Chapter 3 - The Girl Everyone Believed
Lila Hart returned to campus three days later.
She wore a brace around her shoulder and walked with a slight limp.
Students applauded when she entered the student union.
Someone gave her flowers.
Someone else hugged her while crying.
Avery watched from across the courtyard.
She hated herself for feeling suspicious.
Lila looked fragile.
She looked frightened.
She looked exactly like a victim.
Then Lila saw Avery.
For one second, her expression changed.
Not fear.
Not anger.
Panic.
Avery walked toward her.
Lila's friends immediately stepped between them.
“You need to stay away from her,” Brooke snapped.
Avery ignored Brooke.
“Lila.”
Lila lowered her eyes.
“I don't want trouble.”
“I want the truth.”
“I already told the truth.”
“Did you?”
Brooke stepped closer.
“Back off.”
Avery looked at Lila.
“Who told you I touched your harness?”
Lila swallowed.
“I saw you.”
Avery's heart sank.
“You saw me?”
“Yes.”
“At what time?”
Lila hesitated.
“Before rehearsal.”
“What time?”
“I don't remember exactly.”
“You told the investigator you saw me at 7:48.”
Lila's face went pale.
Brooke answered for her.
“She was injured, Avery.”
Avery did not look away.
“At 7:48, you were standing on the practice floor preparing your stunt.”
Lila's eyes flicked toward Brooke.
Avery noticed it.
So did Hannah, standing twenty feet away.
Avery continued.
“And I was supposedly in the equipment room.”
Lila's lips parted.
“That doesn't mean anything.”
“It means you couldn't have seen me.”
Brooke grabbed Lila's arm.
“We're leaving.”
As they turned away, something fell from Lila's bag.
A small silver key.
Avery recognized the engraved number.
B-17.
It belonged to one of the locked storage cabinets beneath the old gym.
Only captains and coaches were supposed to have keys.
Avery bent down and picked it up.
Lila snatched it from her hand.
“Don't touch my things.”
Avery stared at her.
“Why do you have that?”
Lila froze.
Brooke pulled her away.
That evening, Avery searched archived team records.
Cabinet B-17 had once been used for financial paperwork.
Fundraising receipts.
Travel reimbursements.
Scholarship records.
And disciplinary reports.
Six weeks earlier, Avery had noticed almost nine thousand dollars missing from the team's fundraiser account.
She had quietly mentioned it to Coach Mercer.
Mercer had told her it was an accounting error.
Avery had believed her.
Now she wasn't so sure.
At midnight, Hannah found something else.
A deleted email cached on Avery's old tablet.
It had been sent by Lila one month earlier.
There was no message.
May you like
Only a subject line.
I know what Coach Vale is doing.
