The wind had a bite that morning. Cold. Still. As if the air itself was bracing for a reckoning.
Veronica stood by the window of her bedroom, staring out at the gray sky above the Lin estate. Her phone rested on the windowsill—screen cracked, unread notifications blinking in silence. She hadn't touched it since that call.
The name still echoed in her head.
Alexis Wu.
She'd been the forgotten girl in the gala footage—the one pushed, mocked, silenced. The one the school erased. The one Victoria Lei had made disappear.
But she wasn't gone.
She was very much alive.
And she had whispered something that wouldn't stop playing on loop in Veronica's mind.
"They're still watching. They never stopped. You exposed the puppet, Veronica... but not the hand controlling her."
Veronica's fingers tightened around the phone.
For weeks, she'd thought Victoria Lei was the peak predator in Elite High's rotten hierarchy. But if Alexis was right—if there were deeper forces at play—then the fall of Victoria was only the beginning.
Her war was just beginning.
A knock on the door pulled her back. Two firm raps. Sharp. Measured.
Lucas.
She didn't speak. Just turned and opened the door.
He walked in silently, dressed in black slacks and a dark gray shirt—casual, but deliberate. His eyes moved to her face immediately.
"You didn't sleep," he said.
Veronica didn't deny it. "I didn't want to."
His jaw flexed. "The call?"
She nodded. "It was her. Alexis Wu."
Lucas closed the door behind him with a soft click, then crossed the room in two long strides. He didn't touch her—he never did without permission—but his presence was like gravity, dark and steady.
"She's alive?"
"She is," Veronica said quietly. "And scared. But not of Victoria. Of something bigger."
Lucas's voice dropped, smooth and low. "Do you believe her?"
Veronica looked at him then. Slowly. "Yes. Because she never asked for pity. She asked me to stop digging."
He paused. "And you?"
She stepped away from the window and walked toward her desk, pulling out the notebook again. Her fingers flipped through the pages with practiced speed—names, dates, symbols.
"I'm going to dig," she said. "Until I find out who was pulling the strings behind Victoria—and who buried Alexis alive."
Lucas exhaled slowly. "Then I'll dig with you."
Her gaze flickered to him. "Even if it means going after someone from your world?"
Silence stretched between them. Then, quietly, Lucas replied:
"I already chose my world the day I chose you."
That silence became a heartbeat louder.
Veronica's throat tightened. Just for a moment.
He was always like this—cutting past the fog and landing square in her chest.
She closed the notebook, lips pressed thin. "Then we start with the only clue she gave us."
Lucas raised a brow.
"She said they're still watching."
"Surveillance?"
"Something deeper." She walked over to her nightstand, opened the drawer, and took out a small flash drive Alexis had sent anonymously months ago—Veronica had dismissed it at the time, thinking it a prank. Now, she wasn't so sure.
She plugged it into her laptop.
The screen flashed.
Dozens of folders. All labeled with dates, school events, and staff names. And at the bottom, one labeled: "Marionette Files."
Veronica opened it.
There was no video. No photo. Just audio.
A girl's voice—muffled, trembling.
"He said they'd kill my brother if I told anyone. That even if I screamed, no one would believe a scholarship girl over her. Over her family. I had to keep smiling. I had to keep quiet…"
Another voice cut in—this time older. Calm. Male. Threatening.
"This is what happens to girls who ask too many questions. Be grateful you're just being erased."
Veronica froze.
She didn't know the voice, but it wasn't Victoria's.
It was someone else.
Older.
Richer.
And far more dangerous.
Lucas leaned over her shoulder, listening. "That's not a high school student."
"No," Veronica whispered. "That's someone with real power."
She turned to him. "We need to trace this voice."
Lucas gave a slow nod. "I'll handle it. My contacts will run a match."
Before she could thank him, his hand brushed lightly against hers—barely a touch.
But it was enough to make her still.
"I don't like how quiet you've been," he said.
"I'm thinking."
"You're spiraling."
Veronica looked at him sharply. "I'm strategizing."
"Same thing when it's you."
She swallowed.
Lucas stepped closer now. The space between them was reduced to a whisper.
"You're not her," he said. "You're not Alexis. You don't have to fight this alone."
She wanted to say she wasn't alone. That she had her family, her allies, her plans.
But for the first time… she wasn't sure if any of them could protect her from what was coming.
So she did something else.
She reached out and took Lucas's hand.
Just for a second.
Then she pulled back.
"I need to see the surveillance tapes," she said. "Not the public ones. The ones the school keeps locked down. If they were watching Alexis, they're watching me."
Lucas nodded. "You'll need a reason to access them."
"I'm a student council president," she said. "I'll make a reason."
Her voice didn't tremble. But her spine was colder than it had been in weeks.
Because something was watching her. She could feel it now.
And somewhere deep inside Elite High, someone had puppeteered every scandal, every cover-up, every fall from grace.
Victoria wasn't the monster.
She'd been the mouthpiece.
The mask.
The disposable queen on someone else's chessboard.
And Veronica Lin?
She was about to flip the whole damn board.