Chapter 472
Charlotte stared at the headline, unfinished and tempting in all the worst ways. She scrolled down, finding a video and a handful of photos, each one showing her face. Every image and the video had a date stamped in the corner. November 2017. Five years ago, in the dead of winter.
Her lips pressed together, pale cheeks tinged with cold. She curled her fingers in her lap and, without hesitation, tapped play.
The phone filled with noise. The video was shaky, chaotic. A man in a white coat appeared, holding a stack of papers. He spoke with the kind of seriousness that made everything sound final.
“According to the psychiatric evaluation, Charlotte has mild depression and severe delusional disorder,” he said. “Her statements don’t match the evidence, and the authorities aren’t taking her claims seriously.”
He paused for a second, adjusting his glasses. “To put it plainly, she might be imagining things that never actually happened.”
He went on, “Both sides have been investigated, and the preliminary conclusion is that Charlotte tried to seduce Jesse. She wanted to use it to get him to do what she wanted. When Jesse turned her down, Charlotte lost control, stabbed him, and then accused him of trying to assault her.”
The camera never left Charlotte. In the video, she was only twelve or thirteen, sitting on the ground, arms wrapped around her knees. She looked so small, her features delicate and almost doll-like. Her head was down. She twisted the hem of her dress between her fingers. There was a heaviness around her, a kind of silent misery that made her look completely lost.
The video was damning. It painted her as a mental patient who attacked someone out of spite, then lied to cover her tracks. When you added in the photos-Charlotte knocking on Jesse’s door at night, Charlotte running out with blood on her and a knife in her hand-the whole thing seemed to fit too well.
She scrolled down to the comments. There were already over a thousand replies.
“Oh my god, I never would have guessed. You really can’t tell what people are like. No wonder she was sent to the countryside for five years. It all makes sense now.” Replies piled up under that one.
“My eyes must be playing tricks on me. Can anyone who knows about this stuff tell if the video and photos are legit?”
“This happened five years ago, right when she got sent away. Didn’t she also have rumors about mental health issues back then contenit
“I don’t believe it. She can’t be like that. She just can’t.”
“So that explains why she acts so wild. It all adds up.”
“Mental illness, stabbing someone, framing them… It’s scary to think someone like that is around us.”
“If this is all true, she should be kicked out of Vanguard High School right now.”
Charlotte read the nasty comments, her face giving nothing away. eyes stayed cool and her expression forum
flat She closed out of the expression
without a word
She reached for her phone, meaning to call Adonis, but it started ringing first.
“Charlotte, are you… are you okay?”
Adonis was usually bright and full of life. Now his voice shook the words corning outcm a nervous stutter. The headline and all those comments had rattled him just as much.