He Lost Me Without A Fight Novel by WriterLola _ Novel





He Lost Me Without A Fight Chapter 01

By the twenty-eighth time Brandon Keller stepped up to play knight in shining armor for Jocelyn Wade—the financially struggling new transfer student—Olivia Brooks had finally had enough.
Standing outside the police station, she stared at Brandon's bloodied hands and whispered, "Let's break up."
"Why? Just because I stood up for Josie?"
Brandon let out a mocking laugh. "You say that every time, but you never actually go through with it. If you're upset, just yell at me like you usually do."
Olivia ignored the bait.
She simply signed his bail paperwork, emailed their academic counselor to request a few days off for both him and Jocelyn, and handed over their unfinished group assignment.
Once everything was handled, she hailed a cab and headed back to campus alone.
Brandon stared after her, stunned.
In the past, whenever Olivia caught him with other girls, she would make a scene.
This was the first time he'd ever seen her so calm.
A strange unease crept over him, but before it could fully take hold, Jocelyn pressed herself against his chest.
"I'm so sorry, Bran," she sobbed. "It's my fault you got hurt."
Pushing aside that flicker of unease, Brandon instinctively wiped her tears away.
"I chose to do it," he told her. "You don't have anything to apologize for."
Watching them shrink in the taxi's rearview mirror, Olivia didn't feel the sharp sting she'd expected.
At that realization, a quiet sense of relief washed over her.
The first time she'd tried to break up with him was after a photo of him kissing the most popular girl on campus went viral on the student forums.
It had snowed heavily that night, and Brandon had stood outside her dormitory building until sunrise, apologizing nonstop.
When she finally went downstairs and saw his face turning purple from the cold, she softened and forgave him.
The second time was on her birthday. While she closed her eyes to make a wish, he slipped out to pick up a junior girl from a night class.
He brushed it off later, saying, "She hurt her foot and needed help, and we're in the same club."
Olivia had forced herself to let it slide.
Then came the third time, the fourth, the fifth...
Brandon just kept crossing boundaries she had explicitly begged him to respect.
But everything really shifted when Jocelyn transferred into their department.
Brandon—the wealthy, image-obsessed scion—happily ditched his expensive designer labels for cheap tees and faded jeans, just so Jocelyn wouldn't feel out of place next to him.
When Jocelyn took a work-study job in the cafeteria, Brandon secretly used his own money to bump up the wages of the entire staff, just so she'd take home a little more.
Then came today. A customer insulted Jocelyn while she was waitressing at a coffee shop, and Brandon completely lost it, beating the man so badly that he ended up in the ER.
But what truly severed Olivia's last lingering attachment was the sight of Brandon's bloody hands.
He used to tell her, "Running the family business pays the bills, but music is my actual passion. My hands are meant for the piano, and I'll protect them for the rest of my life."
A year ago, they were caught in an avalanche while skiing. Olivia had been buried under the snow, barely hanging on.
To protect those precious hands, Brandon hadn't even tried to dig her out, simply waiting the two hours it took for the rescue teams to show up.
Yet today, just to retaliate on behalf of another woman, he had beaten a man until his own fingers fractured, his hands covered in blood.
Olivia was done fighting for his attention.
She was just exhausted. After three years of holding the relationship together on her own, she finally understood—it was time to let go.
Unzipping her backpack, she pulled out the internship offer from Froniss Games.
It was one of Brandon's family businesses, and they had planned to start working there together right after graduation.
But now, Olivia tore the paper to shreds.
Then, she pulled out her phone and called her academic advisor, Carol Norris.
"Prof. Norris?" she said when the call connected. "I've decided to accept the offer to study abroad."
Carol sounded overjoyed. "That's wonderful news. With your abilities, you shouldn't limit yourself to just a master's degree."
"Thank you, Prof. Norris," Olivia said. "I really appreciate you giving me another option when I was so up in the air about my future."
Olivia walked through the campus gates.
In half a month, she would graduate and leave the country to study abroad.
A few moments later, her phone buzzed. It was Brandon.
"Hey, HR at Froniss Games said you blew off the intern training," he said. "What's going on?"
Olivia offered a quick excuse. "Prof. Norris needed to see me, so I had to take off early."
Brandon let out an audible sigh of relief. "Okay, good. I thought..."
He hesitated before continuing, "Listen, there's an issue at the café where Josie works. I don't think she can handle it alone, so I can't go shopping with you tonight."
He waited, heart pounding.
He'd already decided that if she got upset, he would promise to spend every evening with her from now on to make up for it.
But Olivia kept her tone flat. "Got it."
Brandon's reassuring words caught in his throat.
"That's it?"
"Jocelyn is a bit of a pushover," Olivia added. "It's good that you're staying to help her."
"Liv, I—"
"I have things to do," Olivia cut him off. "Gotta go."
Holding the phone, Brandon felt a distinct shift in her.
She was being unusually agreeable—almost too understanding.
After hanging up, Olivia went back to packing her things.
Her gaze fell on an exquisitely crafted miniature piano, carefully wrapped in bubble wrap.
She had originally meant to give it to Brandon as a graduation present.
Two months ago, during a visit to one of their partner companies, Brandon had fallen in love with the handcrafted piece displayed on a manager's desk.
He had tried everything to buy it, but the manager refused, and Brandon eventually gave up.
After that, Olivia had taken her own project data to the company, worked unpaid for a month, and solved a major headache for that manager.
When he asked how large of a bonus she wanted, she turned the cash down.
"I don't want payment," she'd told him. "I just want the piano."
Tonight's shopping trip had been meant to find the perfect gift box for it.
Olivia stared at the wrapped miniature for a few seconds, then casually dropped it into a box of junk.

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