I didn't sleep that night. Whenever I closed my eyes, I saw Scarlett's smug grin and that camera flash. I woke up in the morning and looked at my phone a hundred times, expecting to see the photo all over social media. But there was nothing. Just silence.
Which was somehow worse.
Scarlett was just fucking with me, building up the fear. She needed me paranoid, desperate, shattered. And it was working.
"You look like shit," Ella announced over breakfast in the dining hall. "Seriously, did you even sleep?"
"The party was so hard," I grumbled with mouthful of eggs.
"Where'd you disappear to? " Jayce was searching high and low for you.
My stomach twisted with guilt. I had run from the party entirely after being ambushed by Scarlett, texting Jayce some kind of excuse about not feeling well. He'd called four times. I hadn't answered.
"I really had to get out of there, there was just way too much drama."
"Drama? Seriously?" Ella leaned in, clearly curious. "What do you mean?"
"It's Brooklyn Miller."
"Oh, that." A chill shot through me.
When I looked up, Scarlett was standing over our table, flanked by Addison and Chloe like a queen with her council. She looked just as perfect as ever, every hair in place, whereas I was sure to be the walking dead.
"Hey, can we have a chat?" Scarlett said, sugary almost. "Just the two of us."
I don't know if it wasn't a request. No smile reached the eyes this time. "Or do you want me to talk about it right here, in front of everybody?" Ella looked concerned.
"Brook, what's going on?"
"No it's okay," I quickly said, standing up. "Just family stuff." I followed Scarlett outside and we sat down on a secluded bench behind the dining hall. Addison and Chloe took up a sentinel position as to ensure no one would overhear our chat.
"Lets talk terms, then," Scarlett said, frowning at her perfect manicure.
"Terms?"
"For my silence." Her eyes flashed with frost. "That picture I took? It's very damaging. Very. But I'm willing to keep it to myself. For a price."
"What do you want?" My voice was steadier than I felt.
"Simple. You break up with Jayce."
I stared at her. "You are blackmailing me to leave my boyfriend for you?
"He was mine before he was yours," she snarled, discarding the sweet façade. "You just didn't know it. We've been seeing each other for months, Brook. Months. That day you caught us? That wasn't the first time. It wasn't even close."
The words landed like punches. Months. They'd been lying to me for months.
"He does not love you," Scarlett added, twisting the blade in deeper. "He told me you're boring in bed. That being with you is like dating a nun. He only stays because you're convenient. Safe. But he craves me."
" "Then why does he need me to break up with him? If he wants you so badly."
"Jayce wants to be the good guy. He wants you to be the one to break up with him because heaven forbid he is the bad guy in this love story again." She rose, smoothing her designer skirt. "So here's the deal. By the end of the week, you're done with him. Tell him you need space, college is too overwhelming, whatever excuse feels good to you. Then you stay away from him. Completely."
"And if I don't?"
Scarlett took her phone from her pocket and displayed the photo to me. Daniel and I behind the wall, his body surrounding mine, the position private and damning. "Then this gets sent to Dean Morrison, the student newspaper, and every social media account I have. Your professor loses everything. You get expelled. And I would still get Jayce anyway."
"You're insane."
"I'm in love." She said it as if they were one and the same. "And I'm not going to let my stepsister be an impediment to me. You have until Friday. Tick tock, Brooklyn."
As her minions followed, she sauntered off with a smug little smile and I was left standing there shaking cold in fury and fear.
I avoided Daniel on Monday. I couldn't bear it, just couldn't look at him when Scarlett had both our destinies in her hands. But Tuesday, I had no choice.
I sidled in late to the lecture hall, landing myself a seat in the back. Daniel's eyes met mine at once, a shadow of worry or something in his expression before he plunged back into the lecture about cognitive dissonance.
"The idea is that we are psychologically uncomfortable when our behavior is in conflict with our beliefs," he told me, and I wondered if he meant us.
"This dysphoria forces us either to change something that we believe or change behavior to bring things back into balance."
When class was over, everyone filed out but me. I remained sitting, staring at my laptop.
Daniel approached slowly. "You missed Monday's class."
"I was sick."
"Liar." He sat on the edge of the desk before me, his voice was low. "What did Scarlett say to you?"
I glanced at him, this man who had rocked my world, whom I scarcely knew but could not stop thinking about. "She wants me to break up with Jayce. Otherwise she sends the photo."
His jaw clenched. "Then break up with him."
"What?"
"Break up with him, Brooklyn." His eyes burned into mine. "Not because of her blackmail. Because you don't love him. I see it every time he lays a hand on you, you're not even there. You're there because you don't know anything else, because guilt has kept you by his side, out of fear of being alone. But not love."
"You don't know what I feel."
"Don't I?" He moved even nearer, lowering his voice to that deadly tone. "I know that when I do touch you, even lightly with my fingertips, your body responds. I know you still think of that night as much as I do. I know that being with him feels like settling when you've tasted something real."
"This is not real," I weakly protested. "That is against the law and incorrect and,"
And you've never been more alive than when you're with me. Admit it."
I couldn't. Admitting it made it real. Made it dangerous.
"I have a boyfriend," I said instead.
"A boyfriend who cheated on you with your stepsister. Who called you boring. Who doesn't deserve you." Daniel stood abruptly, creating distance. "But you're right. This is wrong. I'm your professor. There are rules, and consequences."
"So what do we do?"
"We do nothing. You get to carry along the same baggage of Jayce's character –not because Scarlett's black mailing you into it but because you followed his lead." "And I..." He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. "I stay away from you. No matter how much I don't want to."
The door to the classroom swung open before I could reply.
Dean Morrison entered, looking grave. Behind him was Scarlett with tears running down her face, doing a very convincing job as the cryer.
"Professor Anderson," the Dean spoke formally. "Miss Miller. I'm so thrilled to have found you both here. We have to talk about a very, very serious charge."
My heart stopped.
No. No, she wouldn't.
"Scarlett has raised concerns about inappropriate behavior between a faculty member and student." Dean Morrison looked from one of us to the other. "She says she saw something concerning happening at the Kappa Alpha party last Friday night."
"That's not—" I started.
"I tried to put it out of my mind," Scarlett cried her fake tears as expected. "I wanted to protect my step sister. But I couldn't go on like this. Anderson was swooping down on her, I was terrified ."
"That's a lie!" I shouted.
"Miss Miller, please." The Dean held up a hand. "This isn't the first time, either," Scarlett tells it. That she has witnessed numerous inappropriate exchanges between the two of you.
Daniel's face had gone pale. "Dean Morrison, I can assure you"
I'm going to have to see both of you in my office. Separately." With this tip no one could argue. "These allegations will be investigated in a full and thorough manner. You are under suspension from teaching, Professor Anderson, effective immediately until the final discharge of this matter."
"What?" Daniel looked like he had been punched in the face. "You can't."
"I can, and I am. This is the protocol for these kinds of allegations." Dean Morrison turned to me. "Miss Miller, you will not contact with Professor Anderson except as part of official investigations into this matter. Is that clear?"
numbed I nodded without a word.
Scarlett dabbed her fake tears away, and when the Dean wasn't looking, mouthed "I told you so."
She'd done it. She'd actually done it.
And she didn't even need the photo.
*****
I was in my dorm room on that night, with my phone out. I had 17 texts on my phone from Jayce, asking why something was going on, why everyone was whispering about me and "some professor."
The rumors were circulating around town.
My door burst open. There stood Ella, looking pale.
"Brook, what the hell is going on? The word is you're sleeping with Professor Anderson. That you got him suspended. That."
"That's not true," I said without even having to think about it.
"Then why people are saying it? Why did Scarlett file a complaint? Why?" She paused, looking at my face. "Oh my God. Something did happen, didn't it?"
I just didn't have it in me to deceive her any more. I collapsed under the weight of it all, and I began to cry ugly, desperate sobs.
Ella was in the seat next to me pulling me into her arms. "Tell me everything."
So I did. The bar, Daniel, the betrayal with Jayce and Scarlett, photo, blackmail. All of it.
When I was done, Ella was silent for a long time.
"Brook," she finally said. "This is so much worse than I imagined."
I felt my phone buzz with a new message. Unknown number.
Unknown: Emergency. Meet me at the old library. Back entrance. -D
I showed Ella the message.
"Don't go," she said immediately. "It's obviously a trap. What if Scarlett's behind it?"
"What if it's really him? What if he needs help?"
"Brook, the Dean said no contact."
But I was already grabbing my jacket.
Some part of me knew it was a terrible idea. That I was walking into disaster.
I went anyway.
The old library had been abandoned for years, replaced by the new modern building. It was dark, creepy, and completely isolated at night.
Perfect for an ambush.
I pushed through the back entrance, my phone flashlight cutting through the darkness.
"Daniel?" I called out softly.
No response.
I ventured deeper into the building, my heart racing. This was stupid. So stupid.
Then I heard it. A sound behind me.
I spun around, and someone grabbed me from behind, hand over my mouth, silencing my scream.
"Don't move," a male voice hissed in my ear.