Chapter 1

The rejection letter had been bad enough. The email I’d stumbled onto an hour ago—three weeks old, buried in a hacked admissions thread—was a knife to the gut. *Camille Duval. Legacy admission confirmed. Bursar notified. Mayor’s office grateful.*

My hands shook as I slammed through the university’s wrought-iron gates, the same gates I’d passed a hundred times as a scholarship hopeful. Now they felt like a cage. The marble lobby gleamed, indifferent to my fury.

“I need to see Dean Lange,” I said, voice taut.

The receptionist barely glanced up. “Do you have an appointment?”

“I have a right to an explanation.” I slid the printed email across the counter. “My exam scores were the highest in the region. Camille Duval’s were average. And yet *she* got my place.”

The woman’s eyes flickered—recognition, then dismissal. “Miss Marlowe, admissions decisions are final.”

“This isn’t a decision. It’s a theft.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw them: Camille, blonde and smug, standing beside her father, Mayor Duval. He was speaking in low tones to a man in a pinstripe suit—Marcus Voss, the admissions director. They were watching me like I was a stray dog barking at a parade.

“Miss Marlowe, security will escort you out.”

“You know this is wrong,” I shot back, my voice rising. “You know my scores. You know what this email means. I’m not leaving until someone tells me the truth—that my future was sold to the highest bidder.”

Two guards materialized, gripping my arms. I twisted, refusing to go quietly.

“Take your hands off me! I have every right to be here! Camille—look at me. You know you didn’t earn that seat. You know it.”

Camille’s smile never wavered. Her father whispered something to Voss, who nodded.

The guards dragged me toward the doors. I dug my heels in, breath ragged.

“This isn’t over,” I called out, my voice cracking with rage. “I will expose every one of you. You hear me? This isn’t over.”

The doors slammed shut behind me. The cold air hit my face. And in that moment, I knew: the system wasn’t broken. It was rigged.

And I was going to burn it down.