The Thorne Heiress Unveiling Shadow novel Chapter 25

Evelyn arrived for her first day at Sterling University looking completely unremarkable, and that was exactly how she wanted it. She wore simple, dark-wash jeans, a soft gray sweater, and a pair of comfortable sneakers. Her hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail. She was a ghost, a chameleon, perfectly blending into the bustling crowd of students on the main quad. She carried one suitcase and her worn canvas bag, a stark contrast to the U-Hauls and minivans overflowing with the belongings of her new classmates.

Her assigned dorm room was in one of the older, less glamorous buildings, a small, spartan space with a single bed, a desk, and a window overlooking a quiet courtyard. As she was making her bed with crisp, efficient movements, the door burst open.

"Hi! You must be Evelyn! I'm Chloe, your roommate!"

The girl who bounced into the room was a whirlwind of cheerful, chaotic energy. She had bright red hair tied up in a messy bun, glasses perched on her nose, and was wearing a t-shirt with a pixel-art graphic of a cartoon cat unplugging a massive server rack. Below it, the caption read: "It's not a bug, it's a feature." Evelyn found herself genuinely smiling.

"It's nice to meet you, Chloe," Evelyn said, her voice even.

"Oh my god, you will not believe the drama that went down last night," Chloe said, dropping a massive, overflowing duffel bag on the floor. "Were you watching the Foundation Ball coverage? The #SuttonSuperfake scandal? It was epic!"

Chloe pulled out her phone and eagerly showed Evelyn a screen filled with memes of Aria's horrified face. "This girl, Aria Sutton, showed up in this super flashy dress, claiming it was one-of-a-kind, and then the editor of Vogue called her out in front of everyone for it being a fake! A superfake! And then, Kaelen Blackwood himself got on stage and basically broke up with her and bankrupted her family in the same speech! It's the most savage thing I've ever seen. I have been glued to Twitter all morning."

Aria stopped dead in her tracks. A new, colder, and far more dangerous hatred filled her eyes. The ball was just a public spectacle. This was the real prize: a normal life, a place to belong, friends. And Evelyn had stolen that from her too.

She turned to the two remaining friends who hadn't yet abandoned her, her nails digging into her palms. "You see that?" she hissed, her voice trembling with rage. "She's a monster. A manipulative snake. She planned that whole night just to ruin me. Well, I'm not going to let her win." Her eyes narrowed, a cold, calculating glint replacing the panicked horror. "She might have fooled the world with her fancy dress, but this is Sterling. This is my world now."

She pulled out her phone and opened a group chat with the most influential gossip on campus. Her fingers flew across the screen, typing out the first lie in a new web of deceit. "Did you guys hear how Evelyn Thorne really got into Sterling?" she typed, a venomous smile spreading across her face. "It wasn't her grades, I can tell you that. My parents felt so sorry for her after they kicked her out, they pulled some major strings to get her a diversity placement. You know, for 'underprivileged' students. It's so disgusting how she's taking a spot from someone who actually earned it.