C2 A Message From Samantha

The moment I arrived, her parents made it clear that I wasn’t welcome. They didn’t even allow me to see her.

Instead, they stood at the gate and spoke to me as if I was nothing. “Leave Samantha alone,” her father, Nicolas Heaps said coldly. “She doesn’t want to see you anymore.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “What are you talking about? I just want to speak to her.”

Her mother, Katie Heaps folded her arms. “You have nothing to offer our daughter.” The words hit me harder than any punishment I had ever received.

“You don’t even own a car,” her father continued. “You ride a bicycle everywhere. What kind of future can you give her?”

I felt my chest tighten. I had never cheated on Samantha. I had never hurt her. I had always treated her with love and respect.

Yet there I was, being judged simply because I came from a poor family. Broken and angry, I left without another word.

Instead of going home, I headed straight to the café. I opened my laptop and buried myself in work. Programming. Networking. Hacking tutorials. Anything that could distract me from the humiliation I had just experienced.

For hours, I sat there staring at the screen, trying to convince myself that none of it mattered. But deep down, it did.

When I finally returned home, my parents tried to comfort me. “Maybe it’s time to let her go,” my mother, Mary Smith said gently. My father, Quinton Smith nodded. “Stop chasing after a rich girl, son. We all know the situation we’re in.”

Their words were meant to help, but they only made me feel worse.

A few days later, Chris arrived with news that changed everything. Rumors had started spreading about what happened after the school year-end banquet.

According to several students, many people attended an after-party that night. And that Samantha and Ben had been there together.

Anyway, after learning about all the fake rumors that had been spreading about me and my family, I tried to convince myself that I didn’t care anymore.

I told Chris how I felt about rumors and that I still trusted Samantha completely. I believed she was as deeply in love with me as I was with her. Chris rolled her eyes, clearly not understanding what I was saying.

Before he could respond, my phone vibrated. A message from Samantha. Excitement rushed through me. I jumped up without even opening it.

“See?” I said to Chris. “You all misunderstood us. She loves me.” I was smiling as I opened the message.

The moment I read it, everything changed. Tears rolled down my cheeks. All the happiness disappeared in a second.

Chris noticed my expression immediately.

Without saying a word, he took the phone from my hands and read the message aloud:

“Sorry to disappoint you. It’s best if we break up and never see each other again. Please stop loving me, we are from different worlds now.”

Each word felt like a needle piercing my chest. I couldn’t breathe properly. Tears kept falling, and I didn’t even try to stop them.

In desperation, I grabbed my phone and tried to call her.

I needed answers. I needed to understand what was happening. But the call wouldn’t go through. She had blocked me. The only thing I was left with were memories of us.

As much as I was hurting, I tried to convince myself that this couldn’t be Samantha. Not the Samantha I knew. After everything that had happened with her parents, a strange thought crossed my mind.

Maybe it wasn’t her. Maybe someone else had used her phone. Maybe her parents forced her to send that message. The idea didn’t leave my head. That night, I made a decision.

I created a fake profile on Weibo, “M-Hacker” and sent her a friend request, hoping to reach her again.

A few hours later, my request was accepted. Still unsure of what I was hoping to find, I opened her profile. I checked her photos, her bio and then I noticed something that made my chest tighten again.

Her relationship status had changed. It no longer showed my name. Instead, it said “Complicated.”

I stared at the screen for a long time. My mind immediately started connecting the dots. Maybe I was right from the beginning. Maybe it really wasn’t her who sent that message. Maybe it was her parents controlling everything, just like I suspected.

After The Year End Function, We were done with school. Things felt Different, Chris had chosen the business path. He never really liked computers the way I did. He always said he wanted to become a businessman one day, and he was sticking to that dream.

As for Ben… we barely spoke anymore. Every attempt I made to reach him failed and eventually I stopped trying.

Without Samantha, I felt empty.

I kept pushing forward because I still had one goal left, improving my family’s life.

Most nights, I thought about her. About the time we shared. About the way things used to be.

Even though I had given her simple gifts, I still hoped she remembered them. I wanted to believe that somewhere in her heart, those memories still meant something.

I buried myself in work. I locked myself in my room for weeks, learning everything I could about computers. I started with simple systems, then moved on to understanding how networks worked, and how security systems could be broken and protected.

At first, it was just curiosity. Then it became obsession.

Six months passed without me seeing Samantha. I had accepted, at least on the surface, that she was gone from my life. But deep down, the pain never really left.

The questions were still there, unanswered.

During that time, my skills improved faster than I ever imagined.

Then came an opportunity I never expected, an internship at Wood’s IT Company, a firm known for providing cybersecurity services across the country.

But the name on the company logo hit me immediately. Wood. As in Ben Wood’s father, Kelvin Wood.