I called my faculty adviser.
"Professor, did you see the Substack article?"
My adviser sighed. Her voice was heavy with exhaustion.
"I saw it. The department is discussing it now. The administration wants to suspend your internship until the investigation is complete. Isla, don't return to Northwick yet. Lie low for now."
Lie low? Why?
I had spent two weeks sleeping four hours a night, polishing every detail of that proposal. Now someone had thrown dirt on my name, and I was supposed to hide?
I gripped my phone so tightly that my knuckles turned white.
Outside the window, Asterbridge's winter rain hammered against the glass, the cold seeping all the way into my bones.
I opened i********: and found Lila's account.
She had deleted me long ago, but I could still see her ten most rece
