Chapter 70 Suspicion

Chapter 70 Suspicion
Carlos's POV
I COULDN'T stop thinking about what I'd overheard.
Three days had passed since I'd heard Bianca speaking in the student lounge, yet the conversation continued replaying in my head whenever I had a moment to myself.
Most people would have dismissed it.
I couldn't.
Not after everything that had happened.
Not after months of watching rumors spread across campus with impossible speed.
At first, I had assumed Bianca was simply good at gathering information. She came from a powerful family, knew people in every department, and spent an alarming amount of time involving herself in other people's business. It had seemed like a reasonable explanation.
Now I wasn't so sure.
The more I thought about it, the more one detail continued bothering me.
Bianca hadn't sounded like someone making educated guesses. She had sounded like someone receiving reports.
Precise reports. Specific reports.
The difference mattered.
I sat alone in the racing simulator lab after practice, staring at a blank monitor while mentally reviewing everything I could remember from the past semester.
The lab was mostly empty.
Only a few students remained, finishing assignments before heading back to their dorms.
Normally I would have been focused on training. Instead, I was thinking about Tasha.
More specifically, I was thinking about all the moments Bianca seemed to know things she shouldn't have known.
At the time, none of them had seemed particularly suspicious. Looking back, they felt very different.
I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes. The first major incident came to mind immediately.
The fake relationship.
Almost nobody had known about it when it started. The arrangement had been private, yet somehow Bianca had begun targeting Tasha almost immediately. That could have been coincidence. Vanguard was a small campus, and people talked.
The second incident bothered me more.
Tasha's research schedule.
Several times Bianca had appeared in places where Tasha was supposed to be alone. At the time, I had assumed Bianca was stalking opportunities for confrontation.
Now I wondered if someone had been telling her exactly where to look.
The third incident was impossible to ignore.
The archive center.
Very few people knew Tasha had gone there. I certainly hadn't told anyone. Yet Bianca somehow knew.
I opened my eyes and sat forward. That wasn't a coincidence. That was information. Someone had told her.
The question was who.
I grabbed a notebook from the desk and began writing down every incident I could remember.
Rumors. Confrontations. Leaked information. Unexpected appearances.
The list grew surprisingly quickly.
By the time I finished, an uncomfortable pattern had begun to emerge. Every leak involved something personal. Something private. Something Tasha would normally share only with people she trusted.
My stomach tightened. Because that dramatically narrowed the list of suspects.
Tasha wasn't the kind of person who shared her secrets with everyone.
She had always been careful. Especially after the rumors started. The people closest to her could probably be counted on one hand.
Primo.
Luigi.
Engineer Pablo.
Her roommate.
I stopped writing. Then immediately crossed three names off the page.
Primo wouldn't help Bianca.
The idea was ridiculous. The guy practically treated Tasha like she was the center of the universe.
Luigi was even less likely. He cared about her too much.
Engineer Pablo had spent months protecting her.
That left one name.
Lila.
I stared at it. The possibility felt wrong, not impossible. Just wrong. Every time I had seen Lila with Tasha, she seemed supportive.
Friendly. Protective.
But then again, that was exactly why betrayal worked. Nobody expected it. I closed the notebook and rubbed a hand across my face.
Maybe I was reaching. Maybe I was looking for patterns that didn't exist.
Unfortunately, the evidence kept dragging me back in the same direction.
The next day, I started paying attention. Not enough to attract notice. Just enough to observe. It wasn't difficult.
Lila and Tasha spent a lot of time together. They lived together. Studied together.
A normal friendship.
At least on the surface.
I watched from across the cafeteria during lunch.
Tasha was explaining something about an engineering project while Lila listened attentively. Nothing unusual. Nothing suspicious.
Yet every few minutes, Lila glanced at her phone. Most students did that.
Still, I noticed.
Later that afternoon, I saw them leaving class together. Again, nothing seemed wrong.
Lila laughed at something Tasha said. Tasha rolled her eyes. The interaction looked completely natural.
If I hadn't overheard Bianca's conversation, I would never have questioned it. That was the problem. Whoever was feeding Bianca information had to be someone trusted.
Someone invisible. Someone nobody would suspect.
The following morning, I arrived early for a racing department meeting. While waiting for the others to arrive, I spotted Bianca crossing the courtyard.
Alone.
She was looking at her phone. A second later, the device buzzed.
Bianca immediately checked the screen.
Then smiled. The expression disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. But I caught it.
And suddenly I remembered something. I'd seen that smile before. Dozens of times. Usually right before Bianca somehow learned something new about Tasha.
My suspicion deepened.
After the meeting ended, I found myself doing something I normally would've mocked other people for.
I followed a trail of coincidences. Not literally. I simply paid attention. Whenever Bianca seemed unusually informed, I asked myself the same question.
Who knew that information?
Again and again, the answers led back to the same small circle.
And again and again, Lila appeared somewhere inside it.
By the end of the week, I wasn't convinced she was guilty. But I wasn't dismissing the possibility anymore either. 
The final push came on Friday evening.
I was leaving the engineering building when I spotted Tasha near the entrance. For a brief moment, instinct urged me to walk toward her. The impulse hit harder than I cared to admit.
Then I remembered the kiss.
Primo.
Everything that followed. The distance between us.
I kept walking. Tasha looked up.
For a second, our eyes met. The familiar ache returned immediately. I hated that it still affected me. I hated that I still noticed her.
Most of all, I hated that part of me wanted to stop and ask if she was okay.
Instead, I looked away and continued down the path.
A few minutes later, I noticed someone else emerging from the building.
Lila.
She glanced around before pulling out her phone. At first, I thought nothing of it. Then she stopped walking. Her attention remained fixed on the screen.
She typed a response almost immediately. The exchange lasted less than thirty seconds.
Afterward, she slipped the phone back into her pocket and continued toward the dormitories.
Something about it bothered me. Maybe it was timing, instinct, or I was becoming paranoid.
Whatever the reason, I found myself watching until she disappeared around the corner.
My jaw tightened. The evidence still wasn't enough. Not even close. I couldn't accuse someone based on suspicion. I couldn't warn Tasha without proof.
And I definitely couldn't ignore the possibility that I was wrong.
But for the first time since overhearing Bianca's conversation, I felt like I was finally moving in the right direction.
Someone was betraying Tasha. Someone she trusted. Someone close enough to know things Bianca should never know.
As I turned toward the racing dormitories, one name remained firmly planted in my mind.
Lila.
And whether I liked it or not, I intended to find out the truth.
Starting now.