My Roommate Framed Me for Crashing Car—It’s Owner Was My Brother Chapter 01
Halfway up the climb, my roommate Madison Blake came up beside me, breathing hard.
“Grace, this bike is killing me. Can we switch for a while?”
I squeezed the brake and opened my mouth to answer when an unfamiliar woman’s voice came through my earbuds.
[Grace, don’t switch with her!]
[She got that bike from the most notorious guy on campus. It’s worth over $1.5 million. She crashed it yesterday and cracked the frame. Replacing the frame and parts alone will cost at least $400,000.]
[She’s trying to frame you for the damage!]
I frowned. Madison lived on need-based aid. Why would she borrow a bike that expensive?
Then the voice came again.
[Your boyfriend will catch up in a minute and force you to switch, claiming you all need to stay with the group.]
[After you switch, he’ll back Madison up and swear you were the one who damaged the bike.]
I nearly laughed. It was too ridiculous to be real.
Why would my boyfriend help Madison set me up? This had to be some stupid prank.
Right on cue, Ethan’s familiar voice came from behind me.
“Why haven’t you two switched yet? The main group is way ahead. We’re going to lose them.”
“Grace, just switch with Madison so we can catch up.”
Sure enough, my boyfriend had caught up, using the exact excuse the voice had predicted.
My heart gave a hard jolt. I set my foot back on the pedal.
If they wanted me to take the fall, maybe they should’ve asked why my last name was Whitmore. And why the campus king’s was, too.
***
“No.”
I let out a sharp laugh, pushed hard on the pedals, and left Madison and Ethan behind.
The cold wind against my face cleared my head.
If that warning hadn’t come through my earbuds, I probably would’ve switched with her for old times’ sake. We had been roommates for two years, after all.
My grip tightened on the handlebars as the voice’s final warning came back to me.
[Your boyfriend and your roommate have been sleeping together for a while. She’s pregnant with his baby, and she’s the one who wrecked that bike.]
[That’s why your boyfriend came up with this disgusting little scheme.]
“Grace, can you stop being so selfish? I seriously can’t keep riding this thing!”
“Just switch with me for a little while!”
Madison shouted after me, panic edging into her voice.
I couldn’t be bothered to answer.
A moment earlier, I’d taken a closer look at her bike.
The brand logo had been wrapped in several layers of brightly colored waterproof tape.
No wonder I’d mistaken it for some ordinary secondhand bike.
But up close, the hidden skull reflector on the handlebars and the custom carbon-fiber weave beneath the seat were unmistakable.
Of course I recognized it. It was the prized possession of my impossible older brother, Grant Whitmore, the one guy on campus nobody was dumb enough to mess with.
I almost smiled. Madison had picked the wrong person to screw over.
There wasn’t another bike like it in Cedar Ridge. There wasn’t another one like it anywhere in the world.
Madison was the kind of broke college student who checked every price in the dining hall before ordering.
Where exactly was she supposed to have found a secondhand bike like this?
Now that I thought about it, every excuse she’d made for switching bikes was full of holes.
I picked up my pace. I just wanted to put some distance between us.
Even if the bike belonged to my brother, I had no intention of becoming anyone’s scapegoat.
They had no intention of letting me go that easily.
I hadn’t gone another thirty feet when a dark shape cut in front of me, forcing me to stop at the edge of the narrow mountain road.
Luckily, I wasn’t going fast. I slammed on the brakes and planted my right foot on the pavement.
Otherwise, I would’ve gone over the edge with the bike.
To my right, a deep ditch disappeared beneath a tangle of weeds.
In an instant, sweat soaked through my jersey and cold fear slid down my spine.
I’d come within inches of dying.
“Ethan, what the hell is wrong with you?”
“Grace, I can put up with your attitude most days, but why are you being so cold and selfish today?”
“This is a group ride. Can you think about someone besides yourself for once?”
I couldn’t believe Ethan cared so much about forcing the switch that he didn’t even seem to notice how badly he’d scared me.
The man I’d dated for two years suddenly looked like a complete stranger.
“I’m selfish? She’s the one hounding me to switch bikes. Saying no makes me selfish now?”
That only made Ethan angrier.
“Grace, why can’t you think about the team?”
“Madison’s never had great endurance. She’s already pushing herself as hard as she can so she doesn’t hold everyone back.”
“Can’t you show your own roommate a little compassion?”
He paused, then added,
“If you refuse to switch, you’re going to slow down the whole club.”
“You really want everyone paying the price because of you?”
A disbelieving laugh slipped out of me.
“You’re blaming me? She’s the one who can’t keep pace. How is that somehow my fault?”
“And we’re in the middle of the group. There are plenty of riders behind us, including Ryan. What’s the rush?”
When Ethan realized pushing me wasn’t working, his tone softened.
“Grace, I’m not trying to blame you. But you know Madison’s in a… special situation right now.”
His gaze flicked away the second he said it.
“Just switch with her so we can catch up with everyone, okay?”
A special situation.
I’d nearly gone over the side of a mountain.
I stared at him.
For two years, he’d been the perfect boyfriend. Or at least I’d thought he was.
Whenever I had cramps, he’d wait outside my dorm with hot tea, day after day.
For my birthday, he’d lived on boxed mac and cheese for a month so he could afford to surprise me with a gift.
He’d told me I was the only woman he’d ever love and that he’d do anything for me.
But today, I barely recognized him.
I forced down my anger.
“Then why don’t you switch with her, Ethan?”
“Everyone in the club has a bike. Why does it have to be mine?”
I put my hands on my hips and gave him one last warning.
“Listen carefully, because I’m only saying this once. I. Am. Not. Switching.”
The words had barely left my mouth.
Smack.
The slap came without warning, snapping my head to the side. Heat exploded across my left cheek, and it began to swell almost at once.
I stared at Ethan, stunned. He had actually hit me.
No one had ever treated me like that in my life.
Not even the notorious Grant Whitmore, the guy half the campus was terrified of, had ever laid a finger on me.
“Ethan, you…”
Just then, the rapid hum of bike tires grew louder as the rest of the cycling club caught up.