Only Eustace leaned against Sabina's shoulder, flashing me a smug grin.

In that moment, the sound of my heart shattering was as crisp as porcelain breaking against stone.

...

There was a time when Sabina had protected me the same way she now protected Eustace.

Back when those untouchable socialite princesses had cornered me, trying to force me to accept their confessions.

She hadn't hesitated. She'd charged out and planted herself in front of me, her thin frame squared against all of them, telling them to get lost.

She'd grabbed my wrist and pulled me through their circle, breaking us free.

Later, I found out those girls had held a grudge against her for it. They'd made her life miserable.

I tracked her down with red-rimmed eyes to apologize. She wiped her tears, then smiled.

"It's fine. I just couldn't stand watching my prince charming get pushed around like that."

The girl who once called me her prince charming. The girl who worried about me at every turn.

Now she could ignore my pain entirely for the sake of another man.

When exactly had Eustace wedged himself between us?

Maybe it started the day he became Sabina's graduate student.

She'd mention him in conversation, saying he reminded her of her younger self.

But the look in her eyes was pure adoration.

Or maybe it was that night he called Sabina, claiming some rich girl on campus had cornered him and was forcing him to date her.

Sabina, always so composed and rational, had lost her mind. She'd gone after the girl with her fists.

When I went to bail her out, I saw the bruises swelling across her cheek, and for the first time, I tasted bitterness.

She explained it to me:

"Stephen, when I heard what happened to him, I thought of how those girls used to corner you, and I just... snapped."

But...

When I'd been the one trapped in that exact situation, all she'd done was take my hand and walk me away.

...

By the time I woke up, I was already in the hospital.

The doctor told me with visible concern that it was a good thing I'd been brought in quickly. I'd hit the back of my head in the fall. There was bleeding in my brain. A little longer, and I might never have woken up.

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

The moment I reached the ground floor of my building, several people with ugly expressions surrounded me.

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

"Looks decent enough on the outside, but rotten to the core. Heard you got jealous because a student was better than you, so you hired thugs to rough up a kid. Absolutely disgusting! You nearly ruined his entire life!"

They rushed me. Fists and feet came from every direction.

"You like hiring people to mess with others? Today we'll give you a taste of your own medicine! Strip him and dump him on the street so he knows what humiliation feels like!"

I screamed in desperation, stumbling backward, but they tore my clothes apart and left bruises twisted across my skin.

It wasn't until the building's security guard arrived and called the police that they scattered.

I knelt on the ground, trembling uncontrollably.

The guard stood over me, looking down with contempt.

"You had it coming. Who told you to be cruel enough to bully an innocent kid?"

My head snapped up, my voice shaking.

"What did you just say?"

The guard scoffed and walked away.

My head exploded with a deafening ring.

I scrambled for my phone and started scrolling.

Sure enough, I found a public statement Sabina had posted.

"I'm sorry to take up everyone's attention with this, but regarding the accusations that I coerced a male student, it was all a misunderstanding. My ex, Stephen Fox, hired thugs to attack my student out of jealousy, destroying his reputation so badly that his family is forcing him to drop out and go back to his hometown to marry a widow!"

"I took the blame and stepped forward to shield my ex because I was too soft-hearted, trying to protect both him and my student. But I never expected his attitude to be so vile. Not only did he refuse to show remorse, he escalated things further. So I've decided to reveal the truth."

"And I will take responsibility for my student. I will marry him and care for him for the rest of his life!"

Eustace left a comment beneath her post:

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

Blood rushed to my head. My entire body felt like it had been struck by a sledgehammer.

Below that exchange, the comments section was flooded with congratulations and well-wishes, interspersed with horrifying abuse directed at me.

My photos had been photoshopped into degrading images. People were threatening to dox my home address and "teach me a lesson."

My phone was drowning in a torrent of filth and curses.

I tried to explain, over and over. I hadn't done any of it. Sabina was lying.

No one believed me.

"Your own girlfriend came out and exposed you! You obviously did it!"

"You got any proof you're innocent? No? Then drop dead, you piece of trash!"

With trembling hands, I forwarded Sabina's post to her directly.

"Why would you slander me like this?"

Sabina replied almost instantly:

"Didn't I tell you yesterday to smooth things over with the university administrators for me? You walked out without a care in the world. I've already been held accountable, and this was the only way I could think of to clear things up."

"Besides, everyone was mocking Eustace, calling him a disgrace. He cried so hard yesterday he nearly passed out. This protects his reputation too."

"What about me?! I deserve to be dragged through the mud?"

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

"Oh, and the wedding starts in an hour. Eustace's and mine. Hurry up and come be the best man. Apologize to Eustace in front of everyone. If we're going to put on a show, we need to commit to it."

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

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

I shook with rage.

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

And now this was how she treated me.

Tears were already falling when my phone buzzed with a new message.

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

"I have surveillance footage from the day of the incident with Eustace Simmons. I think you need to see what actually happened that day."

I watched the video as it loaded onto my phone, and my body went rigid.

The graduation ceremony, one month ago.

Eustace, who was supposed to be onstage for the tassel-turning, had vanished. So had Sabina.

As the lab's sponsor, I joined several others from the university to search backstage.

We ran straight into Sabina, rushing out with an unconscious Eustace in her arms.

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

That was how we found out. Eustace had been with someone in a storage room full of high-powered stage lights, looking for a thrill. They'd gotten locked inside and baked under the heat for a full three hours, leaving him severely dehydrated.

The university erupted. The administration immediately ordered Eustace's expulsion.

When Eustace came to, he sobbed and screamed that someone had knocked him out and dragged him in there to hurt him. That his attacker had already fled.

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

When they pressed him for details, he refused to say a word. He threw himself into hysterics, threatening to jump off the building.

Sabina also stepped in, threatening to pull her research funding unless the university dropped the investigation and buried the whole thing.

I didn't understand. Time and again, I tried to get justice for Eustace.

But every single time, Sabina had shut me down with that sharp, authoritative tone of hers.

"Stop making a scene! Digging into this isn't helping her. You're only going to cause secondary trauma!"

Now, staring at the surveillance footage on my screen, watching Sabina tangled up with Eustace, the two of them bursting through the supply room door in a frenzy, my chest seized with a pain I couldn't control.

So it was true. Exactly what I'd suspected all along.

Eustace had never been assaulted. He'd been having an affair with her.

I dragged the video timeline forward, and something unbelievable flashed across the screen.

My pupils blew wide.

After a long silence, a bitter laugh tore out of me before I could stop it.

Sabina.

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

My phone chimed relentlessly with Sabina's messages urging me to hurry. I buried the storm inside me and typed back a calm reply.

"Fine. I'll be there."

I wasn't going to clear their names. I was going to deliver the hardest blow of their lives.

When I arrived at the wedding venue, every pair of eyes that landed on me dripped with mockery and contempt.

The moment Mrs. Simmons spotted me, she marched straight over and spat at my feet. "You disgusting piece of trash! You're the one who ruined my son! Why don't you just drop dead!"

She and a handful of other loud, vicious relatives grabbed at my clothes, tearing at the fabric, each one calling me trash, worthless, garbage, until security finally pried them off me.

I ignored every word. I straightened my clothes and walked inside.

The ceremony was about to begin. The hall was packed with guests, and media crews lined the walls with their cameras.

I knew exactly what Sabina had planned. She wanted to use this occasion to cement the narrative she'd spun online, to prove her and Eustace's innocence in front of everyone.

The moment Sabina saw me walk in, a look of smug relief settled across her face, as if everything was going exactly according to plan.

She strolled over with practiced ease and took my hand.

"See? Would it have killed you to just cooperate from the start? Why did 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 like it did before."

She pulled out a folded sheet of paper and pressed it into my hand.

"Just read this when you get up there. It'll be over before you know it. After the wedding, I'll come home and spend time with you, okay? And later, I'll buy you a plane ticket. You can go abroad for a few years, lie low. Three years. Then I'll come find you, and we'll get married."

I glanced down at the paper. Every line was a confession, detailing how I'd been consumed by unrequited love and jealousy, how I'd orchestrated the harassment of Eustace Simmons out of spite.

If I read this aloud, I'd be finished. My reputation would be obliterated. I'd become a pariah no one would touch.

I ripped the paper to shreds and flung the pieces in her face.

White scraps fluttered through the air, framing the ugly shock twisting her expression.

I strode up the steps to the stage and signaled the technician I'd already paid off to play the backstage surveillance footage from that day.

I faced the crowd and raised my voice.

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

"But what I'm about to clarify is this: who is the REAL person responsible for what happened to Eustace Simmons!"