Chapter 4

"You're a curse, Rose!" William spat, his face inches from mine. "Everything you touch turns to crap!"

He didn't lay a hand on me, but his fury was a physical force.

He stormed off, presumably to ensure Maya faced the full, unjust consequences.

I felt sick. Sophia was systematically destroying every part of my life, and William was her willing instrument.

The next day, Maya was officially suspended, her internship terminated. I saw her leaving, tears streaming down her face. She wouldn't even look at me.

Sophia then approached me with a grotesque proposal, delivered with a sympathetic smile.

"William feels terrible about what happened to Maya. He thinks, if you were to publicly take responsibility... admit you gave her flawed research, perhaps even... inadvertently shared another student's work with her... it might smooth things over for her. Show your remorse."

I stared at her. She wanted me to commit academic suicide, to confess to a fraud I didn't commit, to save Maya from a mess Sophia herself had created.

"And if I do?"

"William might be... lenient. Allow you to resign quietly from the internship. No further action."

The alternative, she implied, was much worse. For me. And perhaps still for Maya.

"He promises?" I asked, my voice hollow.

"He's a man of his word, Emily. When it suits him." Her smile was chilling.

I did it. I signed a statement drafted by Kent legal, a masterpiece of self-incrimination.

The Dean of my law school called me in. The disappointment in his eyes was a heavy weight. Academic probation. My scholarship, gone. My reputation, ruined beyond repair.

William didn't even bother to see me. I got a sterile email from HR confirming my "resignation."

I cleaned out my tiny desk in the archives. The few personal items I had there felt tainted.

My small, rented room off-campus felt like a prison. I spent days just staring at the ceiling, the weight of my destroyed future crushing me.

One evening, I came home to find my door ajar.

Inside, it was chaos. My books were torn, my clothes slashed, my laptop smashed. A few cheap pieces of jewelry my mom had given me were gone.

It wasn't a random robbery. It was a message.

You have nothing left. You are nothing.

I tried to find a new internship, a new path. Doors slammed in my face. The Kent name, it seemed, carried a long, dark shadow.

Then, the real attack began.

My mom called, her voice trembling. She'd been suspended from her nursing job. An anonymous tip about patient mistreatment.

The next day, David, my bright, funny seventeen-year-old brother, was arrested. Drugs found in his school locker.

He swore he'd never seen them before. I believed him.

This was Sophia. This was William. This was Old Man Kent.

They weren't just content with ruining me. They were going after my family.

Just like the first time.