Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I wait for the rain to stop before walking back to campus.
Havenport’s manicured lawns sing of tradition and hope, of future generations walking in the footsteps of those who came before them.
There’s a promise here—one that used to stir something deep inside of me.
That made me feel something I’d been longing for all my life.
A promise that anything is possible. That hard work will lead to success. That the future is bright.
Today, that feeling is a hole in my gut, a lie I accepted too easily, without ever asking for proof.
The second I didn’t fit into its puzzle, Havenport spit me out like a broken filling. Ralston replaced me, and the world moved on. Never looked back.
I move past the pavilion on my way back to my dorm.
There’s a new fire in my belly—one of hope and purpose—and I embrace it.
No amount of either could erase the anger, though—it’s still there, winding through my chest like a vine, climbing and crawling, latching itself onto whatever it touches.
It’s been there for so long, now it feels like part of me—thick and inescapable.
The dean’s words echo in my head. I thought you’d be happy to come back, to celebrate someone who meant so much to you. Who did so much for you.
He left no room for dissent, for my version of events. He must remember how it all ended. I know he does.
Then again, at Havenport, I’m not sure any version other than Ralston’s truly matters. The way he looked at me burned the worst—somehow both patronizing and disappointed.
I’m nearing the library steps when someone catches my eye.
Jade.
She’s coming from the administration building, phone in one hand, paper cup of coffee in the other. She moves like she’s on a mission, eyes locked somewhere straight ahead, face firm and stony. Painfully beautiful.
She doesn’t see me, doesn’t seem to see anyone.
I call out to her, stopping in her wake.
She freezes, shoulders stiffening. Slowly, she turns back to face me. Recognition flashes in her eyes, followed by something I can’t read.
“Lila.” She says my name as if it’s an intrusion. I’ve interrupted her thoughts, I suspect.
I’m careful as I walk toward her. “Hey. I wasn’t sure you were still here. I haven’t seen you at any of the events.”
She looks down, then away. “I haven’t really made it to any of them.”
“I…I wanted to talk to you.”
“I’m on my way somewhere,” she says, gesturing over her shoulder. “It’s not a good time.”
“Can I walk with you? I won’t take too long. It’s important.”
She releases a small sigh, checking behind her. “Fine. Let’s go.”
We start walking, and I launch into everything she needs to know, not sure where to start.
“So, I’ve been meeting with some of Ralston’s other students.
The ones who came after us. There’s a girl named Naya Sanchez, who works on social media now.
And another named Hayden French. She’s techy.
Builds websites and stuff. With their help, with others’ help, we could fix this. We could stop her.”
She jerks her head around to look at me, shocked, but doesn’t speak.
“I know you might not think she can be taken down, and I hear you, but it wasn’t just us. You didn’t start it, and I didn’t end it. She just keeps hurting people, following her same playbook, and I want to prove it. Find the pattern. I want to speak out.”
She’s cautious, eyes moving around slowly as she thinks, processes. “And the others are going to help?”
“I…I don’t know yet. I’m still working on them.” The lie sits like ash on my tongue, and I suspect she notices.
A puff of breath escapes her lips, and she rolls her eyes.
“But I’m trying. Even if it’s just the two of us, our voices are louder together. We can do this.”
Her silence is heavy with things she seems to be holding back.
“So will you help me?” I ask finally. “I’ve been running through these ideas and ways we could approach it, and I was thinking if we—”
“No. There is no we, Lila. I told you. Maybe back then, sure. But it’s been a decade. I’ve moved on. And so should you.” She exhales, eyes scanning the quad as students wander past us in clusters, laughing as if the world still makes sense to them. As if everything hasn’t been turned on its head.
“How can you say that?”
“I warned you. Why didn’t you listen to me back then?”
It’s the first time she’s asked me that. Instantly, I’m brought back to the moment I’ve relived so many times since I left Havenport. The moment that could’ve changed the trajectory of my life.
I’m leaving Ralston’s office when Jade grabs my arm. She pulls me into an empty classroom, her voice soft, a hand still on my skin. “Hey. Be careful with Ralston, okay? She isn’t what she seems.”
I stare at her. This stranger, warning me about the woman I’ve spent my life admiring. “Who are you?”
“I know we don’t know each other, but woman to woman—you can’t trust her, okay? And right now, it’s clear you do, and she knows it because she chose you. Just like she chose me before. She’s dangerous.”
My eyes widen. “Dangerous how?”
“She’s…” Jade shakes her head. “It’s a long story, but the shortest version is that I took her class last year.
I thought she was brilliant. Talented. She said she wanted to help me, that I was standing out to her among the other students, that I had what it took to make it big.
” She looks down. “She kept me working late every night for a full semester, and I didn’t question it.
I came running when she called. I lost all my friends, fell behind in my other classes.
But I convinced myself it was okay because she’s Althea Ralston, you know?
A few months later, she introduced me to an editor at a publishing house.
She said she really thought I had something.
I worked all semester on that draft, and when it was finished, she convinced me to wait.
She said I needed to refine my voice. That my work would benefit from more life experience.
” Her jaw goes tight. “Nine months later, she published a book that was nearly word for word of my work. With the exact editor she’d introduced me to. ”
Horror swells in my chest, ice cold. It’s a lie, obviously. This woman must be lying to me. Poisoning me against Professor Ralston, but why? She just doesn’t want me to know her like she did. She’s jealous of her attention to me. She’s jealous I replaced her.
“That’s insane. Why would she…? No. Professor Ralston doesn’t need to steal. She’s…she’s brilliant.”
Jade’s eyes go dark, dull. She looks away, releases my arm. “You don’t even care, do you? I’m trying to warn you, to help you, and you’re not listening. You’re too busy defending her.”
My mouth is dry, heart pounding in my chest. She just doesn’t get it. “Our relationship is different. She’s been kind to me. She’s helped me. My writing is better because of her. I’m not asking her for anything except to learn.”
She smirks, taking a half-step back, then she turns and walks from the room without another word.
I blink away the memory, studying her now. “I would give anything to go back and listen to you. I’m sorry I didn’t.”
She just stares at me, no judgment in her eyes. “You’re just one in a long line. No one wants to believe the girl before her until it’s too late.”
She’s right. I came up with every excuse under the sun not to trust Jade’s story back then. She was jealous. Bitter.
Ralston was my friend. She took care of me, spoke highly of me. She was the key to my future, to everything I’d always wanted. She saw me better than anyone else in my life. She said I had potential. Vision. That I was special.
She called me formidable once, and I wrote it on my forearm, kept it there like a tattoo on my skin for weeks, tracing in the lines whenever they started to fade.
I was too young and na?ve to understand that flattery is just currency for people like her.
Jade stops, looking tired. Ralston is a weight none of us meant to carry.
“I get it, okay? I won’t pretend I didn’t spend a lot of time back then just dreaming of the day I’d finally see her fall.
But it’s over now. She’s done worse, hurt more people, and she’s more on top than ever before.
” Her shoulders drop slightly. “I used to want to fight, to believe that we could, but that was before I grew up. Before I had responsibilities. A family. A mortgage. I have to look out for my daughter now, her future.”
“That’s exactly what we’d be doing. Protecting all future women from people like Ralston. People who will hurt them.”
She winces, but only slightly. “No, Lila. You’re not listening.”
“I am. That’s why we have to work together. It’s why we have to try.” I’m begging now, pathetic even to my own ears.
Her gaze hardens. “Stop. Okay? Just stop. This place isn’t going to change.
You really think anyone at Havenport is going to stand in Ralston’s way when she publishes and speaks and brings in donors as if there’s a never-ending supply of them?
If Ralston chose you, it means you aren’t stupid. Don’t pretend you are.”
I don’t say anything. I can’t.
She glances over her shoulder, biting her bottom lip as she searches the crowded lawn. As she does, her blazer opens just slightly, and I catch sight of the violet lanyard. The badge. Faculty.
My heart skitters. Flips. I stare at it, trying to make sense of the word. Of this smashing of my previous reality.
When I glance up, she’s looking at me with an expression that says she knows what I’m thinking, that she’s embarrassed but not deterred.
I steel myself. “You took a position.”
She looks down slowly, pulling her blazer closed.
“You’re working here. With her.”
She licks her lips, giving a sharp nod. “Yes.”
“When?”
Her mouth opens then closes. Finally, she sighs. “I needed stability. For my daughter.”
I’m painfully cold. “That’s not what I asked.”
She closes her eyes for a beat.
“When?” I repeat.