Jade.
She’s coming from the administration building, phone in one hand, paper cup of coffee in the other. She moves like she’s on a mission, eyes locked somewhere straight ahead, face firm and stony. Painfully beautiful.
She doesn’t see me, doesn’t seem to see anyone.
I call out to her, stopping in her wake.
She freezes, shoulders stiffening. Slowly, she turns back to face me. Recognition flashes in her eyes, followed by something I can’t read.
“Lila.” She says my name as if it’s an intrusion. I’ve interrupted her thoughts, I suspect.
I’m careful as I walk toward her. “Hey. I wasn’t sure you were still here. I haven’t seen you at any of the events.”
She looks down, then away. “I haven’t really made it to any of them.”
“I…I wanted to talk to you.”
“I’m on my way somewhere,” she says, gesturing over her shoulder. “It’s not a good time.”
“Can I walk with you? I won’t take too long. It’s important.”
She releases a small sigh, checking behind her. “Fine. Let’s go.”
We start walking, and I launch into everything she needs to know, not sure where to start. “So, I’ve been meeting withsome of Ralston’s other students. The ones who came after us. There’s a girl named Naya Sanchez, who works on social media now. And another named Hayden French. She’s techy. Builds websites and stuff. With their help, with others’ help, we could fix this. We could stop her.”
She jerks her head around to look at me, shocked, but doesn’t speak.
“I know you might not think she can be taken down, and I hear you, but it wasn’t just us. You didn’t start it, and I didn’t end it. She just keeps hurting people, following her same playbook, and I want to prove it. Find the pattern. I want to speak out.”
She’s cautious, eyes moving around slowly as she thinks, processes. “And the others are going to help?”
“I…I don’t know yet. I’m still working on them.” The lie sits like ash on my tongue, and I suspect she notices.
A puff of breath escapes her lips, and she rolls her eyes.
“But I’m trying. Even if it’s just the two of us, our voices are louder together. We can do this.”
Her silence is heavy with things she seems to be holding back.
“So will you help me?” I ask finally. “I’ve been running through these ideas and ways we could approach it, and I was thinking if we?—”
“No. There is nowe, Lila. I told you. Maybe back then, sure. But it’s been a decade. I’ve moved on. And so should you.” She exhales, eyes scanning the quad as students wander past us in clusters, laughing as if the world still makes sense to them. As if everything hasn’t been turned on its head.
“How can you say that?”
“I warned you. Why didn’t you listen to me back then?”
It’s the first time she’s asked me that. Instantly, I’m brought back to the moment I’ve relived so many times since I leftHavenport. The moment that could’ve changed the trajectory of my life.
I’m leaving Ralston’s office when Jade grabs my arm. She pulls me into an empty classroom, her voice soft, a hand still on my skin. “Hey. Be careful with Ralston, okay? She isn’t what she seems.”
I stare at her. This stranger, warning me about the woman I’ve spent my life admiring. “Who are you?”
“I know we don’t know each other, but woman to woman—you can’t trust her, okay? And right now, it’s clear you do, and she knows it because she chose you. Just like she chose me before. She’s dangerous.”
My eyes widen. “Dangerous how?”
“She’s…” Jade shakes her head. “It’s a long story, but the shortest version is that I took her class last year. I thought she was brilliant. Talented. She said she wanted to help me, that I was standing out to her among the other students, that I had what it took to make it big.” She looks down. “She kept me working late every night for a full semester, and I didn’t question it. I came running when she called. I lost all my friends, fell behind in my other classes. But I convinced myself it was okay because she’sAlthea Ralston, you know? A few months later, she introduced me to an editor at a publishing house. She said she really thought I had something. I worked all semester on that draft, and when it was finished, she convinced me to wait. She said I needed to refine my voice. That my work would benefit from more life experience.” Her jaw goes tight. “Nine months later, she published a book that was nearly word for word of my work. With the exact editor she’d introduced me to.”
