Page 48 of Cruel Riches

Ew. She really thinks she did something with this, but it’s just pathetic. Get some self-respect, bitch!

Hey, look, a woman doing what she’s actually good for. The rest of you dumb Blackthorne whores need to stop pretending you actually care about education and go back to doing the only shit you’re good at. Fucking, cooking, and cleaning. #MGTOW

Can’t wait until she’s expelled. This video makes us all look bad. I wonder if we can sue her for damages of some kind???

That was just a small sample of the crap on there. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I clicked out of the page and started thinking about my next move.

I couldn’t call Sascha, my mother, or my stepfather to ask for help. It was too humiliating to let my family members see ‘me’ getting fucked on camera, even though it wasn’t actually me, and they knew nothing about technology anyway. They wouldn’t have any idea how to get the original video taken down.

An idea suddenly struck me. I went to my messages and speedily typed out a new one to send to Harry.

Hey, I know you’ve probably seen that video by now. It’s not me, I swear. You’re into tech stuff, so you must know a lot about the internet, right? Or maybe one of your engineering friends does? I need help getting the video taken down if possible. Please.

The read receipt displayed two ticks a few seconds later, so I knew he’d seen my message. Some dots appeared after that, showing that he was typing something. I breathed a sigh of relief. He was actually willing to speak to me.

But then the dots disappeared, and a response never came.

He didn’t believe me.

A few minutes later, an email from the Dean of Students turned up on my phone, requesting a meeting with me. I knew exactly what that was about, but I didn’t reply. I couldn’t. Not right now.

Tears welled up in my eyes all over again. I got up and went over to one of the bookshelves, sank down in front of it, and cried with my head in my hands.

I had never experienced such horrendous humiliation, degradation, and shame before. It was so bad that it made the gazebo incident from two weeks ago look like a walk in the park. Both incidents had something in common, though—they were caused by Nate Lockwood. I knew this video was his doing, even though I had no way to prove it.

It didn’t matter anyway. I couldn’t report him to the Dean in a plea to keep my enrolment intact. If he found out, he’d reveal my secret to everyone, and I couldn’t let that happen. Despite the scalding, stinging humiliation, I’d rather be the unwilling campus pornstar than the Blackthorne Butcher’s daughter, because at least the former ‘title’ would allow me to remain on Avalon Island and continue my secret investigation.

The latter wouldn’t. I’d be hounded and chased back to the mainland like I was Frankenstein’s monster if everyone here found out my true identity.

Then again, part of my investigation was ruined now anyway. Even if I was allowed to stay on at Blackthorne after a scandal of this magnitude, there was no way I’d be able to forge any kind of friendly relationship with my father’s old colleagues in the English and Journalism Department. They’d never be able to take me seriously, and they’d probably also be concerned about being seen with me in case it tainted their reputation.

I would be a pariah on this campus forever.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I muttered to myself, balling my hands into fists. It was so unfair. So deeply unjust.

I took another deep breath and brought up the video on my phone again. Surely there was some way I could prove this girl wasn’t me. A mole or birthmark that I didn’t have on my own body, perhaps, or an unfamiliar scar.

But there was nothing. The girl was identical to me.

Confusion and bewilderment roiled in my guts as a terrible notion flashed in my mind. What if it really was me? What if I was losing my mind and simply forgot that I filmed a past sexual encounter?

No way.I pushed the thought away as quickly as it occurred to me. This was exactly what Nate wanted—to strip me of my dignity, bully me off the campus, and make me feel like I was going crazy.

It simply couldn’t be me in the video. I was no virgin, but I’d never had any desire to make a sex tape. I’d never done anal before, either. I’d considered it in the past, in that curious kind of way that most people thought about sexual things they’d never tried before, but that was it.

The guy in the video wasn’t anyone I’d ever hooked up with, either. He looked a bit like Nate, but that was the only thing about him that seemed familiar.

As the confusion and emotional turmoil twisted my stomach into knots, my core started to pulse with a telltale heat. Despite all my tears, shame, and embarrassment about the horrible video, I was getting turned on by the sight of it.

I was sick.

A total deviant.

Who the hell would actually feel aroused in a situation like this?

You, a tiny voice in the back of my mind told me. You’ve always been fucked up.

I pressed ‘play’ on the video again as heat flooded my cheeks. Perhaps if I watched it again and reminded myself of how utterly humiliating it was to be seen in this state by everyone, the treacherous throbbing in my core would fade into oblivion.

---