Done Hiding as Your Backup Plaything I'm Shining Golden as a Queen - Chapter 68: Chapter 68

After Jayden left, Arianna stayed pressed against that brick wall for what felt like forever, clutching her chest and trying to breathe. When she finally made it back to class, her hands were still shaking.
She dug through her messy desk drawer for her medication bottle.
That's when three guys from her class snatched it right out of her hands and dumped the pills all over the floor.
"Cut the helpless act, would you? You really think you're some tragic little princess?"
"These are probably just vitamins anyway! What a joke!"
They laughed as they stomped on the scattered pills, grinding them into powder with their sneakers.
Arianna watched her heart medication—the only thing keeping her alive—get destroyed right in front of her. The familiar chest pain started up again, sharp and insistent.
The ringleader bent down with a nasty grin. "What's wrong? Weren't you gonna take these? Go ahead—eat them off the floor!"
Arianna collapsed into her chair, her breathing getting shallow and fast.
That just made them bolder. The same guy grabbed the red cord around her neck, yanking her forward.
"Nice necklace. How much did the killers pay your family to keep you away from that trial?"
That crossed a line. Arianna jerked away from him, clutching the pendant protectively.
"Don't you dare! This was a gift from my mother!"
After the doctors had given her weeks to live, her mom had driven all the way to St. Mary's Cathedral to have this obsidian cross blessed. She'd made Arianna promise to wear it every day—said it would help ease the pain in whatever time she had left.
While she was fighting to keep her necklace, the classroom door slammed open.
Jayden stood in the doorway, taking in the scene with cold, empty eyes.
The guys immediately let go and stepped back, looking guilty as hell.
"Hey, Jayden, we were just... you know, standing up for you..."
But Jayden looked right through Arianna like she wasn't even there. His voice was flat with annoyance. "Weren't we supposed to play basketball? Are we doing this or not?"
He wasn't here to save her. She was just making him late for his game.
Arianna stared at the cuts still healing on his face, her chest aching for a completely different reason now.
She remembered how he used to beg her to come watch him play. "Come on, Anna," he'd say with that crooked smile. "Who else is gonna bring me water when I'm dying out there?"
She'd always pretended not to understand. "Why does it have to be me?"
And he'd look at her with those killer green eyes, teasing: "You tell me why."
Now he couldn't even stand to look at her.
Just as Jayden and his new crew started to leave, a voice called out from the hallway.
"Jayden! Could I maybe come watch you play? I could bring you water and cheer you on?"
Harper Portman from the next class over.
She'd been chasing after Jayden since freshman year—three solid years of rejection. He'd always turned her down gently but firmly.
This time was different.
He shrugged. "Sure, whatever."
Harper's face lit up like Christmas morning as she fell into step beside him.
Watching them walk away together, Arianna felt her heart literally skip a beat—not the romantic kind, the kind that meant her medication was ground into dust on the floor and she was probably about to pass out.
She fumbled for her backup pills and dry-swallowed two of them.
Jayden cut the rest of his classes that day.
During study hall, Arianna stared at his empty desk and opened her diary to a fresh page:
May 10th, 2015 - Sunny
Jayden,
28 days until graduation. This is entry #278.
I was going to give you this whole diary after graduation—my big confession. Tell you everything I've been too scared to say out loud.
But I don't deserve to love you anymore. And you'd probably burn it without reading a word.
I'm going to keep writing anyway, because I'll love you until my very last breath.
Even if you never know.
Walking home that afternoon, Arianna automatically looked toward the Hiddleston house across the street.
All the windows were dark. Jayden still wasn't home.
Her heart sank a little more as she let herself into her own house.
"Honey!" Her mom rushed over the second she walked in. "How was school today?"
Arianna forced a smile. "It was fine."
She'd been raised by a single mother who'd already sacrificed everything for Arianna's medical bills. The woman who'd brought her into this world was now going to have to watch her leave it. She'd suffered enough.
Her mom studied her face for a long moment, then sighed. "I went to the courthouse today and filed for a case review. We're going to clear Mr. Hiddleston's name, sweetheart. I promise."
Arianna's eyes widened. "Really? They'll actually reopen it?"
"The lawyers think we have a good shot. But..." Her mom lowered her voice. "Let's not tell Jayden yet. If it doesn't work out, I don't want to get his hopes up."
Arianna nodded quickly. "Of course."
Her mom gently brushed some dust off the obsidian cross at Arianna's throat. "Keep this on, okay? Don't take it off for anything."
"I won't."
Arianna headed upstairs to her room, missing the way her mother's face crumpled the moment she was out of sight.
What Arianna didn't know was that the "blessed" necklace contained a tiny camera—her mother's desperate attempt to record whatever precious time they had left together.