Page 71 of Make Her Break

I swallow hard. “I guess he never said anything to anyone, and no one ever thought to ask. He’s a professor, so no one was looking at him and no one knew about their relationship. Why did he keep this video, though?”

“No idea. Probably because he thought no one would ever get inside his house or find his hiding place, or maybe he’s just that sick and wanted to keep it. But the footage was gone because the cops didn’t find it, so he must’ve cut it.” Jayden clenches his jaw so hard that I bet he’s about to crack a tooth.

“This doesn’t prove he pushed her, though. They could’ve had a fight or broken up, and he can claim she jumped on her own after that. Maybe that’s why he’s kept the clip.”

We click through more folders, and after a while, we find one full of messages, saved as screenshots, and I hold my breath as Jayden zooms in on one. It’s an email thread, showing back and forth between Camden and some address that’s just a jumble of letters.

Please, you can’t tell anyone about this. Not now. It would ruin everything, and it would ruin you too. Think about that.

I glance at Jayden. “He was begging her not to tell anyone.”

Jayden clicks on to the next screenshot from the anon account that’s probably Elsie’s.

You’re breaking the rules. You know it. Professors aren’t even allowed in the society, and you’re at the top of it, lying to all of them. If they knew what you really were, you’d be finished.

Jayden makes a sound low in his throat, and I scroll to Camden’s reply.

I’m the best leader in the society’s history, and you want to let someone else do it? Changing leaders now would destroy everything. No one’s going to believe you over me, so think very hard about what you’ll do next.

My mouth goes dry as I stare at the screen. Camden really is full of himself if he believes he’s the best leader of the society ever, and he kept all the evidence on his laptop as if he’s untouchable or something. That’s insane.

“How the fuck was he running this whole thing for years? How did no one realize what was going on? He must be really good at changing his voice.” I furrow my brow.

“Probably. And Elsie knew he was breaking the biggest rule.” Jayden glares at the screen. “She could’ve ended his little game. No wonder he was freaking out.”

I read through a few more of the messages, and it’s all more of the same, with Camden going back and forth between begging her to keep quiet and reminding her that she had everything to lose too. It makes my skin crawl. And the more I read, the more it bugs me that he wasn’t cautious about any of it. He did all this and got away with it, and then he just kept it all as if it was some kind of trophy.

“I don’t get it,” I say. “Why would he keep any of this? If it were me, I’d have burned everything as soon as she was gone. How was he so sure no one would find any of it? Just because he used the society’s trick for hiding it? But didn’t he think a member would get inside his house?”

Jayden lets out a breath. “I guess it never crossed his mind that anyone would ever figure it out. He probably thinks he’s smarter than everyone on the whole campus, and since this worked out for him for who knows how long, he probably relaxed.”

“Maybe, but it’s still crazy.” I scroll back up to Elsie’s email address. “And she didn’t even use her real email. Even if her parents or the cops went through her stuff, they’d never find any of this or anything pointing at him because I think this is one of those throwaway email accounts.”

“Exactly. They were really good at hiding their relationship.” Jayden scoffs. “I never even knew she was dating anyone. And no one ever thought to look at a professor, because it just seemed so unlikely and there weren’t any connections. He was right there in plain sight the whole time, running the society, and everyone treated him as if he were some random guy who happened to teach here.”

“But did he kill her? Did he try something else first?” I ask. “She was a member of the society, so...”

“What else could’ve happened? She’d never take her own life. That’s for sure. And he needed her to stay quiet, and I bet she refused because she was stubborn like that. Kind of like you. She would’ve never given up on doing the right thing.” His eyes are teary, and he blinks hard, pressing his lips tightly together.

I want to say something to make him feel better, but nothing comes to mind because he’s probably right, so I put my hand on his shoulder. “What do we do with all this then?”

“We use it.” Jayden wipes his face with the back of his hand and looks at me. “He needs to pay for what he’s done.”

“Then we should put all of it online. The video, the emails, everything... Once it’s out there, he can’t make it disappear, and he can’t threaten us to keep it quiet, because it’ll be too late. He’ll have to worry about himself.” There’s no point in trying to make a deal with Camden, since then he’d know exactly what we have and he might come up with something or run away, which we can’t let happen.

“Yeah, and we need to send it to the cops too,” Jayden adds. “They need to do a proper investigation.”

“Right. He won’t be able to spin the story anymore.” It feels so good to finally have a way to get back at Supreme, since he’s been trying to ruin my life. “He’ll need to explain what really happened that night and everyone will know he’s been running the society the whole time, so he’ll lose that too.”

A tired smile tugs at Jayden’s lips. “Oh, that son of a bitch is going down.”

“What about the fake video he has?” I grimace. “If we do this, he’s got nothing left to lose, so he can just post it everywhere out of spite. Not that this changes my decision or anything, but just—”

Jayden tilts his head. “He might, but I doubt it’s going to be the first thing on his mind. Once this is out, he’s not going to be worried about you or me or getting some money out of your family anymore. He’ll be thinking about not ending up in prison. Besides, the cops will be going over everything, and if he has the video, that would be one more charge against him.”

“I really hope you’re right.”

Whatever, really. If the video comes out, it’ll suck, and I’ll have to deal with my parents and everything else, but Camden won’t have anything left to hold over me.