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CHAPTER TWELVE – When Queens Fall
Crestwood hadn't slept in days.
The halls echoed with whispers, screens glowed with headlines, and every student walked like they were being hunted. Because they were.
And at the center of the chaos—
Stood Emily Hale.
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The morning after Luke's testimony, the school was placed on immediate lockdown.
Board members resigned.
Scholarships were frozen.
Professors were "re-evaluated."
And Emily? She was the name on everyone's lips.
Some said she was a liar.
Others said she was a hero.
But all of them feared her.
She didn't just poke the crown—
She cracked it.
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Emily stood in the chapel ruins behind the campus, where old statues leaned like forgotten saints.
She was waiting.
"Heard you started a war," a voice drawled behind her.
Emily turned.
Tessa Hale.
Luke's sister.
The ice princess. Untouchable. Untamed.
Dressed in all black, with a cigarette between her fingers and a cruel smile on her lips.
"I didn't start anything," Emily said. "Your father did."
Tessa flicked the ash. "You and my brother both love playing martyr."
Emily narrowed her eyes. "You here to threaten me?"
"No," Tessa shrugged. "I'm here to warn you."
She stepped closer, her perfume sharp as venom.
"You think Luke's betrayal ends with applause? He exposed a dynasty. Our name. Our father."
Emily didn't flinch. "And I'll expose every last secret if I have to."
Tessa smiled.
"You already did."
---
That night, a video leaked.
Not just to Crestwood. To the world.
It showed Luke in his father's office, downloading files.
And behind him?
Emily Hale.
Her face. Her voice. Her hands on the computer.
The voiceover twisted the narrative.
> "Emily Hale, the new girl, manipulates Crestwood's golden boy into destroying the school from within…"
They called her a seductress.
A liar.
A fraud.
---
She was summoned to the school tribunal.
Luke wasn't there.
He had been suspended indefinitely.
Emily stood alone.
No lawyers.
No friends.
Just a room full of suits, and a gavel hungry for punishment.
"You accessed private documents under false identity," one voice spat.
"You manipulated the headmaster's son."
"You staged the rebellion."
Emily lifted her chin.
"I told the truth."
A pause.
Then a cruel smile from the Dean.
> "You are hereby expelled from Crestwood University. Effective immediately."
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Emily walked out of that room like a queen without a country.
No applause.
No cameras.
Just silence.
But as she stepped into the courtyard…
She saw them.
Students.
Hundreds of them.
Lining the quad.
Holding signs.
Wearing black ribbons.
Chanting her name.
> "Emily Hale didn't lie."
"Truth deserves a place here."
"Crestwood must change."
And at the center of them…
Luke.
He broke past the barrier.
Ran to her.
Pulled her into his arms like the world couldn't stop them.
"You're not alone," he whispered.
She gripped his jacket. "They'll destroy you for standing with me."
He looked her in the eyes.
> "Let them try."
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That night, Emily didn't cry.
She kissed Luke like rebellion.
She touched him like revenge.
She let go of everything but the heat of him under her hands.
They weren't falling anymore.
They were rising.
Together.
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