I was chilling in the airport lounge, sipping my coffee, when the big screen started looping the winners from the “Emerging Design Competition.”
Front and center? The piece the media was hyping as a “stroke of genius,” a “total game–changer.”
Yep–the one I “gave” to Cindy.
Right then, my phone lit up with a video call.
Her face filled the screen, all smugness gone, replaced by full–blown panic. “Vivian, you bitch! You set me up with a winning piece? Just wait I’m not letting you get away with this!”
Her voice cracked, sharp and dripping with hate.
Honestly? Hilarious. Even thieves think they’re the victims now.
I raised an eyebrow, a cold smile creeping in. “YOU’RE not letting ME get away?”
I tapped my coffee cup–sharp, deliberate.
“Pretty sure your school’s policy is crystal clear. Plagiarized work? Instant expulsion. And if the real creator presses charges…”
I leaned in, eyes slicing right through the screen. “So, Cindy–should I?”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
Dad’s voice exploded through the call. “Vivian, I don’t care what it takes–go to the organizers and tell them the design’s Cindy’s. Say YOU copied HER. She saved your life, and this is how you repay her? I can’t believe I raised such a cruel daughter.”
Classic. That’s his only line.
I took a slow sip of coffee. “Then I guess I’m not your daughter anymore, Mr. Vallance.”
“You… Are you threatening us?”
Mom clutched a sobbing Cindy, eyes full of hurt. “Just because we let Cindy borrow your design, you’re going to ruin her future? And now you hate us for it? How could you be so heartless? You’ve really let me down.”
That’s all it took to disappoint her?
I shrugged. “If that’s how you see it, can’t help you, MRS. VALLANCE,”
Andrew finally spoke, still holding the phone, eyes wide like he’d just realized who I was. “Viv… You planned this? You’re punishing Cindy for the wedding? I told you–she’s unstable. She didn’t mean to—”
“Shut up.”
I gave each of them a calm once–over, then locked onto Cindy’s wrecked face and smiled. “Didn’t you all say her health comes first? That everything she does should be forgiven? Cool. Go explain that to the school. Maybe they’ll be just as chill.”
Their faces dropped like dominos.
“Oh, and one more thing–I’m keeping the right to press charges. Indefinitely. If I feel like suing, I will.”
That’s when Cindy snapped. Her last grip on sanity broke with a shriek. “I’m going to kill you!”
She lost it–screaming, throwing whatever she could grab at the phone.
Andrew didn’t dodge fast enough. His groan said it all,
watched the chaos for a second, then hung up, blocked them all, and stood to board my flight.
The plane cut through the clouds, that city of lies shrinking below me.
Outside, sunlight spilled through the cottony sky in streaks of gold.
I leaned back, eyes closed, engine humming steady in my ears. For the first time, my heart was still.
What I didn’t know? Cindy really was sick now—but not with depression.
This time, she wouldn’t be cutting herself.
Chapter 5
She’d be cutting others.
And when she’d pushed everyone to the edge, someone finally told the truth.
