Contest Title: “The Price of No” – A Tale of Power, Ego, and Unwanted Love
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I never knew how heavy a single word could be.
Until I said it to her.
At first, it felt like nothing — just a syllable, a breath. But in Liora Duvall’s world, “no” wasn’t an answer. It was an insult, a crack in her mirror-perfect life. And cracks, to her, had only one purpose: to be broken wider until nothing remained.
I was no one to her — at least, I should have been. Elias Renard, scholarship student, working three jobs to keep the lights on, patching my shoes until even the soles looked tired. I lived in the quiet corners of campus life, a ghost passing through ivy-covered walls.
But Liora… Liora was the sun. Blinding, untouchable. She walked into rooms and people bent like grass to her gravity. Her name was engraved on charities, her face on magazines, her perfume trailing through every corridor she passed.
So when she stopped in front of me that first day — me, bent over a fraying copy of Plato’s Republic outside the library — I thought it was a mistake.
“Elias.”
The way she said it — crisp, practiced, like she had been rehearsing — startled me more than the fact that she knew it.
I blinked up at her. “Do I… know you?”
Her laughter rang sharp and sweet, like a glass chime. “Not yet.”
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She didn’t chase. Chasing was beneath her. No, Liora ensnared. She appeared beside me in lectures I was sure she didn’t need. She offered me rides in a car that cost more than my mother’s entire house. She left coffees — too expensive, too sweet — on my library desk with a smile that made the air heavier.
Most would have envied me. Being chosen. Being noticed. Being wanted. But to me, it felt like being watched by a hawk, talons poised.
When she asked me out, it was in front of everyone. The cafeteria hummed with whispers as she leaned across the table, eyes gleaming.
“You and me,” she said. “Dinner. Tonight. No cameras. No bodyguards. Just us.”
I froze, the fork heavy in my hand. “Liora…”
Her smile widened. “Say yes.”
“I—” My throat closed. Everyone was watching. I swallowed. “No. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
The silence that followed was suffocating.
“Why not?” she asked, softly.
“Because…” I forced the words out, steady but shaking inside. “I don’t feel that way about you. I’m sorry.”
For a heartbeat, her mask cracked. Her smile thinned. Her eyes hardened, just enough for me to see the steel behind the glass. Then, just as quickly, the charm snapped back in place.
“You’re bold,” she said with a laugh. “I like that.”
But it wasn’t a compliment. It was a warning.
---
It began slowly, the way storms begin. A whisper of wind, a shift in the air. Professors who once praised my essays began circling mistakes in red. The part-time job I’d landed suddenly “fell through.” A rumor surfaced — plagiarism, then cheating. My name spread like rot.
At first, I told myself it was coincidence. Bad luck. The universe evening out. But when I returned home to find my apartment door ajar, papers scattered, my laptop gone… I stopped pretending.
She wasn’t heartbroken. She was furious.
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The night I confronted her, I stood before the Duvall mansion’s iron gates, shaking with equal parts fear and rage. Guards shifted uneasily, but she appeared on the balcony above, framed in golden light like a goddess carved from marble.
“You’ve made your point,” I shouted up. “Why are you doing this?”
Her lips curled. “Because you embarrassed me.”
“By saying no?”
“No one says no to me, Elias.” Her voice cut like silk wrapped around a blade. “You should have known that.”
“So you ruin me?” My fists clenched. “Destroy everything I worked for, just to feed your pride?”
She tilted her head, amused. “Pride?” Her laugh was cold. “I offered you everything. My world. My power. My name. And you—” She pointed down at me, her eyes flashing. “You chose your little self-respect. As if it could keep you warm when you’ve lost it all.”
“It’s not self-respect.” My voice shook, but I held her gaze. “It’s truth. Something you wouldn’t recognize if it stared you in the mirror.”
For a moment, I thought I saw something flicker — hurt, maybe, or doubt. Then she turned away, her profile sharp against the light.
“Then let’s see how long your truth keeps you standing,” she said. And with a wave of her hand, the balcony doors closed.
---
Months passed. My life unraveled thread by thread. Expelled from the university. Friends vanished, afraid of being collateral. Employers turned cold before I even shook their hands. I became a shadow, a ghost that carried whispers of disgrace.
But what do you do when you’ve already lost everything? You stop being afraid.
That was when I broke into her estate.
It was reckless, desperate. But the door to her study was unlocked. And inside, I found what I hadn’t dared hope for — proof.
Files. Dozens. Names, photos, reports. Not just mine. Students, rivals, employees. People who had disappointed her, rejected her, outshone her. Each one systematically dismantled. Careers ended. Reputations blackened. Lives broken.
She hadn’t just destroyed me. She had a history of graves behind her smile.
When her voice cut through the silence, I almost dropped the file.
“You broke into my house.”
I turned. She stood in the doorway, arms crossed, eyes glittering like obsidian.
“Do you know,” she said softly, “what I could do to you for this?”
My throat was dry, but I held the papers tighter. “You can’t bury everyone forever. Someone will see you for what you are.”
She stepped closer, her perfume cloying. “And who will believe you? You’re nothing. No one listens to nothing.”
Her hand brushed my arm, almost tender. “But you could be mine. Say yes now, Elias. Say yes, and I’ll give it all back. Your reputation. Your future. I’ll make you untouchable.”
My chest ached with the temptation. The life I’d lost dangled before me, glittering, within reach.
But then I saw the faces in those files. Dozens of others who had thought the same. Who had given in. Who had vanished.
I swallowed hard. “No.”
The word was heavier this time. A blade.
Her smile shattered. For the first time, she looked almost human — shocked, furious, wounded.
“Then you’ve chosen your grave,” she whispered.
---
She was right. I lost everything. Homeless, blacklisted, a ghost wandering streets that didn’t remember my name.
But truth has a way of clawing itself free.
The files leaked. One by one, the names found light. Reporters, lawyers, voices louder than mine. The Duvall empire shook. For the first time, her name carried shadows.
I wasn’t spared. I never will be. I live with the scars of what she took from me, of what saying no cost.
But when I close my eyes at night, I don’t see her smile.
I see myself. Still standing.
And that, I think, is enough.
The price of “no” is everything.
But selling yourself costs more.
ns216.73.216.13da2
and then Add to home screen.