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Chapter 17- The Picture War

Author: Britney Mason
last update Last Updated: 2025-05-21 19:56:51

Daxton had rumors and they traveled faster than knives.

Sonia didn’t sleep again. She didn’t even bother pretending to. The Gala ticket was still lying on her desk, untouched, ignored, and as real as her growing fear. She had six days to stop an exposure that was no longer coming from the shadows.

It was being staged.

Publicly.

And she knew exactly who was behind it.

By mid-morning, it started.

First came the hallway stares. The kind that weren’t just curious, they were calculated.

Then, in the quad, two juniors whispered as she passed:

“Did you see it?”

“I thought it was edited.”

“She—sorry, he—looks different, right?”

Sonia’s pulse jumped.

She pushed through the crowd to the Morvain table, where Mavina sat surrounded by her usual hand-picked clique. But instead of her usual smug smirk, Mavina looked like a cat who had already eaten the canary.

“So touchy this morning,” Mavina said before Sonia even spoke.

“What did you do?”

“Oh, Vale. I didn’t do anything.

The media team did.” She lifted her phone.

“Apparently, they found an unreleased photo of Silas from last semester.

Before the accident.

And they’re wondering why the current Silas… doesn’t quite match.”

She turned the phone so Sonia could see.

And there it was.

A side-by-side.

Old Silas, in one of his signature smirks.

Next to a blurry photo of Sonia from last night, crossing the quad with her hoodie half-down, her jaw sharp, her expression darker.

The headline read:

"Is Silas Vale… the same boy who left Daxton?"

Underneath:

“A closer look at facial scans, gait analysis, and body language raises questions.

Who came back wearing the Vale blazer?”

Sonia’s stomach twisted.

“You leaked this?” she asked through clenched teeth.

“I just opened the cage,” Mavina said sweetly. “The truth is the one screaming to be let out.”

Sonia stormed into the fencing hall two hours later, needing space, needing to move—only to find Eric already there, again. Shirt damp with sweat, gloves off, sword against the bench.

He looked up. “You saw it.”

She didn’t answer. Just grabbed a blade off the wall.

He waited.

“Do you want to spar or vent?” he asked.

Sonia stepped onto the mat. “Both.”

They moved fast. No warmup. No pleasantries.

Steel clashed against steel.

“You’ve been off for days,” Eric said, dodging a strike.

“So have you.”

“I’m not the one being accused of having a body double.”

The blade stopped in midair.

Sonia’s eyes met his.

“You believe that?”

He didn’t answer.

And that silence hurt worse than a wound.

Sonia pressed harder.

“Do you think I’m not Silas?”

Eric stepped back, sword lowered.

“I think you’re hiding something.

And I think you’re really bad at pretending not to care anymore.”

She didn’t swing again.

She walked off the mat and dropped her blade.

---

Later that night, she found herself standing alone behind the bell tower, hidden by the shadow of the chimes. No one followed her. No message was left behind.

And that silence?

It felt like a countdown had started.

She opened her Daxton email for the first time in days.

A single new message blinked at the top of her inbox.

Subject: Confirmed Speech Request – Gala Induction Night

Speaker: Sonia Vale

Topic: Legacy, Loss, and Leadership

Time: 7:00 PM — Center Stage.

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