Let's Read Her Mind

I could hear the thoughts of the poorest girl in the entire school.

At our campus ball, she deliberately ate food that contained nuts to give herself an allergic reaction and blame me for it.

With tears streaming down her face, she cried, "I know you don't like me! I know you look down on girls as poor as me, but you can't bully me like this!"

Everyone believed her and turned on me, including my fiancé, Mark Hawkins, who was expected to form a political alliance with my family through our engagement.

He pinned me in place and demanded that I apologize to the 'victim'.

I shook my head, trying desperately to explain that it was not me who put the nuts in her food.

That was when I heard the thoughts of that 'poor' girl, Alice, ''So what if she's the mafia don's daughter? I still brought her down. Being defended by her rich, clueless fiancé feels incredible!'

I was stunned.

Before I could react, Mark pushed me to the floor and said firmly, "Helen, apologizing won't kill you."

A disbelieving laugh slipped out of me.

I wondered if he would still say the same thing if he could hear Alice's thoughts.

When I finally gained the ability to share the thoughts I heard with someone else, I chose Mark without hesitation.

Midway through the ball, Alice suddenly cried out in alarm. Everyone knew her as a penniless student. Something was wrong, and her skin was flaring up in an allergic reaction.

Her face and arms were covered in itchy red bumps. With a plate in her hand, she cried out, "Who did this? Who put nuts in my food?!"

All eyes fell on me.

I was on the student council and in charge of the food.

I told everyone that there were no nuts in any of the ball’s snacks.

However, they later found bits of nuts in my coat pocket.

Alice looked terrified. She trembled a little, like she was trying to be brave, before looking straight at me.

"Helen, what did I ever do to you? Why would you deliberately trigger an allergic reaction for me? Are you trying to stop me from becoming the Belle of the Ball so you can keep all the glory to yourself?"

I was totally confused, trying to figure out what was going on.

Alice kept on accusing me, "You might think you're better than me because I'm poor, but that doesn't give you the right to hurt me! I'm not trying to compete with you. I just want to win the Belle of the Ball title for the $450 prize!

"That might be nothing to you—not even enough for a new purse—but it's all I’ll have to live on for a whole semester! And I could use the extra money to buy medicine for my sick mom!"

She started to cry as she talked, "I wasn't born into the Clark mafia family like you. I've never stolen or