GOODBYE JAMAL

Jamal Freeman had everything ahead of him.

He was Hampton Crest Academy’s valedictorian, basketball captain, student leader, and the brilliant young man everyone believed would someday change the world.

He had earned his place among classmates born into wealth and privilege, but achievement could not make him one of them when envy, entitlement, and racism were waiting beneath their smiles.

Cleopatra Brooks never trusted the graduation trip.

Jamal would be the only Black student traveling to a private island with seven wealthy white classmates, including Bartholomew Jefferson—the former friend who had spent years watching Jamal win the awards, admiration, and future Bart believed belonged to him.

Jamal promises Cleo he will be careful.

He promises he will come home.

But on an island where the phones suddenly stop working, the staff disappears at night, and every witness has something to lose, Bart reveals the real purpose of the trip. He does not simply want to defeat Jamal.

He wants to expose him.

Humiliate him.

Prove that beneath the perfect grades, athletic trophies, and loyal relationship is the dangerous Black man Bart needs the world to see.

When temptation fails, the prank becomes a setup. The setup becomes violence. And before the night is over, Jamal must decide how far he is willing to go to save the same people who helped lead him into danger.

By morning, seven students return home.

Jamal does not.

Now Cleo must fight a powerful family, a frightened group of witnesses, and a carefully manufactured story designed to turn Jamal from victim into suspect. Because the first lie told about a dead Black boy is often the one the world finds easiest to believe.

GOODBYE JAMAL is a heartbreaking one-shot about friendship poisoned by jealousy, excellence mistaken for arrogance, privilege protected by silence, and a young man whose greatest mistake was believing character could keep him safe in a room determined to destroy him.