2: "Good. Send the bill to my father."

Lilith POV

The cab ride stretched endlessly despite only taking fifteen minutes, my phone buzzing relentlessly in my pocket with notifications I refused to check because I already knew what they'd say. More strangers dissecting my life for entertainment while Tyler sat comfortable in his house pretending nothing had happened.

His driveway came into view and there sat that silver BMW his parents had gifted him for his eighteenth birthday, gleaming under the streetlights. Every window in the house was dark except his bedroom upstairs where he was probably scrolling through comments, watching numbers climb, savoring every moment of my public destruction.

I paid the driver and climbed out, my legs carrying me to his front door despite the trembling in my hands. I knocked once, then harder when silence greeted me.

"Go away Lilith!" His voice filtered through the wood.

"Open the door."

"No, just leave."

"I'm not leaving until you talk to me." My palm slammed against the door, the sound cracking through the quiet neighborhood. "How did that video get out? Tell me how everyone has seen it."

Silence stretched between us while my heart hammered so loudly I could hear each beat pulsing in my ears.

"Tyler, open this door right now or I swear I'll keep knocking until your parents come home, until the neighbors call police, until everyone on this street knows exactly what you did."

More silence before the lock finally clicked. The door cracked open just enough to reveal his face, that same perfect face with perfect hair and that smile that used to flip my stomach but now only churned nausea through me.

"What do you want?"

"I want you to explain how that video got posted online."

His laugh emerged cold and sharp, nothing like the warmth I used to love. "What's there to explain? I posted it."

My breath caught somewhere in my throat. "You what?"

"I posted it." He widened the door, leaning against the frame with crossed arms like we were discussing weather instead of my shattered life. "Did you really think someone hacked my phone? I uploaded it myself this morning."

"Why would you do that?" The question came out smaller than I intended.

"Because I needed the money." He said it casually, like it was obvious.

"What money?"

He studied me for a moment, something calculating flickering behind his eyes before he shrugged. "Your father's running mate approached me three weeks ago, offered me fifty thousand dollars to destroy his campaign in a way that couldn't be traced back. Turns out a sex tape of the mayor's daughter was exactly what he needed."

The words slammed into me like a fist to the chest. I stepped back, my brain struggling to process what he'd just admitted. "You're lying."

"I'm not." He pulled out his phone, tapped the screen several times before turning it toward me. A bank statement glowed on the display showing a deposit for fifty thousand dollars dated two days ago. "He paid half upfront, the other half when I posted the video. Easy money for something I already had."

"You recorded me without my permission, sold me to my father's political enemy, destroyed my reputation for money?" My whole body shook now though I couldn't tell if it was rage or shock making my limbs tremble. "How could you do this to me?"

"It wasn't personal." He slipped his phone back into his pocket. "You want the truth? I never really liked you that much anyway. You were just the mayor's daughter, dating you made me popular, being seen with you at events got my parents the connections they needed for their business. The relationship was always transactional for me."

Tears streamed down my face but I wouldn't let him see me break completely. "So that's it? You used me, recorded me, sold the video, destroyed my father's campaign, all for money?"

"Pretty much." That charming smile spread across his face, the same one he used to flash across the cafeteria, except now it looked twisted and grotesque. "And honestly? I don't regret it. Fifty thousand dollars is fifty thousand dollars, your dad was going to win anyway so this just evens the playing field. Besides, the video made me famous. I've already gotten three modeling offers, two sponsorship deals, an interview request from a major network. This is the best thing that ever happened to me."

Something snapped inside my chest. I scanned his front yard until I spotted a stick lying near the fence and my feet carried me toward it before my brain caught up with what I was doing.

"What are you doing?" Tyler's voice shifted, losing its cocky edge. "Lilith, don't."

I swung the stick with everything I had. The driver's side window exploded in a satisfying crash, glass spraying across the leather seats like deadly confetti. Then I aimed for the windshield, watching cracks spider across it in beautiful patterns.

"Are you insane?" He was running now, his footsteps pounding toward me. "Stop it!"

I swung again, another piece of glass breaking free. "You destroyed my life for fifty thousand dollars. Your car is worth what, forty? Consider it a discount."

His hand clamped around my arm, yanking the stick from my grip hard enough to send pain shooting through my shoulder. "You're going to pay for this, you're going to pay for every penny of damage."

"Good, send the bill to my father." I twisted against his hold but his fingers only dug deeper into my skin. "Let go of me."

"Not until you calm down." Red flooded his face, all traces of smugness evaporating. "You can't just show up at my house destroying my property because you're upset about the consequences of your own actions."

"My own actions?" Disbelief made my voice rise. "You recorded me without my consent, you sold me out, you took money to destroy my father's career and my reputation and my entire life. None of this happened because of my actions, it's all because of yours."

"You should have been more careful." His grip remained iron tight, fingers pressing bruises into my arm. "You should have known better than to trust me."

"You're right." I met his eyes and saw nothing there except pure selfishness and greed. "I should have known better. I should have seen what you really were instead of believing you actually cared about me."

I yanked against his hold again but this time he shoved me backward, hard. My foot caught on the driveway's edge and I stumbled, arms flailing for something to grab but finding only air. I fell and my head struck concrete with a sickening crack that I felt more than heard.

White hot pain exploded behind my eyes, blinding and all consuming. The world tilted violently sideways, everything spinning and blurring until I couldn't tell up from down.

"Shit." Tyler's voice reached me muffled and distant like I was submerged underwater. "Lilith? Lilith, get up."

I tried to move but my body had stopped responding to commands. Tyler's face hovered somewhere above me, his mouth forming words I couldn't hear over the ringing that filled my ears. Darkness crept in from the edges of my vision, narrowing everything to a shrinking tunnel.

"Lilith, come on, get up. This isn't funny." Panic sharpened his voice now, fear replacing the earlier arrogance. Good. He should be scared.

I wanted to tell him I hated him, that I hoped he choked on his fifty thousand dollars, that karma would hunt him down eventually. But my tongue lay thick and heavy and useless in my mouth, the words trapped somewhere unreachable.

The darkness spread faster now, devouring everything in its path. Tyler's terrified face, the sky stretching above, even the pain radiating through my skull. All of it dissolving into nothing while I lay there on his driveway with warmth pooling beneath my head that I distantly recognized as blood.

The last image I registered before everything went black was Tyler's face twisted in fear, his eyes wide, his mouth open in what might have been a scream. Then nothing at all.