“Local Girl Victim of Deepfake Porn Scandal—Now Homecoming Queen at Elite Royal Oaks Prep?”
“Jaden Leigh Barron’s Sealed School Record Leaked in Shocking Twist.”
“From Ohio Shame to Country Club Fame—Scholarship Fraud at Royal Oaks?”
My breath left me like a punch to the chest.
Pictures. Police reports. Screenshots of the old fake account. Blurred thumbnails from deepfake porn clips with her face on them. Her real name. Her real hometown.
All of it.
Leaked. Unsealed. Public.
“No,” I whispered, scrolling faster, heart jackhammering in my chest.
Xavier and Tristan elbowed through the crowd toward me. “Leo?—”
“I don’t know how—” I couldn’t breathe.
“She filed a police report,” Xavier said grimly. “Under her alias. About the fish incident.”
“She used her fake name,” I rasped.
“Exactly. But the cop on the case connected the dots. Found the scholarship record. The sealed file. And guess who funded the dig?”
“Who?”
“Nadia Livingston’s dad.”
I blinked, stunned. “What?”
“She got cut from the soccer team. Jade took her jersey number. His daughter was benched for the scholarship girl—and he wanted dirt. So he paid for it.”
Tristan’s hands curled into fists. “They couldn’t stand her getting the spotlight.”
Vivian was saying something behind me—I didn’t hear a word.
The room was caving in. The lights. The noise. The vultures. And Jade?
Gone.
I shoved through the crowd. Out into the night. Past the torches. Past the photographers waiting at the gates.
I found her in the rose garden, curled on a marble bench, arms wrapped around herself, eyes hollow. She didn’t flinchwhen I stepped into view. Just looked up at me with all the strength she had left and said:
“Did you know?”
It shattered me.
I opened my mouth.
Closed it again.
Because yes, I knew pieces. My parents’ sanitized version. But not this. Not this nuclear fallout. Not the bloodbath the world had turned it into.
“I didn’t know it would go public,” I said, hoarse.
She nodded, slow. “But you knew.”
