The storm outside matched the one inside Stacey's chest as she sat curled up in her dorm that night, Sophie's words looping in her mind like a broken record.
Someone wanted you to find out.
She couldn't stop thinking about it. The betrayal had been raw, but this added dimension twisted everything deeper. This wasn't just about a broken heart. Someone had orchestrated the destruction of her life—had watched, waited, and exposed the truth when it would hurt most.
But who?
A knock on her door snapped her out of her thoughts. It was Alex, her lab partner in media ethics. He stood awkwardly at the threshold, rain dripping from the hood of his jacket.
"You okay?" he asked.
"No," she said simply. "But come in."
He stepped inside, brushing off the water. "I heard what happened… I didn't want to bring it up in class."
Stacey gave a hollow laugh. "It's the talk of the university, I'm sure."
Alex shrugged. "People gossip. But they don't know you like I do."
That struck her. Alex had always been there—in the background, quietly loyal. Not flashy like Daniel, not charismatic like Sophie. Just… dependable. The kind of person who noticed things.
"Actually," she said, sitting up straighter. "Can I ask you something weird?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Always."
"Do you remember seeing anyone… watching me? Or Daniel and Sophie? Around campus? Taking photos maybe?"
Alex frowned, then slowly nodded. "Now that you mention it… a few weeks ago, I was working late in the library. I saw someone sitting on the roof opposite the west wing. They had a camera. Big lens. I figured it was a photography student, but they were aiming it toward the student center. Toward you guys."
Stacey's pulse quickened. "Could you recognize them?"
He shook his head. "Too far away. But they were careful. Left quick when they noticed me looking."
Stacey stood, pacing. "That's the second time someone's mentioned surveillance. Sophie said she got a photo anonymously. Someone's been watching."
Alex sat on the edge of her bed, thoughtful. "This isn't just about cheating anymore, is it?"
"No," Stacey said softly. "It's about power. Control. Whoever did this—they wanted me to break."
Alex hesitated before speaking again. "If someone's following you, we need to be smart. Maybe even… dig into it. You said Sophie got a photo? You think she still has it?"
"I'll find out," Stacey said, her jaw set.
Her fingers moved quickly over her phone. Sophie replied within minutes, sending over the photo.
It was grainy but clear enough. Taken from a distance, yes—but with a professional eye. The angle was deliberate. Sophie and Daniel, backs to a fountain, kissing under the canopy of a tree. The timestamp was from three weeks ago.
"Whoever took this," Stacey murmured, "knew exactly what they were doing."
Alex stood beside her, studying the image. "There's metadata. If we can trace the device or even check if it was uploaded somewhere first, we might get a hit."
Stacey stared at him. "You know how to do that?"
"I freelance in digital forensics," he said with a small smirk. "It started as a side hustle, but… guess it's useful now."
Her lips twitched. The first real spark of hope in days. "Then let's find the spider in this web."
The next day, Alex brought over his laptop and external drives. They spent hours pouring over the image, running it through metadata analyzers. Most of the information was scrubbed—but Alex found a partial device ID.
"Whoever took this used a high-end DSLR," he said. "But look—there's a location ping. A server it uploaded to, just for a second, before being deleted."
Stacey leaned closer. "Where?"
"Campus journalism lab."
She blinked. "Our journalism lab?"
Alex nodded. "Only someone with admin access could upload to that private server. We're talking staff… or someone connected to the student press."
Stacey's heart pounded. She had worked closely with the campus newspaper in her first year. She still knew people there.
Her mind darted through possibilities. Old rivalries. Jealousy. Or maybe someone looking for a story worth burning bridges for.
Just then, another ping.
Alex looked up, his brow furrowing. "You're not going to believe this… I found deleted files from that same server. Draft articles. Someone was writing a story about you. About the 'double betrayal.' They even titled it The Golden Girl's Fall."
Stacey's blood ran cold.
"They planned to publish it?"
"Seems like it. But something made them back off—at least publicly. Maybe they realized it'd be too obvious. So they fed the story into the gossip mill instead."
Stacey sat back, stunned. "Someone turned my life into a headline."
"And didn't even have the guts to sign their name."
For a moment, neither spoke. Then Stacey's gaze turned sharp.
"I want to know who. I want every name that's accessed that server in the last month."
Alex nodded. "Already working on it."
As he typed, Stacey turned toward the window, her reflection staring back at her in the rain-dotted glass.
She thought she'd hit rock bottom. But now she realized something else—this wasn't the end.
It was the beginning.
Someone wanted to ruin her.
Now it was her turn to play the game.