Chapter 4 - A SCHOOL DIVIDED
By Monday morning, iron barriers separated reporters from the entrance of Westbridge Academy. Satellite vans filled the street. Parents shouted questions at administrators, students concealed their faces beneath hoods, and police officers checked every vehicle entering the grounds. The cafeteria video had become a national story, but the shooting at Bell Tower transformed it into something no one could dismiss as ordinary bullying.
Richard Vale had vanished.
His lawyers claimed he fled because an unknown attacker threatened Anna. Detective Reed called him a person of interest in the arson, the factory shooting, and the destruction of evidence. Anna was released into the care of her aunt, Catherine Vale, after hours of questioning. Adrian Bennett disappeared before police secured the mill, leaving Gabriel with proof that his brother lived but no chance to speak with him.
Elena wanted Sofia to remain at the protected guesthouse. Sofia insisted on returning to school.
“They already took one day from me,” she said. “I won’t give them every day after it.”
Gabriel arranged plainclothes security. Elena reluctantly returned to her cleaning job because staying away felt like surrender, though Principal Whitmore offered paid leave. When they entered together, the hallway fell silent.
Some students smiled at Sofia. Others whispered. A group from the debate team had printed shirts reading I STAND WITH SOFIA. She disliked them immediately. None of those students had sat with her before. Now they wanted photographs beside her.
At her locker, flowers covered the floor. Cards called her brave, beautiful, and inspiring. One envelope contained three hundred dollars. Another contained a cruel note accusing her of staging the attack to become famous.
Sofia gave the money to the counseling office and kept neither praise nor hatred.
Madison approached before first period. Dark circles surrounded her eyes.
“Can we talk?”
“Did you come to apologize or find out what I know?” Sofia asked.
Madison winced. “Both.”
They entered an empty music room, observed from the doorway by Gabriel’s security officer. Madison placed her phone on the piano.
“Anna planned the lunch thing, but I helped. I kept telling myself filming wasn’t as bad as pushing you. That was a lie.”
“Yes, it was.”
“The wing account messaged me in the cafeteria. It said my brother’s medical bills were paid by a company connected to Richard Vale.”
Sofia remembered Madison’s warning look. “Why would that matter?”
“My brother was injured at a Vale construction site. The company said he caused the accident. Then someone anonymously paid for his surgery if my mother signed a nondisclosure agreement.” Madison unlocked the phone and showed her the message. “It says the accident happened because defective support beams were approved by the same inspector from Bell Tower.”
“Did you tell Detective Reed?”
“My mother begged me not to. If the payments stop, we lose our apartment.”
Sofia understood the fear even while hating the silence it produced. “Richard counts on everyone believing they have too much to lose.”
“There’s more.” Madison opened a draft folder containing the original cafeteria footage. “Someone added the audio from the security archive to my video, but I found a sound beneath it. Listen.”
They raised the volume. Under the laughter and Anna’s voice, a man near the kitchen doors said, “Once she shows the pendant, send the picture.”
Sofia replayed the line. “So the attack was expected.”
“Maybe encouraged.” Madison swallowed. “Anna had been getting anonymous suggestions for videos. The account told her humiliating you would make her famous.”
“She still chose to do it.”
“I know. But someone chose you for her.”
In history class, half the students watched Sofia instead of the teacher. Leo Park’s seat was empty. The principal announced that he had withdrawn for family reasons. Sofia knew the real reason but said nothing.
At lunch, the cafeteria tiles had been replaced where the fire evacuation damaged them. Sofia carried a new tray to the same distant corner. Before she sat, a freshman named Noah Greene approached.
“May I sit here?”
He was the boy who had lowered his phone first after she challenged the crowd.
“Why?” Sofia asked.
“Because I should have said something Friday.”
“Sitting here now won’t change Friday.”
“I know.” Noah placed his tray down. “But maybe it changes Monday.”
Sofia allowed him to sit. Soon another student joined, then another. It should have felt supportive, but the attention became suffocating. Cameras appeared beyond the windows. Principal Whitmore closed the blinds.
The cafeteria doors opened. Anna entered with her aunt and a school attorney.
Angry whispers rose. Several students began filming despite the new rule. Anna wore no makeup, and her usual group avoided her. Principal Whitmore escorted her toward a private meeting room, but someone shouted, “Food stomper!” Another student threw a bread roll. It struck Anna’s shoulder.
Laughter spread—the same sound that had surrounded Sofia.
Anna bent to pick up the bread. Her face burned with humiliation.
Sofia stood. “Stop.”
The laughter faltered.
“She deserves it,” a boy called.
“That is what you said about me.”
“We’re defending you.”
“I didn’t ask you to become her.”
Anna looked at Sofia, confusion and shame fighting in her expression. Sofia did not forgive her. She simply refused to watch the cafeteria repeat itself with a new target.
Principal Whitmore took Anna into the conference room. Twenty minutes later, she summoned Sofia, Elena, and the school board attorney. Anna sat beside Aunt Catherine, whose controlled smile resembled Richard’s. Gabriel joined by video call.
The school attorney explained that Anna faced suspension pending an expulsion hearing. Catherine argued that the viral video had been manipulated and that Anna was experiencing threats severe enough to make disciplinary action unsafe.
“Her father is missing,” Catherine said. “She is a child in crisis.”
Elena’s voice remained calm. “Sofia was also a child when Anna pushed her to the floor.”
Anna stared at her hands. “I did it.”
Catherine touched her arm. “You do not need to speak.”
“I planned it,” Anna continued. “The audio is real. No one forced me.”
The attorney began taking notes.
Anna looked at Sofia. “An account called CrownMe sent me ideas for weeks. It said Sofia was lying about being poor and that exposing her would prove I was fearless. I wanted the views. I didn’t ask why a stranger cared about her lunch.”
“Do you still have the messages?” Gabriel asked through the screen.
“They disappeared. But I took screenshots because I wanted to show Madison how many views they promised.” Anna slid a flash drive across the table. “They’re on this.”
Catherine’s composure cracked. “Anna, where did you get that drive?”
“I made it last night.”
“Your father instructed you never to copy private communications.”
Everyone looked at Catherine.
“How did Richard know about them?” Gabriel asked.
Catherine rose. “This meeting is over.”
Detective Reed entered before she reached the door. He had been listening from the adjacent office with the principal’s permission. “Actually, Ms. Vale, I have questions for you.”
Anna removed a second object from her pocket: Daniel’s missing recorder.
Elena stood so quickly that her chair toppled. “Where did you find that?”
“In my father’s car at Bell Tower. He gave it to me before he ran. He said if anyone asked, I should destroy it.”
“Why didn’t you?” Sofia asked.
Anna met her eyes. “Because when you were hanging from that walkway, he tried to pull me away instead of helping you. I realized he wasn’t afraid you would fall. He was afraid Adrian would save you.”
Reed placed the recorder in an evidence bag. “Did your father say where he was going?”
“No. But he received a call. The person said, ‘The girl has already heard Daniel’s message. Move the archive before Gabriel finds the chapel.’”
Gabriel leaned closer to his camera. “What chapel?”
Elena covered her mouth.
Sofia saw the answer in her eyes. “The place where you and Dad bought your first meal.”
Elena nodded slowly. “Saint Orison’s Chapel ran a soup kitchen when Daniel and I first came to the city. He spent his last coins buying me dinner there because I was too proud to accept charity. Years later, it closed and the Bennett Foundation purchased the property.”
Gabriel’s image froze for a second. “Richard supervised that acquisition.”
Detective Reed made a call requesting officers at the chapel. The line returned an immediate report: smoke had been seen behind the abandoned building.
They reached Saint Orison’s twenty minutes later. Firefighters had contained a small blaze in the records room. Shelves were overturned, floorboards torn up, and boxes of old meal vouchers reduced to ash. Someone had searched the chapel before setting the fire.
Sofia walked toward the faded counter where volunteers once served food. Carved into its edge were two initials: D and E. Beneath them, almost hidden by paint, was the outline of a wing.
She pressed the pendant into the carving. A metal catch clicked.
A narrow drawer opened inside the counter.
It contained no ledger. There was only an old brass key, a photograph of baby Sofia, and a recent note written in Leo Park’s handwriting.
THE ARCHIVE WAS MOVED TEN YEARS AGO. ASK PRINCIPAL WHITMORE WHY IT IS BENEATH THE SCHOOL.
May you like
Behind them, the chapel door slammed shut. The remaining lights went out, and a familiar voice spoke from the darkness.
“You should never have brought Anna here,” Aunt Catherine said.
