The screenshot in Mara’s hand changes everything. It is not vague. It is not suggestive. It is an instruction: push Alex’s name. Jamie has imagined proof before, but holding it feels worse than doubt. Proof does not calm her. It sharpens the danger.

St. Patrick’s Day covers campus in green, but Jamie feels none of the ease everyone else is pretending to have. The louder the celebration gets, the more exposed she feels. Crowds are good at many things. They are especially good at giving fear witnesses.

What unsettles Jamie most is not the noise online. It is the pattern underneath it. CJ does not guess. He places himself close enough to names, routines, and systems that people stop asking how he knows so much.