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CHAPTER NINE – Crowned in Scandal
The campus was on fire.
Not literally — but gossip burned hotter than gasoline.
Emily Hale had become a name you whispered in bathrooms, shouted in group chats, and hashtagged under every post that mattered.
#TheWolfFile
#HaleStorm
#CrestwoodCoverup
The board tried to deny it.
The president tried to spin it.
But it was too late.
Truth, once leaked, doesn't crawl. It runs.
---
Emily stood outside her dorm, a black hoodie pulled over her head. Eyes hidden behind sunglasses.
Someone still recognized her.
Then another.
By the time she reached the cafeteria doors, people were parting like she was royalty.
Not the kind you bow to.
The kind you fear.
---
Luke found her in the garden behind the history building — her safe place. She'd once told him the stone benches reminded her of ruins. "Things that refuse to disappear."
She looked up. "You shouldn't be here."
He sat beside her anyway. "It's all over the media."
"I didn't leak it."
"I know."
"They think I did."
"I don't care."
She looked at him for a long time. "You always say the right things."
"No," he said. "I say the true things."
She looked away before her voice cracked. "They want to expel me."
"They'll have to get through me first."
---
A few hours later, Luke stood in front of the Crestwood Board.
He wore a black suit, no tie. Clean. Calm. Calculated.
"I leaked it," he said.
They gasped. Board members shuffled papers. The president stood.
"Luke," his father growled. "Do you know what you're saying?"
Luke nodded. "Emily didn't leak it. I did."
"That's impossible," President Caldwell snapped. "The data—"
"Was rerouted," Luke said smoothly. "Encrypted through my personal server. I did it to protect the students. And the school."
A pause.
Then someone whispered, "Legacy martyr."
The phrase would echo online for days.
---
Emily watched it all from her dorm room livestream.
He was lying for her.
Bleeding for her.
And her chest ached in a way she hadn't prepared for.
---
But not everyone was convinced.
Later that night, a letter slid under her door.
No sender.
No seal.
Just her name.
Emily opened it slowly.
> You're not the only one with claws.
Keep digging, and someone else gets buried.
– B
Brielle.
Emily crumpled the paper in her hand.
She wasn't afraid of Brielle.
But she was tired of playing defense.
---
So she made a plan.
Not for revenge.
But for answers.
Because someone else was hiding something.
And to burn the truth out — she needed fire.
She needed Luke.
---
"I want to find out who leaked it," she said.
"I thought you believed it was Brielle."
"I did," Emily replied. "But Brielle's smart. She wouldn't out me publicly. She wants control, not chaos."
Luke nodded slowly. "Then who?"
Emily tapped a finger to her lips. "Someone who wants me famous. Someone who wants Crestwood burning. Someone… from my past."
---
That night, she hacked into her old messages.
Old friends. Old enemies. Every contact from her former school, her scholarship program, even her father's old records.
And there it was.
An encrypted email. From two weeks ago.
To someone in Crestwood.
> Subject: Hale's file.
Attached: Everything you'll need.
Enjoy the show.
Emily decoded the address.
Her heart stopped.
Sender: M.Hale@---
Her mother.
---
Luke was in the hallway when she burst out of her room.
She couldn't speak. Just held the phone out.
He read it. And blinked.
"She… she leaked your file?"
"She gave them everything." Emily whispered. "She leaked my secrets. My history. My family."
"Why?"
"I don't know," she said. "But I'm going to find out."
---
That night, the Crestwood board met in emergency session.
Luke was suspended.
Emily was put under probation.
And the students?
They didn't riot.
They worshipped her.
Emily Hale had become a legend.
Not the hero they expected.
The storm they deserved.
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