Triple Icons

Chapter 4 : The revenge plot.

Saturday morning. Chloe didn’t cry.

She sat on her bed, phone face down, and wrote a list. Not a feelings list. A damage list.

1. Allan used me for Williams Development.

2. Zoe betrayed the trio.

3. They think I’ll break. I won’t.

Maya showed up at 9am with iced coffee and a backpack full of snacks, USBs, and spite. “Rule one,” she said, while dropping the bag. “No crying,Crying is for after we win.”

Chloe took the coffee. Black, no sugar. Allan used to bring her that. She took a sip anyway. “Rule two,” she said. “We make them feel what we felt. Numb.”

Maya grinned. That was the Maya Chloe needed. Not the soft one. The one who hacked her brother’s grades in 9th grade.

Plan started in Chloe’s room.

Maya pulled out her laptop. “First: Allan. He wants your dad’s company? Fine. We’ll give him something better,”Fake.”

Chloe leaned over the screen. “Williams Development is bidding on the campus, right? Allan said his dad wanted the proposal early.”

“Exactly,” Maya said. She was already typing. “So we make a fake proposal. Super detailed. Budgets, blueprints, everything. But we leak one number wrong. Just one. Big enough to tank their bid if they use it.”

Chloe nodded. “And we make him think he earned it.”

“Second: Zoe,” Maya said. She pulled up i********:. Zoe’s page was full of selfies, brand deals, Trio forever posts from last month. “She cares about her image, about being liked. So we take that.”

Chloe’s jaw tightened. “How?”

Maya smirked. “We don’t post the video. That’s petty. We do something worse. We let her expose herself.”

Monday. Back at westride Academy.

Chloe walked in like nothing happened. Same smile. Same crown she used to wear in 7th grade, tucked in her bag. She sat next to Allan in AP Lit. Didn’t look at him. Didn’t look away.

Allan tried three times. “Chloe, can we talk—”

“Shh,” she said, eyes on Mr. Carter. “I’m learning.”

He looked wrecked. Good.

At short break, Maya “accidentally” left her laptop open in the library. The fake Williams Development proposal was on the screen. Titled: CONFIDENTIAL - Campus Expansion Bid 2026. File name: _Final_V3_DO_NOT_SHARE.pdf_

Allan walked in 2 minutes later. He saw it. His eyes darted around. He glanced at Chloe, who was pretending to read, then at Maya, who was in the bathroom.

He hesitated. Then he took his phone out and snapped pictures. Fast.

Chloe stood up, Closed the laptop. “Oops, sorry,” she said sweetly. “That’s private. Dad would kill me.”

Allan’s face went blank. “No, it’s fine. I didn’t see anything.”

“Sure you didn’t,” Chloe said. She winked at Maya.

Tuesday, Zoe’s turn.

Zoe posted a selfie before first period. Caption: New week, new me #blessed #sorrynotsorry

Chloe liked it. Then commented: Trio forever?

Zoe deleted the comment in 10 seconds. But screenshots were already flying in group chats.

At lunch, Maya “overheard” Zoe talking to her mom on the phone,loud, on purpose. “I don’t care if Chloe’s mad, Mom. Allan said she’s too busy with her dad’s money to notice—”

Chloe was two tables away. She didn’t react. She just stood up, walked past Zoe, and dropped a sticky note on her tray.

It said: You said that about me before you knew about the video.

Zoe went pale.

Wednesday. The trap snapped.

Allan texted Chloe at 2am: I got it. The proposal. I didn’t want to, but my dad said we need it. Chloe, I’m sorry but I have to. Meet me?

Chloe showed it to Maya. Maya typed the reply: I know, I left it for you, use it. I want your dad to win. I still care.

Allan replied instantly: You’re an angel. Thank you. I’ll make it right.

Maya cackled. “He’s walking right into it.”

Friday, Pierce Tech had the board meeting. Allan’s dad presented Pierce Tech’s bid for the campus. Chloe’s dad was on the panel. Victor Williams watched, stone-faced.

Allan sat in the back, smirking. He thought he won.

Then Victor stood up. “There’s an issue with westride Academy numbers. Page 14. The foundation cost is listed as $2.3M. Our actual bid is $23M. That’s a decimal error. If we’d used your numbers, the whole project would collapse.”

Silence. Allan’s dad stammered. Allan’s smirk died.

Chloe didn’t look at him. She looked at Zoe.

Zoe was on stage for the school awards. “Most Liked Senior.” She walked up, smiling. Then the screen behind her flickered. Someone—Maya—hijacked it.

Instead of her photo, it showed a text screenshot. From Zoe to Allan, sent last night: Don’t worry about Chloe. She’s too rich to care. We’ll be fine.

The auditorium went quiet.

Zoe spun around. “Who did that?”

Maya stood up from the crowd. “I did. Trio rule: you don’t betray us and get away .

Security escorted Maya out,she was grinning the whole time.

After school.

Allan caught Chloe by her locker. He looked desperate. Destroyed. “Chloe, your dad knows. My dad’s company is being investigated. What did you do?”

Chloe closed her locker slowly. “I gave you what you wanted. The inside track. You just didn’t check if it was real.”

“You tricked me,” he whispered.

“You used me,” she said back. “Difference is, I meant it.”

Zoe appeared, mascara running. “Chloe, please. I didn’t mean for—”

“You meant it when you said I was too rich to care,” Chloe said. “You were right. I’m too rich in people who actually love me to waste time on you two.”

She walked away. Maya met her at the gates.

Allan shouted something. Zoe was crying again.

Maya bumped Chloe’s shoulder. “How do you feel?”

Chloe thought about it. No relief. No joy. Just... done. “Empty,” she said. “But clean.”

Maya nodded. “Revenge is cold, huh?”

“Yeah,” Chloe said.

They got in Maya’s car and drove off. No looking back.

Behind them, westride Academy buzzed with rumors. Allan’s dad lost the bid. Zoe lost her title. The trio was down to two.

And Chloe? She was finally just Chloe again.