He squeezes my hand hard. Hard enough to anchor me. Hard enough to tell me he’s not letting go.
Parents shout back. Someone threatens to call the cops. Someone else swears their daughter saw me near the balcony. Phone cameras flash. Rumors fly.
My pulse is sprinting. My jaw shakes. My knees wobble.
“This is enough,” I whisper, and it comes out broken. “This… this is my breaking point, Leo.”
He turns toward me, eyes dark and steady, and cups the back of my head.
“I’ve got you,” he murmurs, pulling me into him as I tremble. “We’ve got this.”
But my voice cracks as the truth erupts out of me.
“It’s over.”
He stiffens. “Jade?—”
“No one will believe me,” I say, louder this time, breath shaking. “No one ever believes the scholarship girl.”
Leo’s jaw flexes.
Kannon swears under his breath and tightens his hold on my other shoulder.
Xavier cracks his knuckles.
Tristan mutters, “Let one of them try and touch you… watch what happens.”
But none of them—none of these boys who would ride into war for me—can quiet the ache inside me.
Because deep down, I know the truth.
It doesn’t matter how fancy the ball is.
Or how expensive the dress.
Or how calm Leo tries to make his voice.
Some people will always see me as the girl who doesn’t belong here.
The girl they can destroy without consequence.
The girl whose word means nothing.
And for the first time tonight, I’m not sure I have the fight left to prove otherwise.
Tristan mutters, “Let one of them try and touch you… watch what happens.”
“She needs to be questioned,” someone shrieked.
“I’m filing a restraining order,” hissed Rosalie. “This time it sticks, bitch.”
Phones were out. Police were being called. And me? The scholarship girl? I was the one they wanted behind bars.
I tried to breathe. I really did.
But I couldn’t feel my lungs.
This was too much. Another night ruined. Another moment stolen. Another room full of rich liars painting me as the villain in a story I barely had a chance to write.
