The Substitute Who Finally Escaped

Summary

The first time I met Victoria “Tori” Leighton, my benefactor, was on the day my mother was dying.

The figure on the check she slid across the table could have bought my mother a new life, and mine along with it.

“Be my boyfriend for three years, Andy. When the contract ends, the money is yours.”

And so, I started wearing the clean, tailored white shirts, copying the style of Dominic “Dom” Keller, her idealized first love—her Original Sin.

She treated me extravagantly. I wasn’t a hidden pauper; I was publicly her chosen partner.