Isla Monroe works two jobs, keeps a flawless GPA, and survives Thornhill University by staying invisible. Scholarship students do not attract attention. They endure. Sebastian Thornhill attracts everything else. His name sits on half the campus buildings. His money buys silence. His cruelty follows Isla for two years, quiet and precise, until a mandatory charity gala turns her into a commodity and him into her highest bidder. One thousand dollars. Five dates. Two weeks she cannot escape. What starts as humiliation turns into a contract neither of them controls. Forced proximity strips away reputations, exposing bruises money cannot fix and defenses built from necessity. Isla refuses to bend. Sebastian refuses to stay the villain she believes him to be. Power shifts. Lines blur. Resentment sparks into something far more dangerous. Because falling for the person who hurt you feels like betrayal. And walking away might cost everything. A sharp, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers novella about class, control, survival, and choosing who you become when the rules were never written for you.