“Lila, you can’t just leave,” Carol said.
But I was already gone, practically running to my car.
The moment I hit the road, I called Vance.
“I have it,” I said, my voice shaking with adrenaline. “I have everything. The dirt we need.”
“Okay? Tell me more.”
“Cassidy Monroe. Beau’s ex-girlfriend. She gave me a flash drive with hidden camera footage from his apartment. Apparently, it’s proof that they were targeting me.”
“Get out of there. Come home.”
“I’m already on my way.”
Vance was waiting on the porch when I pulled up. He met me at the car, pulling me into his arms before I could even speak.
“Thank God you’re safe,” he said. “I’ve been pacing.”
“I’m all right.” I pulled back, holding up the flash drive. “We need to watch this. Now.”
Inside, I took out my laptop and plugged in the drive. Vance stood beside me, his hand on my back.
The video loaded. Grainy footage filled the screen of what was apparently Beau’s living room. Despite the dim lighting, it was clear there were two figures on the couch. Beau and Kenzie.
Kenzie’s voice came first—sharp and clipped. “It has to be her. Trust me. Lila’s the perfect mark. Polished, hardworking, a little too sweet. Viewers will eat it up.”
Beau rubbed his jaw. “What about Cassidy? She thinks the show’s hers. Carol was even talking about playing up our romance on the screen.”
“Well, it’s not going to be her,” Kenzie snapped. “It’s Lila Morgan. Has to be.”
Beau stood, agitated. “I don’t get it. Why do you want her so badly?”
“She ruined my life,” Kenzie said. “And I’ve been waiting a long time to get my revenge.”
There was a pause.
“What did she do to you?” Beau asked.
“She was the golden girl of our class. Lila could do no wrong. She won every competition. Every internship. And the more she won, the more I lost.”
“That’s hardly reason for revenge.”
“Our second year, I was having some mental health challenges. Having trouble focusing. I went to Lila and asked her to help me. She flatly refused. Said she was too busy on her own projects. That’s how she is. Totally selfish. All about making herself shine when the rest of us were dismissed.”
“Okay?”
“Don’t look at me that way,” Kenzie said. “I’m not completely insane. What happened was—she threw away a perfectly good pitch at the last minute. I was desperate. I hadn’t been able to put anything together. Without a presentation, I was going to fail and get kicked out of the program. So I used the one she’d tossed aside.”
“Kenzie, why would you do that? It’s way too risky.”
“Yeah, turns out you’re right. The professor recognized it from one of her previous drafts. They accused me of plagiarism and kicked me out. I lost everything.”
“But you stole it from her,” Beau said. “You deserved to be kicked out.”
“It was in the trash, Beau. Discarded. Abandoned property.” Kenzie’s voice was calm, almost soothing. “If she’d just helped me when I asked—one hour of her time—that’s all I needed. I went to her and told her I was drowning. She totally brushed me off. Said she couldn’t help everyone. So yeah, I took what she threw away. And I made something of it.”
“The professor recognized it, so you didn’t really do anything with it except steal someone else’s work.”
