Part 2: When her mother used her high heel to shatter her eye for outranking her brother as valedictorian, her father watched in silence and called her a "one-eyed failure."

The meeting took place in the small, glass-walled conference room of the university’s legal clinic.

Colin walked in at 3:00 PM.

He didn't look like the golden boy who had walked across the commencement stage three days ago. He was wearing wrinkled jeans and a plain gray t-shirt. His hair was messy, his face was pale, and his hands were visibly trembling as he pulled out a chair across from me.

He looked at my black eye patch, flinched, and quickly averted his eyes.

"Natalie," he whispered, his voice hoarse. "I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry."

"Save it, Colin," I said, my voice completely devoid of emotion. "Elena said you have something to show me."

Colin swallowed hard. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a heavy, red leather-bound notebook and a silver USB drive.

"What is that?" I asked.

"It’s Dad’s private journal," Colin said, pushing the notebook across the table. "And the USB drive contains recorded phone calls between Dad and the university dean from our sophomore year."

Arthur Vance, sitting beside me, reached out and picked up the drive. "What is on these recordings, Colin?"

Colin looked down at his lap, tears welling in his eyes. "From the day we started college, Dad was paying a senior administrator in the athletics department ten thousand dollars a semester to ensure my academic standing remained in the top five percent."

I went completely still.

"What?" I breathed.

"Dad knew I wasn't getting A's in my advanced economics classes," Colin confessed, his voice breaking into a quiet sob. "He paid to have my exam scores altered. He did it because he had already promised his fraternity alumni network that I would be valedictorian and secure a senior associate position at Vance & Sterling Financial."

I stared at my twin brother.

All those nights I had stayed up until 3:00 AM studying, all those weekends I had spent in the library while Colin went to parties, all those times my mother had looked at me and said, “Colin is just naturally gifted, Natalie. You have to work so hard just to keep up”—it had all been a paid illusion.

Colin hadn't even earned his fourth-place ranking. He was a fraud, sustained entirely by my father’s bribes.

"Why are you giving this to me now, Colin?" I asked, my single eye narrowing.

"Because Dad called me from the jail processing center last night," Colin wept, hiding his face in his hands. "He told me that I needed to take the fall. He wanted me to tell the police that I was the one who asked Mom to hit you. He wanted me to say I had a mental breakdown so they could use it as a defense strategy for Mom!"

A cold, bitter laugh escaped my throat.

Of course. Warren Mercer didn't love Colin either. He loved his own pride. He loved the image of his perfect family. And the moment that image was threatened, he was willing to throw his golden son into the meat grinder to save his own skin.

"They don't care about me, Natalie," Colin sobbed. "They never cared about either of us. You were their servant, and I was their trophy. And now that the trophy is broken, Dad wants to throw me away."

I looked at the red leather journal sitting on the table.

Inside those pages lay the complete destruction of my father’s corporate reputation, his financial standing, and his legal defense.

"If I give this to the prosecutor, Colin," I said quietly, "your degree will be revoked by the university. You will be expelled, and you will face academic fraud inquiries."

Colin looked up at me, his eyes red and hollow.

"I know," he whispered. "I don't care anymore. I just want it to stop."