23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkpb27N09lL
It wasn’t Ruthie who exposed her.
The screenshots began circulating at dawn, habang ang campus ay tahimik pa. Group chats lit up. Threads multiplied. Twitter exploded.
Marian’s group chat. Her private conversations—laced with cruelty, manipulation, and the truth.
“Just push her harder. That freak always breaks eventually.”23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2yUEvzROJn
“I can fake a bruise. No one checks anyway.”23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8RItI0w8q4
“Let’s see how far she’ll go to protect that teacher. Hah!”
Students gasped. Teachers whispered.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJPC28CzJic
Some refused to believe it. Others had always suspected.
By 10 a.m., Marian wasn't in class.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTKUMeD0Kwz
By noon, she was in the principal’s office.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwAHrw1Dg8G
By 3 p.m., she was gone.
“Did you do this?” Jay asked Ruthie, his voice quiet.
Ruthie shook her head, a faint smirk tugging her lips. “Wala akong kailangan gawin. People like her destroy themselves eventually.”
“You’re being offered reinstatement,” he said carefully. “Scholarship din, ibabalik.”
She paused. Blinked slowly. Then: “No.”
Jay frowned. “Why not?”
She looked at him, expression unreadable. “Because I don’t want to sit in their clean halls pretending they didn’t burn me first.”
Sa isang sulok ng campus, Joy sat alone, clutching her phone, tears streaking down her cheeks.
“Nagbago na lahat,” bulong niya. “I thought Marian was helping me… I didn’t know.”
Ruthie passed by her but didn’t stop.
Hindi dahil galit siya.
But because some wounds no longer bleed—they calcify.
Marian’s last day was a storm of silence. No apologies. No statements. Just a quiet exit—back straight, head high, but eyes trembling.
Ruthie watched her from the window of the empty classroom.
“She was never a queen,” she whispered. “Only a shadow wearing gold.”
Jay stood beside her. “And what are you?”
She didn’t answer.
Later that night, a message appeared on Ruthie’s anonymous inbox:
"I’m sorry. I really am. But you’re stronger than me. Always were." – M
Ruthie stared at it for a long time. Then she deleted it.
No reply.
No closure.
Outside the gates, Jay waited.
“You really turned down everything?” he asked again.
Ruthie nodded. “Ayoko ng kapalit na galing sa hiya nila. Let them learn from this—not buy their way out.”
“I hope you know you’re terrifying,” Jay said.
“Good,” she replied. “I spent too long being harmless.”
He smiled. “So what now?”
She took a breath. “Now? I live.”
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