Chapter 4

Samuel froze for a second, his eyes darting nervously to the stack of evidence on his desk.

He didn't look at a single page. He shoved the whole pile into his drawer and slammed it shut.

"Enough of this." He slapped his hand on the desk hard enough to slosh water out of his teacup.

"Cassandra, are you out of your mind? You think you can walk in here with forged chat logs and smear a good student?"

"Forged?" I almost laughed. "You can pull the records directly from the phone carrier."

"Pull what records? You want me to investigate one of this school's top students over a troublemaker like you? Do you have any idea how much Wendy's father has donated to this school? Do you know Jones Group's executives are coming for the Founders' Day next week? And your little reputation as the school's violent problem student has already done enough damage to our image.

"I'm making it official. You're expelled. Get your things and get off this campus. I won't have you dragging this school's reputation down any further!"

The office door swung open before I could respond. Wendy and Samantha walked in. They'd clearly been standing in the hall the whole time.

Samantha went straight into it, her eyes already red.

"Mr. Miller, she threatened me again in the classroom just now. Those chat logs, she used to hold a knife to me to make me send those messages. It was all about control. Please, you have to do something."

I stared at her. "Do you have nightmares, Samantha? When you lie like this, do you actually sleep at night?"

She stepped behind Wendy, her eyes sliding away from mine, but her voice stayed loud. "The only nightmares I have are because of you."

"Alright, that's enough." Samuel waved his hand like he was swatting a fly. "Cassandra, get out of this school right now. And if you say one word about any of this outside these walls, I'll have our legal team sue you for defamation."

There was no one in this building who was going to help me.

"Fine. I'm gone."

I took a breath, reached up, and pulled my school ID off my jacket. I dropped it into the trash can on my way out.

"Someday you're going to regret this. And when that day comes, even if you beg, I won't feel a thing."

I walked out the front gates into the rain. It was coming down harder now. I just kept moving, soaked through, not really thinking about where I was going.

Then a horn blared behind me.

Wendy's car rolled up slowly. The window came down. Wendy and Samantha looked down at me from the warm, dry back seat.

"Cassandra!" Samantha threw something out the window.

It was a bracelet. It hit the wet pavement near my feet.

"Giving that back. Just a friendly reminder—when you're broke, don't pretend you've got any pride left. You think you're noble? You can't even afford to eat. You're nothing. Wendy's about to lock in that Jones Group job offer, and I'm going right along with her. You know what you've got? Nothing. You're going to stand in this rain like a stray dog with nowhere to go."

Wendy let out a short, cold laugh. The window slid back up.

The car pulled away and hit a puddle, spraying mud across my legs.

I stood there in the empty street and watched the taillights disappear.

That was enough.

I was done pretending to be an ordinary person.

I pulled a specially modified satellite phone from my pocket and dialed a number I hadn't called in two years.

It picked up on the first ring.

"Cassandra?" A low, familiar voice came through the line.

I stood in the rain, completely calm.

"Hey. I'm done playing broke."