Chapter 6

Emilia Jones

I stayed on my knees longer than I should have.

The tile pressed cold against my skin. My throat burned and my hands gripped the sides of the toilet because nothing else in the world felt steady. “Oh Emilia..... you are so dead.“ I panicked.

I pressed my forehead to the stall door and forced air into my lungs. The bathroom smelled of cheap cleaner and the sharp sourness of my own sickness. My stomach clenched again but nothing rose. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and made myself stand. My legs trembled. Last night’s tiny black dress was gone, replaced by jeans and a hoodie, yet I still felt stripped bare, as if every person who looked at me could see exactly what I had done.

I unlocked the stall and stepped out. The mirror above the sinks showed a stranger: pale skin, too-wide eyes, lips pressed tight so they would not shake. I turned on the cold water and splashed my face hard. The shock helped a little. Not enough.

The bathroom door swung open behind me.

I did not need to turn. The click of her shoes was too familiar, and the soft, satisfied breath she always made when she held the upper hand gave her away at once.

Mandy’s reflection joined mine in the mirror.

She leaned against the counter as though the space belonged to her and let her gaze travel slowly over me.

“Well,” she said, voice light and mean. “That was dramatic. Running out of class like that. Did the great Emilia Jones finally realize she doesn’t belong here either?”

I shut the water off and reached for a paper towel. My hands still shook. I kept my voice flat. “Get out.”

She stayed where she was. “I saw the way you looked at him. Mike, I mean. Still hurts, doesn’t it? Watching him choose me in front of everyone. You should be used to it by now. You’ve been losing to me your whole life.”

The paper towel tore between my fingers. I turned to face her fully. “You followed me in here just to say that? Go back to your scholarship and your borrowed boyfriend. I don’t have time for you.”

Mandy’s smile widened. “Borrowed? He’s mine now. And soon the rest of it will be too. Mom and Dad already see it. You’re the problem child who keeps making everything worse. It’s embarrassing.”

Something hot and sharp cut through the panic under my ribs. I stepped closer. “You think this is about Mike? You think I care that he’s kissing you in hallways like a dog marking territory? I walked in on you. I saw exactly what you are....a cheap replacement who cannot even earn her own place without stealing mine.”

Her eyes flashed. “At least I’m not the one selling herself for money.”

The words struck harder than they should have. My stomach dropped. For one terrifying second I wondered if she knew... But her face held only the usual cruelty. She was guessing, throwing darts and hoping one would land.

Still the panic rose so fast I tasted metal.

I kept my expression blank. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Mandy laughed, soft and nasty. “Don’t I? You come home in a dress that barely covers you. You take a job I had to shove down your throat. And now you’re falling apart in a bathroom. It’s obvious something dirty happened. The only question is how much you charged.”

My hand moved before I decided to let it. The slap cracked across her cheek loud enough to echo off the tiles. Her head snapped sideways.

A red mark bloomed at once on her skin. She stared at me with wide, shocked eyes, one hand flying up to cover the place I had struck.

“Don’t you ever speak to me like that again,” I said, voice low and shaking.“ You do not get to stand here and call me dirty.”

Mandy recovered quickly. Her eyes filled with tears that looked almost real. “You hit me. Again. You’re crazy. Everyone’s going to know....”

The bathroom door opened a second time.

Charlotte stepped inside, took one look at the two of us, and her expression hardened. She moved straight to my side, caught my arm, and drew me a step back. Then she turned on Mandy.

“What the hell is going on?” Charlotte’s voice was sharp. “I saw you follow her in here. And now her handprint is on your face. Explain.”

Mandy’s lower lip trembled on cue. “She attacked me. I only came to check if she was okay after she ran out of class like a psycho. She just started hitting me.”

I opened my mouth but Charlotte lifted a hand without looking at me. She stepped forward, planted both palms on Mandy’s shoulders, and shoved her hard toward the door.

“Get out,” Charlotte said. “Now. If I see you near her again today I’ll make sure the whole department hears exactly what kind of cousin you are.”

Mandy stumbled, caught herself, and shot me one last venomous look. “This isn’t over.”

Then she was gone. The door swung shut behind her.

Silence settled over the bathroom. The only sound was the slow drip of a faulty faucet and my own uneven breathing. Charlotte turned to me, eyes full of worry and questions.

“Emilia. Talk to me. What was that? Why did you run? And why does she keep pushing you like this?”

I leaned against the sink because my legs still felt unreliable. The panic remained coiled tight beneath my ribs.

I could not tell her.

If I told Charlotte it would become real in a way I was not ready for. She would look at me differently. She might try to fix it. She might accidentally say something that reached the wrong ears.

The rules had been clear. No one could know. And now the man who had made those rules was the same man who could fail me with a single signature.

I forced a weak smile and shook my head. “It’s just Mandy being Mandy. She followed me to gloat about Mike. I lost my temper. That’s all.”

Charlotte studied my face. “You threw up. People don’t throw up over an ex and a nasty cousin.”

“I haven’t eaten,” I lied. The words came out steady enough. “Stress with school you know how college can be. It all hit me at once in the middle of class and I got overwhelmed. I’m fine now.”

She did not look convinced, but she did not push harder. Instead she wet another paper towel and gently wiped the corner of my mouth where I had missed a spot.

“You’re not fine,” she said quietly. “But I’ll pretend you are until you’re ready to tell me the truth. Just… don’t shut me out completely, okay?”

I nodded because speaking felt too risky.

The panic still churned inside me, louder now that the immediate fight was over.

Every time I closed my eyes I saw Professor Charles Reed looking down at me with those same eyes that had watched me come undone in a hotel room.

He knew my name. He knew my body. And in less than an hour I was supposed to walk back into that room and pretend none of it had ever happened.

Charlotte squeezed my shoulder. “Come on. We’ll go to the nurse’s office and say you have a migraine. You can sit there until the next class starts. I’ll handle Mandy if she tries anything else.”

I let her guide me toward the door. My reflection in the mirror looked almost calm. Inside, everything was still breaking.

And I had no idea how I was going to survive the rest of the day, let alone the rest of the semester, without everyone finding out that the girl in the front row had already been on her knees for the man at the front of the room.

“By the way, have you seen how hot the new professor is? Oh gosh. I hope he's single.“ Charlotte blurted out. I almost choked.