Fight Fire with FireChapter 3

His words riled up the crowd. Their promised free-for-all was gone.

A girl grabbed a glass bottle from a desk and hurled it at my head. "You're disgusting, Aria! We finally had a chance to get a limited edition, and you ruined it!"

Then, someone splashed the dregs of last night’s coffee on my face. Others followed, throwing whatever trash they could find at me.

I was a mess, covered in sticky, foul-smelling garbage.

But the hatred inside me erupted.

I surged to my feet, grabbed a nearby chair, and hurled it into the crowd.

"GET OUT! ALL OF YOU!"

The chair crashed to the floor with a deafening bang, startling everyone into silence.

"Aria, you're crazy!"

Ignoring the throbbing pain, I pulled out my phone and dialed 911.

"Yes, I'm being attacked by a group of people. The address is…"

The mention of police sent Mark into a panic. He lunged, snatched my phone, and slammed it onto the ground.

The screen shattered.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Aria! It was just a joke between classmates! Are you trying to ruin everyone's lives?"

I stared at him, my voice ice. "You had the guts to attack me. I have the guts to call the cops."

Ten minutes later, the police and our student advisor arrived.

But it was my word against everyone else's. They all stuck to the same story: I'd had some kind of breakdown and was making false accusations. The advisor, eager to sweep it under the rug, vaguely supported their claims.

Despite my protests, with no clear evidence, the police simply gave a lecture on getting along and left.

They weren't punished, but at least the immediate danger was over.

As I was leaving, I noticed the zipper on my backpack had been tampered with.

A cold knot formed in my stomach.

I said nothing. I just went back to my apartment.

After a long shower, I took out the black card and examined it closely.

It was a fake.

Sophie had swapped them.

It must have happened during the chaos, when they were all surrounding me. She'd planned it all along, provoking me to create a diversion so she could make the switch. I thought I had taken my card back, but the real one was already in her hands.

If she succeeded tomorrow, I’d be right back where I started in my last life, buried under a mountain of debt.

Not this time. This time, there would be no escape.

I picked up my spare phone and dialed a number.

"Ms. Ross, is everything alright?" It was Andrew, my mother's chief of staff.

"Andrew, my card's been stolen by a classmate."

"What?" His voice instantly sharpened. "Are you safe?"

"I'm fine. But the thief is planning to use it at the downtown flagship store tomorrow. She thinks it has an unlimited line of credit."

Andrew understood immediately. "I'll contact the bank and have the card frozen at once."

"No," I cut in. "Andrew, don't freeze it."

"Why not?"

I took a deep breath and laid out my plan. "They want to play? Let's play. Andrew, I need you to contact the manager of the flagship store. Tomorrow, I want the Eternal Diamond Collection placed in the most prominent display in the entire store."

Andrew audibly gasped. "The Eternal Diamond Collection… that's the ten-year anniversary series. Only one hundred were ever made, each one covered in VVS-grade natural diamonds. They're fifty million dollars a piece."

"Ms. Ross, are you sure?"

"I'm absolutely sure. They want to buy Labubus? Fine. Let them buy the best."

After hanging up, I allowed myself a small smile.

My card had a security protocol. Any single-day transaction total exceeding one hundred million dollars required biometric verification from the cardholder—my iris and my fingerprint.

Sophie thought she was holding a key to an endless vault. She had no idea that the vault had a final lock only I could open.

Last time, her spending spree hadn't hit that threshold, so the transaction went through.

Sophie. Mark. Tomorrow, you're going to learn what the word "priceless" really means.