How to Tame a Silver Fox – Episode 14
Harper remained on the stairs, every instinct sharpened by Chris’s words. “What don’t I know?” she asked. He ended the call before Mark’s answer could escape through the speaker.
“Nothing you need to worry about tonight.” Chris slid the phone into his pocket, choosing the worst possible response. Harper had heard that kind of reassurance from her father for years; it always meant the truth had been placed beyond her reach.
“So much for treating me like an adult.” She continued upstairs and locked her bedroom door. This time, Chris did not follow.
Sleep came in broken pieces. Every time Harper closed her eyes, Christina’s voice read from the diary again, and the crowd’s laughter swelled around her. Worse was the memory of Chris hearing the confession about him.
Morning light exposed the party’s aftermath without mercy. Harper dressed for campus in simple clothes and tied her hair back, refusing to look like someone hiding after a scandal. When she opened her bedroom door, the smell of coffee drifted upstairs.
Chris stood in the kitchen among neatly stacked trash bags. He had cleaned most of the living room, though a dark stain remained where the Scotch had spilled. He set a cup near her without comment.
Harper ignored it and reached for her bag. “I’m going alone.”
“I heard you the first time.” Chris’s restraint surprised her. “Your car is still at the shop, so I ordered you a ride.” It was help rather than an order, but Harper was not ready to reward the distinction.
The doorbell rang before she could answer. A young woman with dark curls and a Yale sweatshirt waited outside, breathless from hurrying up the walk. Harper recognized Maria Santos from a seminar they shared.
“I came as soon as I saw it,” Maria said. She held up her phone, and Harper’s stomach dropped. A video from the party had already spread through several campus accounts.
The clip began with Christina reading the diary and ended just after Chris broke through the door. Edited captions mocked Harper’s crush while comments debated the identity of the dangerous older man defending her.
Harper forced herself to watch without looking away. She had spent all night fearing whispers; now thousands of strangers had access to her worst moment.
Chris took the phone from Maria and studied the account that posted it. “Who filmed this?” His voice carried the same cold focus he had shown when he found Bryan’s message.
“It doesn’t matter,” Harper said. She reclaimed the phone and handed it back. “If you threaten everyone with an account, they’ll only post more.”
Maria looked between them. “She’s right. Christina wants a reaction.” Unlike the guests from last night, Maria’s concern did not come with laughter or a request for expensive liquor.
Harper had barely spoken to her outside class. “Why are you helping me?” she asked.
“Because I know what Christina does to people who won’t worship her,” Maria replied. She showed Harper another message, this one announcing a midday gathering outside the student center. Christina planned to tell the entire campus her version of the party.
Harper read the announcement twice, then lifted her chin. Hiding would let Christina write the story for her. “Then I’ll be there,” she said, while Chris’s quiet stare warned that keeping his distance was about to become the hardest promise he had ever made.
