Chapter 3
Jason and Vera got escorted out by the cops.
The room went quiet again, with only the steady beeping of the machines filling the silence.
Chloe handed me a peeled apple, her face flushed with anger. "Cathy, you're way too forgiving. Those two deserve to be locked up and never see daylight again. Study abroad? Not a chance. They can forget it!"
I shook my head, the pain in my throat flaring up and sending me into another coughing fit.
"It's not that simple," I rasped, my voice hoarse.
Sure, industrial capsaicin is dangerous, but legally, it's just a food additive, not a poison. Proving their intent to harm would be hard. At most, they'd get hit with reckless injury or maybe just public disorder.
Plus, Vera's family was loaded. Her father is some big-shot executive. He'd do whatever it took to hire the best lawyers and make sure she walked away clean.
"So that's it? They just get away with it?" Chloe shot back, refusing to accept it.
"No way," I replied, a cold glint flashing in my eyes. "The law is just the baseline. I want to ruin them—destroy their reputation, make sure everyone knows what they did."
Just then, my phone buzzed. They were messages from Jason.
A flood of apologies and pathetic groveling.
They read: [Cathy, I screwed up. I swear I get it now.]
[Please, just one more chance? We've been together for three years. You can't just throw that away.]
[It was Vera. She kept egging me on. I just wasn't thinking straight.]
[Please, just drop the charges. I'll do anything, I swear.]
Reading his messages, I just felt sick.
Three years together? That's what he called it?
Three years of Vera's chats pinned to the top of his phone. Three years of him dropping everything for her, even if we were on a date. Three years of him missing every anniversary because she always had some "emergency."
And that necklace he never took off? Yeah, that was a gift from Vera too.
I used to think I was just being jealous and overthinking everything.
But now I get it. I wasn't imagining things. They were the ones crossing the line.
I took a deep breath and started typing on my phone.
I wrote: [If you want me to drop the charges, fine.]
[Make a video and lay it all out—how Vera set the whole thing up, how she pushed you into it, and how she poured that industrial-grade capsaicin into the drink. Then post it everywhere—your feed, the campus forum—and make a public apology.]
After I sent the messages, Jason went radio silent.
I could practically see him wrestling with it in his head.
What I was asking basically meant he'd have to burn his bridge with Vera and admit to everyone at school that he was nothing but a spineless follower—a guy who let another girl push him into hurting his own girlfriend.
For someone who cared as much about his image as he did, that was worse than death.
It took him ages before he finally replied.
He wrote: [Cathy, there has to be another way. I'll pay you. Name your price.]
I laughed.
I shot back: [Can't do it? Then we'll settle this in court.]
I tossed my phone aside, not giving him another thought.
Chloe scooted over, grinning with satisfaction. "Nice! That's how you handle it. Show him we're not to be messed with."
"This is just the beginning," I said, with a cold smirk on my face. "Sit back and watch the show."
*****
That afternoon, the campus forum blew up with a post that instantly went viral.
"Breaking News! The Heartthrob of the Business School Jason Carter and His 'Best Friend' Plot to Spike His Girlfriend's Drink with Industrial Capsaicin—She Ends Up in the ICU."
The post had it all—the KTV video from that night, pics of me hooked up to tubes in the hospital bed, and even the official medical report.
Instantly, the whole campus was in an uproar.
The whole forum exploded.