Chapter 36: The mirror in the mess

BRISELLE’S POV.

Jenna listened without interrupting, her brow furrowed. When I finally finished, the silence in the room was heavy.

"You slept at his place," she said, her voice careful.

"It wasn't like that," I insisted, though it felt like a lie.

"It was just...the storm. And then the kiss, and the slap, and the coldness this morning. He turned it all off like a light switch, Jenna. He told me it was a mistake. A professional mistake."

"Bris, listen to yourself," Jenna said, turning to face me fully. "You’re talking about him like he’s the weather. 'It was a storm, so he was nice, then it passed, so he was mean.' That’s not a partner. That’s a sociopath."

"He’s not a sociopath," I said, a flash of reflexive defense rising in me. "He’s a guy trapped in a life he hates. He’s trying to survive his father just like I’m trying to survive him."

Jenna let out a sharp, incredulous laugh. "And that makes it okay? He’s blackmailing you, Bris! He dragged you into a world where you can’t even talk to your own sister without starting a war."

"I know!" I yelled, standing up. I paced the small room, my hands shaking. "I know that! But don't you see? I don't have a choice. Arden warned me, he said Richard is digging. If I pull away now, if I break the contract, Veronica is the one who pays the price.”

Jenna’s phone chimed—a sharp, insistent ping. Then mine followed, then her laptop on the desk issued a series of rapid-fire notifications.

"What now?" I groaned, leaning my head back against the sofa. "Did the society blogs find out what brand of toothpaste I use?"

Jenna reached for her laptop, her brow furrowed. "It’s not the blogs. It’s the University Underground forum."

I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the air conditioning. The Underground was where the most vicious campus rumors lived, the stuff that was too speculative for the school paper but too juicy for people to ignore.

Jenna’s face went pale. She turned the screen toward me.

It was a photo. High-angle, slightly grainy, but unmistakable. It was the old garden behind the library. The ivy was a dark, tangled mess in the background, but the foreground was clear…it was me and Arden. We were standing close—too close for a casual conversation. I was clutching my bag, looking up at him, and he was leaning toward me, his hand halfway out of his pocket as if he were about to reach for me.

The headline was a blade…

THE MUSE AND THE SHADOW: Is the Thornefield Heir losing his grip?

"Someone was there," I breathed, the air leaving my lungs. "In the garden."

"Read the caption," Jenna whispered.

Spotted: The ‘Emerald Girl’ meeting with Arden in the shadows of the Old Library. Word is, Arden’s been looking for a way to get back at Kai for years. Is this a secret romance, or is the Thornefield contract already starting to leak?

I scrolled down. The comments were a bloodbath.

User112: "I knew she was a social climber. One friend isn't enough? She has to play the ‘best friend’ too?"

User_Alpha: "Kai is going to lose it. He doesn't share his toys."

User_TruthSeeker: "Look at her face. She looks terrified. Or guilty. My money is on guilty."

I pushed the laptop away, feeling a wave of nausea.

"I already told Kai we talked. He knows, but he doesn't know about this. He doesn't know there’s proof of us meeting in secret."

"It doesn't matter that you told him," Jenna said, her voice rising in panic. "It’s about the optics, Bris! This makes him look like a cuckold. It makes his ‘perfect’ relationship look like a sham. In his world, the truth doesn't matter nearly as much as the headline."

I stood up, pacing the small living room. I wasn't panicking about Kai being "mad" in a jealous, romantic sense. I was panicking because I realized I had just broken the one rule of our arrangement: Don't be a liability.

Kai had brought me in to fix his image. To make him look stable, reformed, and human. A photo of his "girlfriend" meeting his best friend in a dark corner of campus didn't say "reformed." It said "scandal."

"He told me to stay away from him," I muttered, my mind racing. "He told me Arden was a complication. And now, I’ve made that complication public."

"You didn't make it public, some creep with a zoom lens did!" Jenna argued.

"It doesn't matter! To Richard Thornefield, this is a weakness." I grabbed my hoodie, pulling it over my head as if it could hide me from the digital eyes of the entire world. "Arden was trying to warn me about my sister. He almost said something about Veronica—something Kai is hiding from me. And now, because of this photo, Kai is going to shut down completely. He’ll think Arden is trying to sabotage the deal through me."

"So what are you going to do?" Jenna asked, standing up. "You can’t go to the penthouse. If there are people following you on campus, there are definitely people watching his front door."

"I have to find him," I said, my voice hardening. The fear was still there, but it was being eclipsed by a cold, desperate need to take control of the narrative before Richard Thornefield did it for me. "I need to tell him that someone is watching the school. I need to tell him that the 'professional' walls he built this morning are already being knocked down."

"Bris, wait," Jenna said, grabbing my arm. "Look at me. You are exhausted, you haven't slept, you haven't eaten, and you just fought with your sister. You are in no state to go toe-to-toe with Kai Thornefield."

"I don't have a choice, Jenna," I said, looking her in the eye. "If I don't handle this, the next thing Richard Thornefield digs up won't be a photo of me in a garden. It’ll be the truth about Veronica. And I can’t let that happen."

I pulled away, headed for the door. I didn't have the strength to fight, but I had the desperation of someone who had nothing left to lose.

I stepped out into the hallway, the familiar smell of Jenna’s apartment fading, replaced by the cold, biting wind of reality. I wasn't just a student anymore, I wasn't just a sister, I was a player in a game I didn't understand, and the board was starting to tilt.

I took out my phone and sent a single text Kai’s number.

Me: We have a problem. Look at the Underground. I'm coming over.