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She was no background figure—at least, not to me.

In the previous timeline, she\'d been an unassuming character with little consequence in the grand scheme of things.

Here, though, she was formidable, destined to become a key and major influence at Ravenwood Academy.

As one of the academy\'s most respected future leaders, she had an eye for talent, power, and… hidden motives.

"Today," she began, voice clear and composed.

"We\'ll be diving into paired work.

This project will extend beyond today and will require collaboration and discipline."

Her eyes scanned the class, then she continued.

"You\'ll be assigned partners based on the academy list. Continue reading stories on mvl

The first student in the list will skip the next three names and partner with the fourth, and so on.

This will ensure a mix of skills and ideas."

I didn\'t bother paying attention, assuming I\'d be paired with some unremarkable student who\'d do well to stay out of my way.

However, Professor Sharon adjusted her glasses, cleared her throat, and said with careful precision.

"The top student… Noah Ashbourne…"

She paused, as if collecting her thoughts, then continued.

"…will partner with Maya Brenthall."

The name hit me like a blade to the gut, though I kept my expression neutral.

Maya, seated near the front, turned back to glance at me with unreadable eyes before refocusing on the professor.

I noticed her jaw clench ever so slightly, the faintest tell of her feelings.

Her normally sweet disposition was well hidden under a layer of tension, and if her quick glance held any message, it was clear enough.

She was less than thrilled.

Professor Sharon continued, detailing the project requirements, something about a collaborative assignment on magical engineering.

A complex subject that would require every bit of cooperation we could muster.

Maya didn\'t waste time after the professor\'s instructions.

With controlled movements, she gathered her things and made her way toward me.

She approached with a polite, well-practiced smile, her usual warm greeting that she used as a mask in the presence of others.

But I noticed the subtle way she kept herself guarded, even as she sat next to me.

"Hello, Noah."

She said softly, voice carefully modulated to keep any bitterness out of it.

I didn\'t bother returning the greeting, simply nodding and shifting slightly in my seat.

My mind was too wrapped up in the remnants of our shared history—the tangled web that had led to us being… whatever we were.

Our engagement, if it could even be called that, was a carefully arranged bond between two powerful houses, a union woven with the threads of manipulation, politics, and betrayal.

My family, House Ashbourne, had everything to gain from the arrangement and had orchestrated it with a ruthlessness that was the family trademark.

Maya\'s family, the Brenthalls, had been on a path to dominance in the empire.

Her mother, Elizabeth Brenthall, had spent decades cultivating a reputation as one of the most influential figures, managing to elevate the Brenthalls from humble beginnings to near-equal status with some of the oldest houses.

Under her leadership, the Brenthalls controlled an estate crucial to their income and social standing.

But when my father, Amon Ashbourne, saw an opportunity to stake a claim over Brenthall resources, he took it mercilessly.

The Ashbournes seized the Brenthall estate through legal loopholes and political leverage, knowing that without it, Elizabeth\'s house would be at our mercy.

The rest of the empire watched, some in awe and others in fear, as the once-unstoppable Brenthalls found themselves subjugated and humiliated.

In public, my father played it off as a mutually beneficial alliance, but within the walls of the Ashbourne manor, it was an entirely different story.

The Ashbournes had bound the Brenthalls tightly, keeping them in a chokehold.

The marriage arrangement was no less calculated.

My family offered security and stability—at the price of control.

Maya, who had once been destined for greatness, had her future rerouted and redefined to suit the Ashbournes\' needs.

And as a result, she was tethered to me.

At one time, perhaps, she\'d harbored feelings, naïve hopes that I\'d be different from my parents, that perhaps I\'d be the one part of her future she could depend on.

But then, the original Noah had shattered that trust.

Looking back now, I couldn\'t recall every detail, though fragments of memory haunted me.

The disappointment in her eyes, the way she looked at me as though I\'d become everything she\'d sworn to resist.

I could hardly blame her; after all, I\'d come to embody the worst of our family\'s tendencies.

In the previous timeline, I\'d shown nothing but disdain, caught up in my pursuit of power, thinking nothing of how my actions might affect her.

Now, that same young woman who had once harbored hopes for us sat beside me, all traces of warmth carefully masked.

As she opened her notebook, a flicker of that former connection flickered in her eyes before vanishing as quickly as it appeared.

She was distant, poised, and detached, every part of her demeanor calculated to keep me at arm\'s length.

For her, the Brenthall-Ashbourne union was nothing more than a reminder of betrayal and broken promises.

It was etched into the very fabric of her life.

Maya\'s mother, once the brilliant mastermind who\'d nearly taken over the highest ranks of the empire\'s elite, had been reduced to a shell of her former self.

The one person who should have been standing at the empire\'s peak had been brought low by the Ashbournes—and she saw me as the face of that fall from grace.

I couldn\'t shake the feeling that the woman beside me was no longer the Maya who had once smiled warmly, who had hoped against hope that I might prove her wrong.

Now, every polite greeting, every mild expression, was just a mask hiding her contempt.

Her feelings for me had morphed from hurt into something far darker, a disgust that radiated from her despite her best attempts to hide it.

And perhaps the darkest irony of all was that I had once been the reason for her smile.

As I watched her flip through her notes, that deep resentment became palpable.

She had every reason to want me gone, every right to despise me.

I\'d betrayed whatever trust we might have had.

In her eyes, I was no better than the rest of the Ashbournes—maybe even worse.

And why wouldn\'t she feel that way?

She\'d given me a chance to prove myself different, to be better, and I\'d squandered it.

For her, every reminder of our engagement, our so-called union, was a bitter taste of the Ashbournes\' triumph.

My family\'s chokehold on her mother\'s estate, our manipulation of every aspect of the Brenthalls\' lives, all served as a reminder that her future had been determined by forces she could neither control nor resist.

And in the midst of it all was me, the supposed partner she was bound to—cold, distant, and utterly indifferent.

But even as I sat there, thinking of all the reasons she had to despise me, a part of me understood her hatred with a clarity I hadn\'t allowed myself before.

It was an ugly, bitter truth, but one I couldn\'t ignore.

Maya didn\'t just dislike me—she loathed me.

And though she hid it well, I could see the way she clenched her jaw, the tension in her posture as she forced herself to maintain the facade.

Because deep down, Maya Brenthall wanted me dead.

I was the embodiment of everything wrong in her life, the one obstacle she could never remove.

In her eyes, I was the villain in her story, a dark, twisted shadow that had stolen her future and shattered her family\'s dreams.

And perhaps… she wasn\'t wrong.

For the sake of the project, however, she would play the part.

She would wear the mask, act civil, and keep up appearances.

But behind those polite smiles and gentle words was a seething fury, a disgust so deeply ingrained that I wondered if I could ever erase it.

She smiled at me again, the warmth never reaching her eyes.

And as I looked at her, I understood all too well that no project, no amount of time, would ever heal the wound I\'d left in her life.

Our bond was nothing more than a bitter reminder, a union forged in betrayal and sealed in hate.

And for now, that was how it would remain.

\'This fucking sucks....

But it can\'t be helped...\'

I thought before I sighed.