My Cheating Boyfriend Gave My Ticket Away,So I Took the Private Jet

1: 1

When I went to pick up my ticket at the airport heading back to campus after summer break, the screen flagged an error.

I was about to call over a staff member when my boyfriend, Steve Vance, stopped me and told me he'd given my ticket away to a junior classmate, Judy Swanson.

She's running a fever. A flight will be easier on her, so just take the train this time. I'll see you back at school.

I thought I'd misheard. "Steve, I booked that ticket. And the train from New York to Los Angeles takes more than twenty hours. You want me to take the train?"

Something guilty flickered in his eyes. "Why do you have to be so calculating about it? Judy isn't feeling well. The train would be miserable for her."

Judy leaned against Steve's shoulder, eyes red, looking weak and frail. "Steve, since Pamela doesn't want to give it up, I'll take the train instead."

Steve pulled her in close and glared at me. "Pamela Barnes, I've already switched the ticket. Throw all the fits you want, you're not getting on that plane today."

I stared hard at Steve. Right now there was only Judy in his eyes.

He didn't care about me, his girlfriend, at all. Fine. Then I didn't want him either.

I pulled out my phone and made a call. "Send a private jet for me. And cancel Steve Vance's campus scholarship."

..........

Steve burst out laughing. "Pamela, are you okay? You think you're in a movie? Some kind of rich heiress?"

Judy chimed in from the side. "And canceling Steve's scholarship? That scholarship was set up by the Barnes Group specifically for students with outstanding grades and character. You think that just because your last name is Barnes, you're actually one of the Barnes family?"

"Besides, Steve got an internship at Barnes Group before he even graduated. That's what happens when they groom you as real talent."

I gave a cold smile. What they didn't know was that I was the Barnes heiress. It was because of me that Steve, who never came close to qualifying for the scholarship, had been slipped in as an exception.

And his internship was because of me too.

I couldn't be bothered to argue. I just pulled up my payment QR code. "Since you took my ticket, pay me back for it. Two seats, twenty-two thousand total."

Steve's face went ugly. "You're actually asking me for money? Are you insane? I'm your boyfriend."

He still remembered he was my boyfriend. And he'd still handed my ticket to someone else.

"As of today, you're not."

"Now pay me back."

He stared at me in disbelief. "What is this supposed to mean? You're breaking up with me?"

I nodded. "That's right. We're done. So please pay me back..." I let out a cold laugh. "Or is it that you can't afford two plane tickets?"

Steve's face darkened further. He gritted his teeth and pointed at me. "Don't try to scare me with a breakup. And since when is a plane ticket that expensive? Twenty-plus thousand, why don't you just go rob someone?"

I opened the payment record. "Both of those are business class, and I paid extra to grab them. This is the receipt. See for yourself."

He stared hard at my phone, his expression stiffening. Judy's eyes reddened, the picture of someone terribly wronged. "We may not have as much money as you, but we have our pride. You can't humiliate us like this."

I tilted my head and shoved the QR code right in front of her. "Since you've got so much pride, then pay for your own ticket."

Her eyes went wide with hurt, her shoulders trembling. "I don't have any money."

Steve pulled her protectively into his arms. "It's just money. I'll pay you back once my scholarship comes through. I won't let you bully Judy."

The boarding announcement came over the speakers just then, and Steve took Judy by the hand and walked toward the gate.

And a message came in from my dad. "The jet has been dispatched. You can board in twenty minutes."

2: 2

Thank you, Dad.

If anything is bothering you, tell me. I'll always be on your side.

Looking at the message, my eyes suddenly went hot and red. Dad had never thought much of Steve in the first place. It was only because I insisted that he agreed at all.

I just never expected that once I got Dad to open a few doors for him, Steve would change. Especially once he landed the internship at Barnes Group, he got full of himself.

He started thinking I wasn't good enough for him. But he had no idea who I really was. Even if he became a permanent employee at Barnes Group, he still wouldn't measure up, let alone as an intern.

Dad, I can handle it myself. Don't worry, I won't let anyone shortchange me.

Right after I replied to Dad, Steve's message came through.

I forgot to buy the train ticket. Get one yourself.

And drop the private jet talk. I'm not buying it. You'd better hurry and grab a ticket, or you'll be stuck standing the whole way.

I gave a cold laugh and typed back one line. Don't worry. I won't be buying a standing-room ticket.

I try to be nice and you throw it back in my face. Fine, you're on your own. Let's see how you get back.

Reading his message, all I felt was how ridiculous it was.

Heading back to campus after summer break, tickets were hard to come by, whether it was a flight or a train. Those two plane tickets I'd stayed up a month in advance to snag.

And he knew perfectly well how hard the tickets were to get, yet he waited until the very day we were due back to tell me he hadn't even bought me a train ticket. He simply didn't care whether I made it back on time.

He didn't care whether I'd have to stand on a train for twenty-plus hours to get to school either.

And the concern he claimed to have was nothing more than a careless heads-up telling me to grab my own ticket.

At the same time, his junior classmate Judy sent me a message too.

Pam, thank you for the ticket. I really did want to say no, but Steve couldn't bear to see me crammed onto a train and insisted on swapping the ticket to me. Sorry to put you through the trouble.

Remember to pay me back.

After I sent that message, it was time to board.

But while I was riding the shuttle bus, I passed right by Steve, and he had Judy pulled tight against him, his lips pressed to her forehead.

I lifted my phone and took a photo. Then our eyes met.

3: 3

Steve stared at me, stunned, and just as he opened his mouth to say something, my shuttle bus turned a corner.

So he decided he must have been seeing things, and called to feel me out.

"Where are you? Did you get a train ticket?"

I let out a cold laugh. Instead of telling him I'd already boarded, I asked, "Steve, did it ever cross your mind to worry about what I'd do if I couldn't get a ticket?"

"Tickets back to school over summer break are the hardest to grab. Especially same-day ones."

He froze for a second on his end, then let out a breath. "If you can't get a seat, buy a standing-room ticket. As long as you actually want to come, there's always a way."

"And you're saying this on purpose, aren't you? Trying to make me feel guilty. That's a nasty little mind you've got there."

Something in me went dead. With someone this biased, nothing I said would ever matter.

"Steve, we're done. Don't contact me again."

He blanked for a moment, then laughed coldly. "Pamela, you're really not going to let this go, are you? Even if you threaten me with a breakup now, it won't get you a ticket. We've already boarded."

"I was hard enough for you to chase and win. I know how good you are to me. There's no way you'd actually break up with me."

"Or did you forget what you did last winter break, when I lost a game of truth or dare and called you to break up?"

My body stiffened, and my eyes slowly went hot.

"So don't try to fool me with such a childish trick. I won't buy it."

Just then Judy's coy voice drifted over from his end. "Steve, it's my first time on a plane, I don't know how to do the seatbelt. Can you help me?"

Steve hung up in a hurry.

The hand holding my phone wouldn't stop trembling.

Last winter break I'd been burning with fever when I got Steve's breakup message, and then I dragged myself out, sick as I was, searching everywhere for him.

I finally found him at a scenic resort, where he was taking photos of the snow with Judy.

When he saw me he startled, then explained it away, breezy as anything, saying he'd only sent the message because he lost a game of dare, and afterward, when the game ended, he'd forgotten to explain.

I was so distraught I fainted on the spot.

When I came to, I clung to him and sobbed. "Steve, please, no matter what happens, never say the word breakup to me again. I'll die without you."

So he felt untouchable, certain I could never leave him no matter what. That was why he could trample all over how I felt.

Maybe it was because of that day that his attitude toward me kept getting worse over the past year, which slowly cleared the lovesickness out of my head. And today's stunt finished the job, letting me see exactly what he was.

Drawing a hard line between us for good.

I took out my phone and opened the shared-payment account, the one I'd set up when we started dating. But over the past year his charges had grown bigger and bigger, almost all of it women's products.

And I'd seen every one of those things on Judy.

I'd confronted him about it, and he explained that Judy's family was poor, that he only looked out for her a little because he felt sorry for her, that what he felt for her was just brotherly. And I'd believed him.

Now it just seemed laughable.

I pulled up his charges. In the past year alone he'd spent sixty thousand of my money buying Judy gifts. I screenshotted and saved every one, then unlinked the shared-payment account, all in one smooth motion.

Done with that, I closed my eyes to rest.

But a familiar voice came from beside me. "Pamela, mind if I grab a seat?"

My eyes went wide with shock. It was my adoptive brother, Hugh Barnes.

He handed his luggage off to the crew without a fuss, his expression cool. "Might as well head back to school together."

Because all I wanted was an ordinary college life, I'd kept my identity hidden, passing myself off as a girl from a comfortable but ordinary family.

Hugh, on the other hand, had a sharp head for business from a young age, and my father had always kept him close to groom him, so his position as the Barnes heir was public knowledge.

So everyone knew the Barnes family had an adopted son and heir. No one knew there was also a true heiress.

Right then, Steve's call came through.

"Pamela, you're disgusting. I never imagined you were this kind of vain, money-grubbing woman. Your so-called private jet is just you sponging off the young Mr. Barnes, offering him some very special services."

4: 4

I was completely lost. "What are you talking about? I"

He cut me off before I could finish. "Judy got a photo of you on the Barnes family's private jet. You broke up with me today because you'd landed the Barnes heir, right? And I saw it clearly just now, the woman on that shuttle bus was you, and you took a picture of us."

"Don't think a photo of us gives you anything to hold over me. A loose woman like you can just wait to be ruined."

Then he hung up. A cold smile touched my lips. I wondered what his face would look like if he knew the real relationship between Hugh and me.

"Pam, go look at the campus forum, someone's spreading rumors about you."

The message from my roommate left me baffled. I opened the forum, and the top post stopped me cold.

The video showed me boarding the jet first, and then Hugh getting on the same plane.

The title: "Golddigger seduces the heir of Barnes Group for money, provides private services on the plane."

The body went even further, inventing an entire story of how I'd seduced Hugh, in convincing detail.

A few burner accounts led the pile-on beneath it, and someone had even dug up a couple of ordinary photos of Hugh and me on campus and twisted them into fuel for the gossip.

Just plain photos, and somehow people had spun a whole seduction out of them. I screenshotted and saved every one.

You really do bring these things on yourself.

This had to be Steve's doing. Because I'd taken that intimate photo of him and Judy, he'd struck first to smear my name, so that no matter what I said afterward, no one would believe me.

I calmly screenshotted the post and sent it to my lawyer.

Then the class group chat started buzzing too. A few classmates I got along with tagged me, telling me to clear it up.

I acted like I hadn't seen it.

Which only made Steve carry on more gleefully.

"Pamela's hiding because she's guilty. She's just a golddigger who does special services for money."

"I'll be honest with you all. This summer, a friend from high school told me everything. He'd already taken Pamela's services several times."

"And those overseas trips she takes on breaks, she's really out there working old men, doing paid companion services."

"I broke up with her the moment I learned the truth. You all should stay far away from a woman like that."

I watched him dig his own grave with every line and still said nothing, only kept recording my screen to preserve the evidence.

"What are you planning to do? Do you need my help?"

I startled and looked up. Hugh was watching me with concern. I shook my head. "No need. I'm going to let them reap what they've sown."

Just then the advisor called.

"Pamela, this whole thing has blown up. We urgently need your explanation. If you can't prove your innocence, we'll have no choice but to ask you to withdraw."

"Our college can't let its reputation be tarnished over one person."

A cold smile pulled at the corner of my mouth. So it had already reached the advisor. They wanted to convict me by public opinion.

"Aside from a few ordinary photos, do they have any actual evidence? Or is it just a few mouths spreading rumors?"

The advisor was left speechless. "But you really were on the Barnes family's private jet. How do you explain that?"

I paused. "I'll explain when I get to campus."

Then I hung up. The thing had only grown bigger, hundreds of posts on the forum all demanding I be thrown out of the school.

A crowd had even gathered on campus, marching, telling me to get lost.

Steve sent me another message too. "Just apologize to me nicely and I can still help you explain. Otherwise, you can wait to be expelled."

"You'd better pray you don't get thrown out yourself."

I turned to Hugh. "Land the plane on the campus airstrip."

"All right."

The plane touched down. A crowd of students had already gathered in front of the airstrip, Steve standing in the middle of them. "Everyone, let's throw this immoral woman out of the school together."

Judy stood beside him, fanning the flames. "Pamela's scared, isn't she? Too frightened to even come out."

The people around them joined in the chatter. "So now she's scared. Where was that before? After doing something like that, if it were me I'd have jumped off the plane already."

"A woman like her, why would she bother dying? I just wonder if Hugh would be furious enough to kill her if he knew what kind of woman she is."

Facing the sky full of abuse, I walked down from the plane, unhurried.

"I flew on my own family's plane. Is there a problem with that?"