I whispered, “It’s over.”
Leo pulled me closer.
His arms were around me, tight. Strong. Safe.
“I’ve got you. You’ve got this,” he whispered against my temple.
“No one will believe me,” I said so quietly I wasn’t sure it came out. “No one ever believes the scholarship girl.”
The lights were still flashing from cell phone cameras. Police had entered. Voices rose.
And then—Xavier stepped forward, like he’d been waiting all night for his cue.
He leaned in, whispered in my ear with a grin so smug it could slice steel. “Boomerang,” he said. Just one word.
Then he pulled out his phone and hit send.
I blinked. “What did you do?”
“Wireless. Battery backup. Mic’d the whole place.”
My jaw dropped.
“You mic’d the?—?”
“I knew they were planning something,” he said, casual like we were talking about the weather. “So I installed wireless security cameras last night. Didn’t need the old wiring. Didn’t need the mansion’s power. I also might’ve had night vision cameras…”
A hush fell over the room.
The head of the mansion’s historical society stepped forward, pale and shaking. “There’s… been a new development,” he said. “We have footage. Full surveillance of the ballroom during the blackout.”
People gasped. A few looked like they were about to faint.
Rosalie’s face went gray.
Blair looked like she might throw up.
And then the footage played on a projector someone rolled out from the back, like this had become a damn premiere. Everyone watched as, clear as day, the girls slimed themselves. Dumped buckets of green and gold goo down their own dresses in the dark—timed to perfection—and then threw the evidence at my feet.
“You set me up,” I whispered.
“No,” Leo said darkly, his voice like thunder. “They tried.”
Police swarmed. Questions flew.
People scattered.
And Blair? Rosalie? Their parents?
They were too busy yelling at the officers as handcuffs came out.
Xavier smiled as if Christmas had come early. “Game over, ladies.”
And for once… I believed it.
The silent truce was shattered. And this time? The truth was finally onmyside.
The ballroom had never been so quiet.
