I played the game.
There were rules.
There was strategy.
There was always an escape.

No one knew how my past dictated my every move.
I did everything to keep the nightmares of my childhood at bay.
I reveled in my playboy reputation.

Then Sarah Hodges made a wrong move.
One that left me wondering how to match her play.

We weren't supposed to work.
She was everything I wasn't.
But she had secrets of her own.
Ones that left me shocked and furious.
Ones that gave me a leg up.
Or so I thought.

It only took one quick game to land us in checkmate,
something Wellington University never saw coming.

(Previously published as Of Bishops and Pawns)