Chapter 24: The Perfect Victim

Denise froze at Sierra’s blunt words. After a moment, she quickly shook her head. “No, I didn’t… I wasn’t thinking that.” Her eyes instantly turned red, as if Sierra had bullied her.

From the moment Denise had walked into the classroom, people had been paying attention. It was unavoidable—after all, she was somewhat of a campus celebrity. Good family background, beautiful, sweet personality—when she first started college, she had even been named the campus belle. Now, even as a graduate student, the title hadn’t been taken from her.

The guys in class, who were already drawn to her, couldn’t stand seeing her looking so aggrieved. Without asking any questions, they immediately assumed Sierra was the one at fault. One of them spoke up loudly. “Hey, ex-con, don’t think we’re scared of you just because you’ve been to prison. This is a school. If you try to bully anyone here, we’ll report you immediately.”

The classroom fell silent for a few seconds. Everyone knew about Sierra’s past, but no one had ever said it out loud like that. The guy glanced around and sneered. “What? Am I wrong?” A few others quickly chimed in. “Nope, he’s right.” “Don’t worry, we won’t let her bully you, Denise.”

Listening to these so-called protectors, Sierra’s eyes filled with disdain. Denise, on the other hand, shook her head desperately. “No, it’s not like that. She didn’t bully me. She’s my… sister.”

“…Huh?”

The class collectively froze. Whispers quickly spread through the room. “No way. How could someone as nice as Denise have a sister like that?” “I heard Denise’s family is really kind. They took her in out of pity, and she’s been nothing but trouble ever since.” “She got locked up for driving without a license and killing someone.” “I heard that even back in school, she was always stealing from Denise. She found out Yaron liked Denise, so she went after him on purpose. Disgusting.”

Sierra’s gaze turned icy as she looked at Denise. So this was how she played the game—twisting the truth so seamlessly, letting others do the dirty work for her. And these rumors weren’t made up on the spot. They were too detailed. Someone had been spreading them behind the scenes.

Denise avoided Sierra’s eyes, biting her lip as she continued her performance. “It’s no—excuse me—I mean, my sister treats me very well.” Her so-called defense only made the others pity her even more. “Denise is too kind, still standing up for her.” “She’s seriously an angel.” “I can’t take this anymore. Why do we have to be in the same class as her? I don’t want to study with a murderer!”

Sierra smirked and said slowly, “That’s right. No one wants to be in the same class as a murderer.” Denise’s expression changed instantly. Even her perfectly applied makeup couldn’t hide the fear in her eyes. Her whole body trembled slightly. She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but no words came out.

“What’s going on?” Evan had just walked in, only to see Denise standing there, looking scared out of her mind. His first instinct was to pull her behind him protectively, glaring at Sierra. “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.

Before Sierra could respond, the other students started talking over each other. “Mr. Evan, she was bullying Denise!” “Mr. Evan, you came just in time. We don’t want her in our class.” “Yeah! Mr. Evan, can you ask the school to remove her?”

Evan had already been biased against Sierra from the start, and hearing these complaints only reinforced his assumptions. He looked at her with disappointment. “How could you be so cruel? She just recovered, and now you’re bullying her again?”

Sierra crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair, coldly surveying Evan and the riled-up classmates around him. They were united in their anger, forming an invisible wall between her and them. It was Sierra against all of them. And yet, even though she was outnumbered, the quiet strength she exuded was just as powerful as their collective hostility.

She spoke, her voice calm but sharp. “Mr. Evan, let’s be logical here. I was sitting here, minding my own business. She came to me.”

“And you all say I bullied her? Tell me, how exactly did I do that?” She swept her gaze over the crowd of self-righteous idiots. “Did I push her? Did I hit her? Did I call her names?”

“…Uh…”

A silence fell over the room. Thinking back, none of that had actually happened. They had simply seen Denise looking teary-eyed and instinctively assumed Sierra was at fault. After all, wasn’t that what criminals did?