He opens them again. “Is this Jade girlthatimportant to you?”
I swallow.
“She’s everything,” I say. Quiet but certain. “And I messed it up. And now she’s—she’s all over the internet. Everyone wants her. And I’m terrified she’s slipping away forever.”
He exhales through his nose.
Then he places a hand on my back.
A father’s hand.
Weighty. Warm. Rare.
“I love you, son,” he says softly. “I know I don’t show it. I’ve been… stuck inside my own grief. My own failures.”
My throat burns.
“But if you want this girl,” he continues, “if you truly believe she’s your chance at the kind of love most people never get… then I’ll help you.”
My head snaps up.
“You’ll what?”
“I’ll help,” he repeats. “Tell me everything.”
So I do.
The slime.
The plot.
The receipts.
The Ohio deepfake nightmare.
The administration cover-up.
The girls’ network of money and cruelty.
The danger Jade’s scholarship is in.
The fact that she turned down six figures because she has integrity none of them will ever have.
When I finish, he’s silent for a long moment.
Then he nods once, decisive.
“I have… connections,” he says carefully. “Powerful ones. I rarely use them. But for this? For you? For justice?”
His jaw sets.
“I’ll look into these girls. Their families. Their money pipelines. Their legal vulnerabilities. And I will make this easier for her. Quietly. Thoroughly.”
My heart slams in my chest.
“Dad—”
“And Leo,” he adds, voice low, “if you want her back… you have my blessing.”
