MELISSA’S POV What’s all this scandal about? How… how could I possibly be tangled in a mess I wasn’t even involved in? I wasn’t there. I didn’t do anything. I’ve been minding my business, preparing for Miss England, pouring everything into my dream—and yet here I am, watching my name burn on the internet like dry paper. What now? I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know this—this is not good. Not for me, not for my image, not for everything I’ve built these past years. This mess… this scandal… it has to die down. It has to. I can’t let it breathe long enough to choke me completely. But the comments—God, the comments— They were like knives, stabbing in quick succession. Every new one that popped up was worse than the last. The last video I stumbled across was from some girl

