Later, I learned that Benjamin had been targeted and harassed by those rich kids because of what he'd done.

I found him with tears brimming in my eyes and apologized. He just smiled, patted my head, and said, "Don't worry about it. I just can't stand to see you cry."

The man who once panicked at the mere sight of tears in my eyes could now ignore my pain entirely for another girl's sake.

When exactly had Elise Simmons wedged herself between us?

Maybe it started the day she became Benjamin's graduate student. He talked about her constantly, saying she reminded him of his younger self. But the look in his eyes was nothing like nostalgia. It was pure adoration.

Or maybe it was the time she called him crying, saying a group of male students had cornered her with unwanted confessions. Benjamin, always so calm and rational, had charged in like a hotheaded teenager and thrown punches.

When I went to bail him out, I looked at his split, bruised lip and felt something bitter settle in my chest for the first time.

He explained it away: "Maud, when I heard what happened to her, it reminded me of how you used to get bullied. I just lost it."

But the thing was, when I'd been in that exact situation, all he'd done was quietly walk me away.

...

When I woke up, I was already in the hospital.

The doctor told me with a worried expression that it was a good thing I'd been brought in quickly. I'd hit the back of my head in the fall, and there was bleeding in my brain. A little longer, and I might not have woken up at all.

I thanked him softly, had my wounds treated, and left.

The moment I reached the lobby of my apartment building, a group of men followed me in. Leering. Closing in.

"You're that bitch from the internet, aren't you?"

"You look decent enough on the outside, but turns out you're rotten to the core. Hiring thugs to bully some college girl? You like men that much? Well, today we'll give you a taste of what that's like!"

They lunged at me with ugly grins, tearing at my clothes.

I screamed and stumbled backward, but they were faster. My shirt ripped. Their fingers twisted into my skin, leaving bruises wherever they grabbed.

It wasn't until the building's security guard rushed over and called the police that they finally scattered like rats.

I collapsed to my knees, shaking uncontrollably.

The security guard stood over me, looking down with undisguised contempt.

"You brought this on yourself. Who told you to be so vicious, going after an innocent girl like that?"

My head snapped up. My voice trembled. "What did you just say?"

He scoffed and walked away.

My skull felt like it split open. I fumbled for my phone and started scrolling.

There it was. A public statement Benjamin had posted.

"I'm sorry to take up everyone's time, but I need to set the record straight. The accusations about me bullying a female student were a misunderstanding. My ex-girlfriend, Maud Fox, hired thugs to harass my student out of jealousy, nearly forcing her into a marriage with that animal."

"I took the blame to protect Maud because I felt sorry for her. But she showed no remorse and only escalated her behavior, so I've decided to reveal the truth."

"I will also take responsibility for my student. I intend to marry her and take care of her for the rest of her life."

Elise had commented underneath:

"With you by my side, I'm not afraid of anything."

Blood rushed to my head. My whole body felt like it had been hit by a freight train.

Below that post, the comments were split between congratulations for the happy couple and a torrent of abuse aimed at me. My photos had been edited into obscene, degrading images. People were calling for someone to doxx me, to find my address and "teach me a lesson."

My phone was flooded with messages. Filthy, vile curses, one after another.

I kept trying to explain. I hadn't done any of it. Benjamin was lying.

But no one believed me.

"Your own boyfriend came out and exposed you! You definitely did it!"

"Do you have any proof you're innocent? Didn't think so! Die, you worthless slut!"

With trembling hands, I forwarded the post to Benjamin.

"Why are you smearing me like this?"

His reply came fast:

"Didn't I tell you yesterday to smooth things over with the university administration for me? You just walked out without a care, and now I've been called in for accountability. This was the only way I could think of to clear things up."

"Besides, everyone was dragging Elise online, calling her a homewrecking tramp. She cried so hard yesterday she nearly passed out. This protects her reputation too."

"What about ME?! I deserve to be the one getting torn apart?"

"Maud, it's just a few nasty comments from strangers. Just don't look at it. Give it some time and people will forget. It'll blow over."

"Oh, and the wedding starts in an hour. Elise's and mine. Hurry up and come be the bridesmaid. Apologize to Elise in front of everyone. If we're putting on a show, we need to commit to the whole act."

Then, in a tone that was neither gentle nor harsh, he added:

"Be a good girl. If you keep throwing tantrums, I can't guarantee I'll still marry you and file the paperwork in three years. Remember, your mother is gone. I'm the only family you have left in this world."

My entire body shook with rage.

Once, at my mother's bedside, he had held my hand and sworn he would be my last remaining family, that he would take care of me for the rest of my life.

Now, my loneliness and helplessness had become the very reason he felt free to trample all over me.

Tears were still sliding down my cheeks when my phone buzzed with a new message.

"Miss Fox, there's something I'm not sure I should tell you."

"I have the surveillance footage from the day Elise's incident happened... I think you deserve to know what really went on that day..."

I stared at the video that loaded on my screen, and my body went rigid.

One month ago. Graduation day.

Elise was supposed to be onstage for the tassel-turning ceremony, but she and Benjamin had both vanished.

As the lab's sponsor, I followed the university staff backstage to look for them.

That was when we walked right into Benjamin, rushing out with an unconscious Elise in his arms.

We followed them to the hospital, where the doctor gave us a strange look and said, "Young people chasing thrills still need to be careful."

Only then did we learn the truth: Elise and someone had been fooling around in a storage room full of high-powered stage lights. The door had locked behind them, and they'd been baking inside for a full three hours until she collapsed from dehydration.

The campus erupted. University leadership issued an immediate order to expel Elise.

When she came to, she sobbed and screamed that she'd been assaulted, that her attacker had already fled.

The university pulled the surveillance footage, but the recordings had been deleted.

When they pressed her for details, she refused to talk and threatened to throw herself off a building.

Benjamin also threatened to pull his research funding, pressuring the administration to drop the investigation and bury the whole thing.

I couldn't understand it. Again and again, I tried to get justice for Elise.

But every single time, Benjamin shut me down with that sharp, scolding tone of his.

"Stop making trouble! Digging into this isn't helping her. You're only forcing her to relive the trauma!"

Now, watching the footage on my screen, watching Benjamin tangled up with Elise, the two of them so desperate they nearly broke down the equipment room door, the pain that tore through my chest was beyond anything I could control.

So it was true. Exactly what I had suspected all along.

Elise had never been assaulted. She had been cheating with him.

I dragged the video's progress bar forward, and something unbelievable appeared on the screen.

My pupils blew wide.

After a long silence, I let out a bitter, broken laugh.

Benjamin Delgado.

Did you have any idea that your self-righteous little act of "protection" just made you someone else's fall guy?

My phone buzzed with a string of messages from Benjamin, urging me to hurry. I pushed the thoughts down and typed back a calm reply.

"Fine. I'll be there."

I would go. But not to clear their names.

I was going to deliver the heaviest blow of their lives.

When I arrived at the wedding venue, every pair of eyes that found me carried the same look: mockery and contempt.

Elise's mother spotted me and marched straight over, spitting at my feet. Her voice was shrill enough to cut glass.

"You! You shameless little tramp! You're the one who ruined my daughter! Go to hell, you filthy whore!"

She and a handful of equally aggressive older women grabbed at my clothes, tearing at the fabric, the word whore flying from their mouths like a refrain until security finally pulled them off me.

I ignored every word. I smoothed my clothes, lifted my chin, and walked inside.

The ceremony was about to begin. The venue was packed with guests, and I could see media crews set up along the sides. Of course. Benjamin wanted to use this occasion to cement the story he'd been spinning online, to prove his and Elise's innocence in front of as many witnesses as possible.

The moment Benjamin saw me, relief washed over his face. He smiled the easy, knowing smile of a man who believed he'd already won.

He walked up and reached for my hand with practiced familiarity.

"See? Would it have killed you to cooperate from the start? Why'd you have to push things to where they went last night?"

"I already sent the bracelet out for restoration. I promise it'll come back looking exactly the way it was."

He pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pocket and held it out to me.

"Just read this when you get up there. It'll be over before you know it. Once the wedding wraps up, I'll come home and spend time with you, okay? And after that, I'll buy you a plane ticket. Go abroad for a while, lie low for three years. When the three years are up, I'll marry you."

I glanced down at the paper. It was a full confession, written in his hand, detailing how I had been so consumed by unrequited love and jealousy that I'd orchestrated a campaign to persecute Elise.

If I read this aloud, I would become the villain everyone already wanted me to be. The vicious, spiteful woman the whole country could hate without guilt.

I tore the paper to shreds and flung the pieces in his face.

White scraps of paper drifted through the air around him, framing the ugly expression that twisted his features.

I strode past him, climbed the steps to the stage, and signaled to the technician I'd already paid off. The backstage surveillance footage from that day began to play on the massive screen behind me.

I turned to the crowd and spoke, my voice ringing through the speakers.

"Ladies and gentlemen! I am indeed here to set the record straight!"

"But what I'm here to clarify is this: who is the real culprit behind what happened to Elise Simmons?"