I satcross-legged on my bed, the soft hum of my dorm’s heater filling the silence.
The shower I’d taken a few minutes ago had chased away the lingering alcohol haze, leaving me painfully aware of everything I’d learned tonight. Sleep wasn’t coming anytime soon, so I figured I might as well start digging into Roman Valcourt. Right now, I didn’t even know what he looked like, let alone anything else.
I pulled my laptop onto my knees and opened a browser tab to type in his name. But somehow, my fingers had other ideas.
J-u-l-i-a-n V-a-l-c-o-u-r-t.
I froze, staring at the name blinking back at me in the search bar. How had I written Julian’s name instead? I could’ve swornI was typing in ‘Roman’.
It must’ve been a Freudian slip. Julian had been on my mind since I spotted him watching me across the quad twenty minutes ago, and I’d inadvertently written his name as a result.
Truth be told, he hadn’t just been on my mind over the last few minutes. He’d crept into my thoughts several times since my arrival at BHU. I wanted to say it was purely because of howattractive he was, but deep down, I knew there was much more to it than that. There was just something wildly magnetic about him. Something that made my pulse quicken for all the wrong reasons, filling me with confusion and shame.
I hated that my mind kept replaying the sound of his voice; that cool, measured tone that managed to sound both dangerous and intimate. I hated that even knowing what I knew now—about the Dionysus Club, about the Selection, about his brother’s connection to my sister—my pulse still kicked up whenever I thought about him.
I should’ve been terrified of him.Wasterrified, actually. But curiosity was a treacherous thing. So instead of hurriedly deleting his name from the search bar, I pressedenter.
There wasn’t much about him online. No social media at all. Not even a ghost account. Just a handful of articles about academic awards he’d won back in prep school, some mentions in university bulletins, and articles about his family’s foundation.
According to the bio that popped up in the overview above the search results, the Valcourts were one of the oldest families on the East Coast. Multi-generational wealth. Landowners. Political donors.Philanthropists, the overview called them, but I’d already learned that was usually code for ‘powerful people with a lot to hide’.
I clicked on the images tab and scrolled through the results, which mostly seemed to be professional photos taken at charity galas. Julian looked dangerously handsome in every single picture. Tailored suits that mostly covered his tattoos. Sharp jawline and sharper smirk. The kind of effortless, old-money confidence you could smell from a mile away.
I scrolled down and found a more recent picture of him standing beside another man at some sort of gala. Leaning closer to the screen, I squinted at the caption beneath.Roman andJulian Valcourt at the Blackthorne Harbor Arts Foundation Annual Benefit, May 2025.
So that was him. My sister’s secret boyfriend.
The two brothers shared the same towering height and confident bearing, but that was where the resemblance ended. Julian’s thick, dark hair was always a little tousled, his blue eyes glacial and unreadable, whereas Roman’s hair was light brown and perfectly straight, his hazel eyes warmer but somehow emptier. His skin was a little paler too, and there were no tattoos peeking from his cuffs.
He looked exactly like Calista’s type. Clean-cut. Polished. Safe.
Except he wasn't safe at all.
I deleted Julian’s name and typed ‘Roman Valcourt’ into the search bar instead.
The results weren’t much different. No social media, same carefully curated headlines. Awards. Charity work. A few interviews where he talked about ‘legacy’ and ‘service to the community’. And, of course, dozens of photos from high society events where he looked perfectly composed. Not at all like a coldhearted killer.
I closed my laptop with a heavy sigh and leaned back against my bedhead. I hadn’t learned much about Roman yet, but at least I knew what he looked like now. That was better than nothing.
In fact…
An idea sparked, and I sat up straighter, pulse kicking up a notch. I’d already combed through both of my sister’s phones a dozen times, desperate for clues, but back then, I hadn’t known who or what I was looking for. I hadn’t known Roman’s name, or his face. And that meant it was entirely possible I’d skimmed right over something that mattered. Something small and seemingly innocuous that could actually change everything.
I leaned over to fish both phones out of my nightstand drawer. I’d brought them all the way over with me from California because they were the only tangible pieces remaining from my sister’s final days, and they also contained the last digital breadcrumbs she’d left behind.
I picked up the smaller phone first; the one I now knew was a burner phone given to Calista by her friends on the day she died. There wasn’t much on it, but now that I’d heard the whole story from the others tonight, the messages in the inbox made a lot more sense to me.
I clicked into the first message thread, which I could only assume was Cherry, given that the contact was saved as 'C' and the timestamps matched everything Cherry told me earlier.
10:09:Hey babe, don’t be worried if someone knocks on the door soon - it’s just me coming back! Have an awesome surprise for you. See you soon! xox
10:34:OMG I am so stupid, I missed the exit to Crescent Bay and now I’m all the way up in Port Engel! I was wondering why the drive was taking so long lol duhhhh. Turning around now. Be there in 20ish mins. Hope you aren’t asleep already xox
10:53:Parking now! Coming up in a sec!
10:54:Umm hello where are you? And why did you leave the door unlocked? Hope one of those hunters didn’t get you... JK, am assuming you’ve gone down to that vending machine we saw earlier? I’ll come down now. I could really use a Mars bar tbh, need the sugar after that long-ass drive
10:57:Okay seriously, where are you? And why aren’t you replying to anything? I know you aren’t freaked out by any of this Selection stuff, but I am... so please just let me know you’re okay
