Shani.
Tristan.
Even myself.
No captions trying to control the narrative. No hashtags chasing virality.
Just truth.
The response is instant. Explosive. Comments pouring in faster than I can read them. Messages. Screenshots. People sayingthank youlike I handed them something they didn’t know they were allowed to have.
Then—quietly—I open Leo’s thread.
I still love you.
I never stopped.
I think I used you as a shield for pain other people caused me.
That wasn’t fair. I’m sorry.
I hope one day you can forgive me the way I’m learning to forgive myself.
I hit send.
No expectations. No demands.
Just honesty.
I set the phone down and lean back into the couch, the fire warming my face, laughter echoing through the room. There is love. So much love. And all that love filled me up and healed me. Every single person in this room was a part of that story. The pair in bitterness is gone; replaced by something I know will stay strong. Family, loyalty and love.
Chapter 26
JADE
The holidays don’t endwith a bang.
They fade.
The lights come down one by one. The wreaths brown at the edges. The pine needles shed themselves into sad little drifts in corners no one bothers to sweep. Newport turns gray again—real gray, not cinematic gray. Steel skies. Salt wind. The kind of cold that seeps into your bones and stays there.
And Royal Oaks?
Royal Oaks is… quiet.
No whisper campaigns.
No snickering in hallways.
No phones snapping pictures like weapons.
The girls who once ran the school like a private kingdom are gone.
Expelled.
Some of them eighteen. Some of them charged. Real charges. Court dates. Mugshots their families paid to suppress—but not fast enough. The illusion cracked. Money couldn’t buy back time or erase screenshots or un-say threats made to the wrong people.
For the first time since I transferred here, the air feels breathable.
