Aiden’s jaw tightened the smallest fraction, like someone deciding whether to peel off a bandaid. “I don’t have the full picture yet,” he said. “But I have reason to believe someone is trying to manipulate both of you. Someone who benefits from setting you against each other.”
“Who?” Serena pressed. “Who benefits?”
“Someone with access and an agenda,” Aiden said. “And someone who wants to make Lanry look bad in public while making Maylen look exposed in private.”
Maylen’s mind rewired itself around the idea of conspiracy. “So you’re telling me Lanry didn’t film me?”
“I’m telling you what I’m paid to tell him,” Aiden said. “That the pattern doesn’t point to him taking pictures from the alley. It points to a third party staging things to get a reaction. Someone making a war of two people
