!"

Max Lambert went down hard.

Alden looked like a man possessed, breath ragged, throwing punch after punch.

Everyone panicked. They shoved me forward to stop him.

I grabbed his arm. Alden threw me off. "Get off me!"

I crashed into the corner of the table, and the kettle of boiling water tipped over the back of my hand. The pain ripped a gasp out of me.

"Stop it!" Louisa choked on a sob and wrapped herself around him. "I don't want to drag you down with me!"

Alden froze for a second, then pushed her away, his face blank and cold.

"This has nothing to do with you. I did it for Grace."

The restaurant manager rushed in with the officers and hauled them both out.

Before he left, Alden gently smoothed a hand over my hair.

"Grace, don't come after me. I don't want you seeing any of this. Go home and wait for me."

Eyes red, Louisa stumbled out after him.

The private room fell dead silent. Someone murmured under their breath.

"Was Alden really losing it for Grace's sake? Because it kind of felt like it was for Louisa"

I stared at the table, expressionless. At that full bowl of peeled shrimp.

I have a severe seafood allergy. Severe enough to kill me.

Alden knew that. And he hadn't noticed at all.

The same way he hadn't noticed the back of my hand, scalded red and raw.

Because his mind, from start to finish,

was on Louisa.

I lifted my head slowly. Through the glass of the private room,

I caught the scene at the restaurant entrance.

Louisa's strap was torn off, and she was crying, shaking, a wreck.

Alden stood there in silence, head bowed, tearing off his own jacket and draping it over her with the gentlest hands.

The next second she threw herself into his arms, and his arms closed around her.

Stroking her hair, over and over.

I stood up and left.

In the cab to the hospital, my phone chimed without stopping.

Louisa's post had a new update.

The post was blowing up, the comments multiplying.

"That's not pursuit, that's harassment! I checked the rest of this poster's page about her 'dream guy,' and she's just a clingy mistress. Her dream guy already has a girlfriend. She's exhausting."

"Why didn't you change his application to a top state university nearby? Why did you have to switch it to a vocational school? Are you trying to ruin him on purpose?"

Louisa replied earnestly underneath.

"He's too brilliant. I was scared that at a good college he'd meet other, better girls, and then he wouldn't choose me anymore."

"Only when he falls, when he sinks down to a vocational school where nobody fights over him, will he understand that I'm the only one who won't look down on him, the only one who'll stay by his side for life."

A few people with twisted morals cheered her on.

"True love conquers all. These days you have to claw your way to the top. We support you, OP!"

Louisa liked the comments backing her up, then fired back at the ones cursing her out.

"He doesn't actually love his girlfriend. He's just trapped by the fact that her parents once saved his life."

"It's not harassment, it's mutual! Just now someone made a dirty joke about me, and he came down on that guy with everything he had. His girlfriend got hurt and he didn't even care."

"And this wasn't the first time. Before the SATs, some thugs from the trade school were harassing me, and I called him for help. He dropped his girlfriend on the spot to come save me."

"After he taught those thugs a lesson, they went to the school for revenge and roughed up his girlfriend. She called him for help over and over. He didn't pick up a single time. All because I said I was hurt, and he was frantic to get me to the hospital to check on me."

"The truth is I wasn't hurt at all. I'm the one who sent those thugs to the school to settle the score with his girlfriend. I just wanted to see who he'd really choose. Me, or her."

"And after that, his girlfriend got beaten bloody by those thugs, and it cost her the SATs. But he still never blamed me. Doesn't that prove I matter more to him?"

I dug my nails into my palm, my body shaking and refusing to stop.

Every night, Alden and I studied at school until nine.

When we finished, he'd ride me home on his bike, all the way to my door.

A month before, Alden had been walking me through a problem when his phone suddenly rang.

One glance and his face changed. He tossed out a single line:

"Let me step out and take a call. Wait here for me."

I waited for him at the school, all the way to ten. He never came back, and his phone wouldn't connect.

The building had long emptied out when those thugs kicked the door open and stormed in.

As they pinned me to the floor, their mouths kept up a filthy, leering taunt:

"Damn, knew that little bitch was right, you really were waiting up here! Can't touch them, but I sure as hell can deal with you!"

They tore at my clothes, grinning like animals. I screamed, sobbed, fought with everything I had,

and they slapped me across the face more than a dozen times until my eardrums bled.

If a patrolling security guard hadn't heard the noise and called the police to save me, I might have been finished that night.

Alden rushed to the hospital and held me, his eyes red. He said:

"I'm sorry. My mom suddenly took ill, so I ran home. I never thought those thugs would... I'm sorry... Grace..."

"Thank God you're okay. Otherwise I'd never have forgiven myself, not for the rest of my life!"

Alden and Aunt Camila James had only ever had each other. I knew how much she meant to him.

So I just told myself it was bad luck, a senseless disaster that had landed on me.

My eardrums were permanently damaged. The SAT listening section, once my strongest subject, fell apart in my hands.

When the test ended, I crouched at the school gate, crying so hard I could barely stand.

Three full years I'd fought for the elite university, only to lose at the final moment to an accident like this.

In front of every parent and reporter there, Alden made his promise, word by word:

"Don't be scared! If you retake the year, I'll retake it with you!"

"And if you don't want to retake it, whatever school you go to, I'll go there with you!"

When Aunt Camila found out, she landed in the hospital from sheer rage, forcing him to cut me off, refusing to let me drag down his future.

But Alden said, firm and unshaken:

"Mom, I'm sorry. But I choose Grace."

Aunt Camila wept and raged, came to my door and threw herself down screaming, forcing me to break it off with Alden.

She even hung a banner under my apartment and cursed me out for being shameless, for seducing her son!

It didn't stop until I talked Alden out of doing anything rash for my sake.

I was genuinely curious. Alden had merely floated an idea, and Aunt Camila could make a scene like that.

So if Alden truly got dragged off to vocational school by Louisa, how far would Aunt Camila go then?

Alden's beating of that boy blew up after all.

The male classmate was badly hurt, and his parents went straight to the police.

I was getting my burn treated at the hospital when Aunt Camila's calls came flooding in.

The second I picked up, hysterical sobbing tore through the line:

"Alden is about to be a student at the elite university! Do you have any idea a record like this will ruin his whole life?!"

"Why didn't you stop him?! Why did you have to make him fight someone over you?!"

"You jinx, you killed your own parents, and now you're ruining my son! You little slut! I'll make you pay for hurting my son!"

Aunt Camila had lost it completely. She came to my home, splashed gasoline, and tried to light it to burn me alive,

After someone stopped her, she screamed and sobbed, demanding to call the Department of Education to report that I'd cheated on the SATs, that I had a rotten character, that they should cancel my scores.

After the education officials set her straight, she only grew more unhinged. She went after my dead parents, posting that they'd killed her husband, that they were criminals, that I was the offspring of criminals and had no right to my SAT results.

I stared at the lies she'd manufactured online, shaking from head to toe.

Years ago, Uncle Alfred James had been driving late at night, exhausted, when his car burst through the guardrail.

My parents happened to be passing. They risked their lives to get out and help.

Then the car exploded a second time. A steel rod drove straight through my father's chest. He died on the spot.

My mother shoved a young Alden clear of the blast and was burned alive.

And now Camila was weeping all over the internet:

They were the ones who flagged my husband down for a ride, and that's what distracted him and caused the crash!

Then they got themselves killed and pinned it on the James family!

The videos went off like a bomb. Someone livestreamed themselves dispensing "justice," tearing through my parents' grave plot.

My parents' headstone had already been smashed. Their portrait was trampled to pieces.

Red paint was splashed across the stone, and someone had scrawled:

A life for a life.

Shaking, I called Alden.

He was silent for a few seconds. Then, low and coaxing:

Grace, I know this isn't fair to you.

But my mom's too worked up right now. Don't take it to heart.

The people online are just piling on. It'll blow over in a few days.

My voice trembled.

But they smashed my parents' grave!

Alden said quietly,

Later on, I'll help you rebuild it.

Louisa's voice came through from his end. He cupped his hand over the phone fast and said,

I've got something important going on right now. I'll come be with you once I'm done. Don't be scared, Grace.

My hand shook as I looked at the post Louisa had just put up.

I told him I wanted something to remember it by, so he canceled everything to come take graduation photos with me. He does have me in his heart.

Then Louisa sent me a voice clip. A conversation between her and Alden.

Her voice came through thick with tears.

Alden, were you this reckless tonight for Grace, or for me? You clearly have feelings for me!

If you say it was for Grace, then leave me alone! Go on, leave! Let Max take me away and have me, fine! You don't care about me anyway!

Alden was silent for a few seconds. Then, like a man who'd given up resisting:

For you.

Eyes burning, I screen-recorded it and sent it to Camila.

He didn't do it for me! Retract everything right now, or I'm calling the police! You don't want your son to have a mother behind bars, do you?

A minute later, the videos were all gone, and Camila posted a long apology statement.

The next day.

The class group chat blew up. They said Camila had stormed into Louisa's home.

Word was she'd smashed their TV.

Then grabbed Louisa by the hair and dragged her out into the stairwell, calling her a homewrecking slut.

Louisa's forehead was split open and bleeding. Crying, she called Alden.

Alden tore over like a madman and, for the first time, shoved his mother hard away.

Camila hit the floor and stared at her son in disbelief.

Alden... you'd push me for this little tramp?!

Alden's face was white, but he still planted himself in front of Louisa.

Mom, that's enough!

That night, Alden called me.

Grace, why did you have to tell my mom I got into that fight for Louisa? How could you frame Louisa just to protect yourself?!

"Just because Louisa likes me, because she's chasing me, you'd treat her like this? Don't you think that's going too far?"

Alden's voice dropped low.

"Go apologize to Louisa. Once you do, all of this will be over."

I said coldly, "Not a chance."

He pinched the bridge of his nose, his tone worn thin.

"Grace, stop making a scene. After the SATs she'll never be able to wedge herself into our lives again. Is it really worth it, pulling something this vicious over something so small? Do you have any idea how depressed she's been these past few days? She won't even step out the door!"

Then he dropped the line, flat and hard.

"If you won't apologize, then I won't be going on the graduation trip with you."

I didn't say another word. I just hung up.

I'd looked forward to that trip for three whole years. It was the plan my family made the day before my parents died, the four of us sitting together.

Back when I still loved Alden, I'd wanted to bring him along.

But now, I didn't need him.

The day we were supposed to leave, I got to the airport.

And the staff stopped me at the counter.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Simmons, your ticket has already been cancelled."

My mind went blank, a ringing in my ears.

Not far off, Louisa stood beside Alden in a travel jacket that matched his, her cheeks flushed.

When Alden saw me, an offhand smile slid onto his face.

"I switched all your tickets over to Louisa. She's been in a bad way lately because of you, so I figured this was a way for you to make it up to her."

"If you're willing to apologize to her right now, I'll rebook your ticket on the spot, and the three of us can go have fun together."

I looked at him, the disgust in my chest swelling until it nearly spilled over.

I took several steps back, sick to my stomach, and said each word slowly.

"Alden, stay away from me from now on. I never want to see you again."

He froze for a beat, then let out a laugh, faintly irritated.

"Enough. You always say things like this when you're mad."

"Once school starts and we're both at the university, you think you can hide from me for the rest of your life?"

He turned and walked off, Louisa in tow.

I went south on the trip alone.

Over the next few days, Alden's messages kept popping up.

At first, he was still angry.

"Grace, have you had enough of this yet?"

Later, when I never answered.

His tone softened again.

"My little jealous one, still mad?"

"You can dodge me now, but once school starts at the university you won't get away."

Even later than that.

He'd slipped right back into acting as if nothing had ever happened.

"Grace, saw a little dolphin plushie, looks just like you, bought it for you."

"When school starts, I'll take you to that couples' restaurant near campus."

As if all that damage had been nothing but a spat between sweethearts.

As if all he had to do was bow his head and coax me a little, and I'd forgive him like I always had.

After the trip ended, I came home early to pack my things.

Ready to leave this place for good.

But what I hadn't expected,

was that Alden had come back early too.

I'd just pulled the acceptance letters out of the mailbox.

When he wrapped his arms around me from behind and, in one smooth motion, snatched both envelopes away.

My face changed in an instant. "Give them back!"

But Alden only laughed. "We're both headed to the university anyway."

"You little scatterbrain, what if you lost it? Better to let me hold onto it for you."

As he spoke, he tore one of them right open.

That careless smile still on his face.

"Let me see whether the two of us got into the same college"

The voice cut off dead.

The smile on Alden's face froze solid.

He stared at that acceptance letter, unable to look away.

The words leapt off the page: Stonebrook Vocational Technical College.