Well, it wasn’t exactly how I had planned my day, but then again, when you’re Scarlett Rossi—daughter of the notorious “Night Rose” mafia family, resident queen of the high school jungle, and a connoisseur of blackmail—it’s safe to say that "planning" and "normal" aren’t exactly best friends of mine.
Anyway, there I was, walking through the murky halls of Kingsley High, trying to look as uninterested as humanly possible while Liam Sterling—Mr. Perfect, Mr. Sweet-and-Safe—dropped a bombshell on me that probably could’ve been used as a small city’s worth of fireworks.
Turns out, Liam wasn’t Liam. He was actually Michael Evans, a former hacker who had been working with the FBI as a witness for their protection program. Yeah, I know—plot twist. He’d apparently been caught trying to hack into the Pentagon (which is kind of impressive, if you think about it) and in the aftermath of his little disaster, he’d turned on the people who had been using him.
So, let me get this straight: I was being watched by a federal agent disguised as a high school student who probably couldn’t hack a toaster, let alone the Pentagon. Great. I had no idea how to process this little tidbit of information, so I did what any rational girl would do in my shoes: I tried to ignore it.
But then came the big one.
Liam, or Michael Evans, was apparently here at Kingsley High because it wasn’t just a school. It was some top-secret, federal operation. I don’t know about you, but my high school didn’t exactly scream “Federal Bureau of Investigations.” Yet here we were, apparently involved in the “Teenage Threat Evaluation Program.” Yeah, sounds like something straight out of a bad spy novel, doesn’t it?
And here’s the kicker: Scarlett Rossi, yours truly, was flagged as a “high-risk member” with ties to organized crime. I can only imagine how that sounded when they handed out the yearbook photos—“Class of 2024: Surviving the Streets and Making Bank.”
Liam was explaining this all to me while I was staring at him like he’d just confessed to having four arms. I didn’t know what was more shocking: that I was apparently a criminal mastermind in their eyes, or that they were now tagging every little move I made and sending it straight to Homeland Security. Apparently, my life wasn’t just about dealing with high school drama anymore—it was about dealing with federal government surveillance, too. Lovely.
But as if that wasn’t enough, Marcus Blackwood—one of Kingsley’s resident rich kid rebels—decided it was the perfect moment to swing by and offer me a little assistance with my little "ruby problem." You know, the whole stolen family heirloom thing? No big deal. Except, when I took him up on his offer, I found out something that made my blood run cold.
Marcus was meeting with Principal Thorne. And, of course, the fact that Marcus was talking to Thorne wasn’t weird. The weird part was what I overheard.
“Rossi family’s value is almost drained,” Marcus said, as I hid behind a massive telescope in the school’s astronomy lab, trying to make sense of what was happening. “Once we get the overseas accounts, we start the clean-up. Get rid of the daughter, get rid of the problem.”
Now, this wasn’t just your average backstabbing. No, this was an “I’m going to use my own bloodline to make millions, and then erase all traces of it” level of treachery. I couldn’t believe my own ears. They were planning to clean me out—shut me down—just like that.
I walked out into the open before they could see me. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I demanded, my voice sharp enough to cut glass.
Principal Thorne, cool as a cucumber, didn’t even flinch. She calmly pressed a button on her desk, and suddenly, my father’s voice filled the room—his last warning to me.
“I can’t let her get involved. This is the line I draw. Don’t cross it.”
I didn’t know if I felt more betrayed or heartbroken. My father—my rock—had played me. He’d sent me here to protect me from the very people I thought I could trust. I thought he was just being paranoid, but now I saw it. The mafia. The feds. It was all one big twisted game, and I was just a pawn.
But I wasn’t a pawn. I was Scarlett Rossi, and I wasn’t going down without a fight.
I was about to walk out of that room when Liam—Michael Evans, damn it—came rushing in, looking like he’d seen a ghost.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly, walking toward me. “I know you think I lied, but sometimes—sometimes we have to lie to protect the people we care about.”
Before I could process what was happening, he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into an embrace. I was too stunned to fight it. For once, I didn’t know what to do. For once, I didn’t have a plan.
But before I could make sense of any of this, there was a knock on the door.
Diego—my ever-loyal bodyguard—had arrived. He had news from Chicago.
“Your uncle, Marco... He’s taken over the family business. Your father’s gone.”
I felt my world crumble around me.
“I’m sorry,” Diego said, his voice low. “Your father’s last words were... ‘Don’t trust anyone. Especially not the one named Sterling.’”
The door to my office opened, and there, standing in the doorway, was Liam. He didn’t knock.
And the look in his eyes? It told me everything I needed to know.
The game was just beginning.