Pretty Lies, Perfect Revenge

Marie’s POV

KINGSFORD IMPERIAL ACADEMY

I walked into the school hallway, and the whole place went quiet. It felt like someone had pressed pause on everything. Then the whispers started, loud enough for me to hear every word.

“See the slut…”

“She was enjoying the threesome and let them video her. So disgusting.”

“I really hated her before, but I thought she was a good student. Not knowing she’s this dirty.”

I kept my head down and walked faster. My books felt heavy in my arms. I wanted the ground to open and swallow me. I didn’t know what happened. I really didn’t. All I knew was that I hated Cassian Hale with every part of my body. He ruined my life. He ruined everything.

I reached my locker and tried to open it, but my hands were shaking too much. The whispers followed me like shadows.

★★★★★★★

It all started on Friday.

I was walking out of the library after studying late when a black van stopped beside me. Two men I didn’t know grabbed me and pushed me inside. I screamed, but they covered my mouth. Everything happened so fast.

When the blindfold came off, I was inside a big beach house. The smell of the sea came through the open windows. Cassian Hale stood in front of me, arms crossed, looking at me like I was nothing.

I was shocked. I was only a scholarship student. He was the golden boy. His father owned almost seventy percent of our school. We had never really talked before, except when he and his friends bullied me for being poor.

“Why… why am I here?” I asked, my voice small.

Cassian stepped closer. His eyes were cold. “You took first position in the mid-term exams, Marie Gretel. That position was supposed to be Hanna’s. My girlfriend’s. You think you can just come here with your scholarship and steal what belongs to us?”

I couldn’t answer. My throat felt tight.

Darren Fletcher and Hans Walter stood behind him, smiling like this was a game.

Cassian nodded at them. “She needs to learn her place.”

They started beating me. Fists and kicks came from every side. I tried to protect my head, but it hurt too much. I cried and begged them to stop, but they laughed. Everything went black.

When I woke up, I was lying on the side of a lonely road. My school uniform was torn. My body felt sore everywhere. I could barely move. I dragged myself up and walked home slowly, crying the whole way.

My parents were not around when I got home. I went straight to my room, locked the door, and took a long shower. The hot water burned the cuts on my skin, but I didn’t care. I hated myself. I hated my family for being poor. I hated everything.

I was still trying to calm down when I heard a knock on my door.

“Marie? Open the door,” my mom said.

I opened it, wanting to run into her arms and tell her everything. But the moment I saw her face, she gave me a hard slap. My lip split and blood filled my mouth.

I looked at her in shock. She had never hit me before.

“Mom…?”

She pulled out her phone and shoved it in my face. The video started playing. I saw myself. My face was very clear. Three guys were with me, but their faces were not shown. It looked like I was enjoying it. The title said “Scholarship Slut from Kingsford Imperial.”

My world stopped.

“Mom, it’s not what it looks like,” I said quickly, tears running down my face. “They kidnapped me. They beat me and… and…”

“Shut up!” she screamed. “How could you do this to us? We worked so hard to send you to that school! Now look at what you’ve done!”

She was shouting so loud the neighbors could probably hear.

“Mom, please listen to me. I didn’t do anything wrong. They forced me—”

“I said shut up!” She raised her hand again, but before she could hit me, her phone rang.

It was the hospital.

She put the call on speaker.

“Mrs. Gretel, you need to come to the hospital right now,” the doctor said. “Your husband’s heart is failing. It’s very serious.”

My mom’s face turned white. She grabbed her bag and ran out of the house without saying another word to me. I followed her as fast as I could.

“Please, God,” I prayed inside the taxi. “Please don’t take my father. I’ll do anything. Just let him live.”

We reached the hospital and ran to his room. Doctors and nurses were moving around quickly. Machines were beeping loudly.

Then one machine made a long, flat sound.

Beep———

My father’s heart had stopped.

“No!” my mom screamed. She fell on her knees beside the bed. “No, please! Wake up!”

I stood there, frozen. Tears fell from my eyes, but I couldn’t make any sound. The doctor shook his head and said softly, “I’m sorry. We did everything we could.”

My father was gone.

I killed him.

It was my fault.

Because of the shame I brought to the family, his company collapsed. All the investors pulled out after the video spread online. The stress was too much for his heart. Now he was dead.

My mom turned to me slowly. Her eyes were red and full of pain.

“You did this,” she said in a broken voice. “You killed your father.”

“Mom… I was raped. They kidnapped me from school. Cassian Hale and his friends—”

“Don’t you dare say his name!” she shouted. “He is the son of the man who owns this town. And you… you let them record you like a cheap whore!”

“I didn’t let them!” I cried. “They forced me! Why won’t anyone believe me?”

My mom didn’t answer. She just cried over my father’s body, whispering, “What did we do to deserve this? We raised her right. We taught her morals. And she destroyed us.”

I laughed. I don’t know why, but I started laughing like a crazy person. I laughed until tears mixed with the laughter and my chest hurt.

My mom looked at me like I was mad.

By Sunday morning, everything was gone. The company was declared bankrupt. Our house was already under threat. My father was dead. And my mom… she looked at me with pure hate.

That night, she took her own life.

I found her in the bathroom with an empty bottle of pills. She left a note.

It said: “I curse the day I gave birth to you, Marie. You are no longer my daughter.”

I read the note many times. Then I sat on the floor and cried until I had no tears left.

★★★★★★★

I walked past a group of girls. One of them said loudly, “She should just drop out. Who wants a slut in our school?”

Another laughed. “Maybe she enjoyed it. Look at how she took first position. Probably slept with the teachers too.”

I wanted to scream that it wasn’t true. I wanted to tell them Cassian Hale kidnapped me. I wanted to tell them I was only sixteen and they destroyed my life in one night.

But no one would believe me.

Cassian walked down the hallway with Hanna Andersson on his arm. She smiled at me like a queen who had won. Cassian didn’t even look at me. He acted like I was invisible.

I hated him.

I hated him so much my chest burned.

I went to the bathroom and locked myself in a stall. I sat on the floor and hugged my knees.

“Why me?” I whispered. “I studied hard. I just wanted to make my parents proud. Why did they do this to me?”

Tears fell on my uniform.

I stayed there until the bell rang for class. When I came out, my eyes were swollen, but I kept my head down