The seniors’ grip on Mia had never felt tighter, yet cracks were beginning to form in ways they couldn’t fully control or predict. Arjun had been relatively easy to erase — just a boy, a fleeting distraction, someone they could intimidate into silence or simply outlast with relentless surveillance. A female rival, however, was something entirely different. Women noticed subtle changes. Women talked. Women remembered details that men often overlooked.

Her name was Sara.