Chapter 4

They took it as an empty threat.

Eustace actually laughed out loud.

"Barbara, have you been reading too many revenge fantasies?"

"It's not like your family owns the colleges."

"You say we can't come back, so we can't come back?"

I didn't answer him. I just turned and walked out of the room.

By the time I reached the parking lot, Henry had chased after me.

"Barbara!"

He blocked my path, his face ugly.

"Delete the screenshots."

"You don't delete them, you're not leaving tonight."

I looked up at him.

"You're going to grab my phone?"

"I just don't want you doing something stupid."

"Veronica's dad handled the paperwork for us. Maybe some of the steps weren't exactly by the book."

"But his heart was in the right place."

I almost laughed.

"Not by the book?"

"Bribing someone to change our applications, and you call it 'not exactly by the book.'"

Henry's pupils shrank.

"What are you talking about?"

I took the voice recorder out of my pocket.

The red light was blinking.

It hadn't stopped since we were inside the room.

The color drained from Henry's face in an instant.

He reached out to snatch it. I stepped back and pressed the button on my car key.

My father's driver came over and put himself between us.

"Mr. Weiss, please keep your distance from my young lady."

Henry clenched his fists.

"Barbara, you planned this from the start?"

"You drew us out on purpose?"

"No."

I closed my hand around the recorder.

"You all just love to show off too much."

"You finish breaking the law, and instead of hiding at home shaking, you have to throw a celebration dinner."

"How is that any different from robbing a bank and posing for photos out front?"

"If I didn't record it, I'd be doing your relaxed attitude a disservice."

The car door opened.

Before I got in, Henry asked me with red eyes,

"We've known each other for eighteen years."

"You'd really ruin us over one application?"

I looked at him, and it suddenly felt absurd.

"That's right. Eighteen years."

"Which is exactly why you knew what I feared most, and drove the knife in so precisely."

"I'm not the one ruining you."

"You threw your own lives away the moment you handed them to Veronica's dad."

That night, I organized all the evidence.

Four screenshots of the changed applications.

The recording from the room.

The chat logs Veronica had posted in our group.

And one more recording that mattered even more.

Two weeks earlier, it had been Veronica's birthday.

She'd had too much to drink, hanging off me and bragging.

"You know how I got into Metro Tech?"

"My dad gave a Mr. Glenn at the admissions counseling center three hundred grand."

"So what if my scores were a little short?"

"Connections are their own kind of ability."

At the time I just thought she was talking big.

But out of habit, my watch had been recording the whole time.

My dad works in information security.

He taught me one thing when I was young.

You don't have to suspect your friends.

But when money, contracts, or your future are involved, you keep a record.

I used to think he lived an exhausting life.

Now I finally get it. A father is a father.

The salt he's eaten could cure everyone at that table to death.

I didn't report it right away.

First I made five copies of everything.

One went to my lawyer.

One went to the state college admissions board.

One went to the anti-corruption authorities.

One went to the instructor who'd given me my clearance for the classified project.

The last one I set on a timed send.

As long as I didn't cancel it within twenty-four hours, it would automatically go out to every relevant university.

Once that was done, I closed my laptop.

At two in the morning, Veronica called me.

She wasn't crying.

Her voice was cold as ice.

"Barbara, you'd better not go sticking your nose where it doesn't belong."

"If my dad can change applications, he can make sure your background check turns up problems."

"That classified project of yours cares even more about family background and personal records, doesn't it?"

"Guess. If you got reported for mental illness, violent tendencies, personality defects, would they still take you?"

I leaned back against my chair.

"You want to forge my medical records?"

She gave a soft laugh.

"How could you call it forging?"

"I have depression, and you drove me to attempt suicide."

"Guess who people will believe, you, or a patient who nearly died?"

She hung up.

Ten minutes later, I got a photo.

Veronica, lying in a bathtub.

Her wrists soaking in red liquid.

Henry and the others were blowing up the group chat, demanding answers.

"What exactly did you say to her?"

"Barbara, if something happens to her, you'll never have a moment's peace for the rest of your life!"

"Apologize right now!"

"Delete all the evidence!"

I zoomed in on the photo for three seconds.

Then I texted Veronica one line.

"Use real blood next time. Ketchup separates into layers if it soaks too long."

The group went silent.

Then I sent a screenshot.

In the reflection off the glass cabinet in the bottom right corner of the photo, Veronica was holding up another phone, taking a selfie.

And beside the tub sat a half-empty bottle of ketchup.

"Want to fake a mental illness to scare me?"

"Funny thing is, I've got a condition too."

"Doctor says when I'm provoked, I go into a frenzy of saving evidence. Go ahead, provoke me again."

Send.

I canceled the timed task.

Then I sent the fifth packet out by hand.

Seven-oh-five the next morning.

Henry called me.

For the first time, his voice was shaking so badly it fell apart.

"Barbara."

"The people from the admissions board are at my house."