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“The statements include varying accounts of physical and psychological torture—some of which are directly evidenced by the recordings—including threats of violence, coerced sexual acts, and the use of extreme measures to control and manipulate the students. One of the most harrowing accounts came from Sophia Rosales, an Ironside employee who recently became a surprising star on the show. Rosales described being tortured, only to have her injuries spun into a marketing strategy after she bonded with show favourite, Adam Bellamy. The statements allege that her torture was a tool to force Bellamy into performing sexual acts for clients of the Stone Dahlia.”

The anchor’s expression remained grim, her eyes fixed unflinchingly on the camera.

“Perhaps the most impactful statement came from Isobel Carter, one of the show’s most popular contestants.

She alleges that she was blackmailed into the Stone Dahlia and forced to perform in a variety of different ways on a weekly basis, as well as being forced to participate in ‘dates’ in the so-called ‘Icon Cafe.’ Carter was manipulated into dangerous and traumatic situations to save her friends from being exposed to those same fates.

This includes being drugged and forced to remove her clothing for a private client, who had paid an obscene amount of money for the chance to do ‘whatever they wanted’ with the top star, as detailed in the damming voice recordings.

She claims that a former dorm supervisor sexually abused her on several occasions, and that officials of the Stone Dahlia not only covered up acts of sexual abuse attempted on her by other students, but that stalking, blackmailing and torturing her were ‘special tasks’ given to other students at Ironside.

On two occasions, her famed Gifted ‘bond’ was damaged through painful acts of mutilation, on the behest of Ironside officials within the Stone Dahlia, bringing her close to death on both occasions.

Carter was also forced to perform in ‘kink rooms’ designed to exploit the Gifted students for profit, and ‘red rooms’ where drugged students were sold to the highest private bidder. ”

It was surreal to hear her most private and painful moments discussed, laid out so matter-of-factly on live television, to know that there would be people, despite the recordings backing up many of her claims, who would doubt everything.

She had half expected the officials to bury the entire article before it even went live, but it seemed that certain higher-up people in the government or law enforcement had already been aware of the Stone Dahlia and were building their case.

Maybe they had been working with Amina Al-Fahim.

It almost seemed like a coordinated attack, the article dropping just as law enforcement moved in, not giving their targets any time to flee.

She forced her attention back to the anchor still speaking on the laptop screen before she could spiral into theories .

“Other statements included accounts from the Alpha students, who described being forced into violent confrontations for the entertainment of wealthy patrons. The Ironside professors, Mikel Easton and Kalen West, revealed the existence of private auctions where underage students were sold to the highest bidder for ‘private performances,’ with one of the recordings appearing to confirm these allegations. It is unclear if these performances are linked to the now-infamous ‘red rooms.’”

“Attempts to contact the Gifted whistleblowers have so far been unsuccessful. Sources within the academy claim that the students, the two professors, and the Gifted employees have fled Ironside and are no longer present at the facility. The Ironside administration board claims that they left of their own volition and are not currently under the protection of the academy.”

The words echoed through the room, the cool air growing sharper and more suffocating as the implications sank in.

They hadn’t expected silence, but the officials had wasted no time in hanging them all out to dry. The European Gifted laws allowed them to exist within Ironside, and nowhere else. They had broken the law by leaving and could face deportation or imprisonment if they were caught.

Still, it was better than a fluke “gas explosion” or however else Callum might decide to silence them. There were no guarantees that even with all this attention on them, even with all their contacts being rounded up and their safety nets being torn apart, the officials would behave themselves.

Callum knew very well that he didn’t have to eliminate their entire group to tear them down.

He only needed to kill off the Alphas, and Isobel would wither away all on her own.

Or he could kill her and expose the Alphas when they lost control.

They would be useless as witnesses, easily discredited.

Easily framed as dangerous, violent, and demented.

There were too many ways to hurt them. It was better that they were all out of reach.

Oscar muttered a curse, shoving away from the desk, dark eyes simmering as he stepped away from the group, his fists clenching as he crossed his arms tightly. After a moment, he dug out his phone and lost himself to his messages. Probably checking on Lily.

As Gabriel turned down the volume again, Cian also shifted away, raising his phone to his ear and speaking low as he disappeared into one of the hallways.

Kilian, Moses, and Theodore followed, all of them focussed on their phones.

Maya, Sophia, and Bellamy retreated into the bunk room they had shared, and a few minutes later, Isobel could hear Bellamy on a call, loudly arguing with his father.

After another minute, Niko’s phone also began lighting up, and he wandered away, leaving her with Elijah and Gabriel.

They were the three who considered their group their entire family, and didn’t have people worrying about them on the outside.

Though … even as the thought occurred to her, her phone began to vibrate again.

She pulled it out finally, glimpsing her father’s number.

“Hi.” She stuck the phone to her ear, her skin growing tight with anxiety. There was a reason she had been ignoring the calls, she belatedly realised.

Her changed relationship with her father had come to an inevitable crossroads.

She was no longer on the path to becoming what he wanted, what would best serve him, and his connection to her might actually damage his reputation and standing in the human world.

There was a reason Bellamy’s father was shouting through the phone at him in another room right now, and it likely didn’t have much to do with Bellamy’s safety.

No Gifted wanted to be connected to an anti-loyalist, and while the media hadn’t labelled them as such just yet, the fallout would be on the flip of a coin.

As the whistleblowers of the Stone Dhalia operation, they might escape the collapse of the system, or they might get buried in the rubble.

It all depended on how much the world really wanted to change.

“Hi,” her father responded, his voice tight.

She waited for the explosion, but it didn’t come. Instead, so much silence stretched between them that she checked her screen to make sure they were still connected.

“Since you finally answered, I guess you’re safe,” he concluded.

Her lips parted, a short breath escaping. That’s why he had been blowing up her phone. To make sure she was safe?

“Don’t look so fucking surprised,” he growled.

“You can’t see me,” she immediately shot back.

“You’re breathing in surprise.” He fell into silence again but then exploded with another shocking statement. “I’ve been worried sick, Isobel.”

“Are you taking parenting classes?” she asked, her brows shooting up. “Are you going to ground me too? Send me to bed without dessert?” She had no idea why she was actively trying to pick a fight.

“I mean it.” He worked to get his tone under control. “I …” He cleared his throat, once, twice. “You promised you would tell me if they asked you to see private clients.”

“It was a recent development.” She flinched a little. “I didn’t realise there was anything you could do.”

“I would have pulled you out of Ironside.”

“And then lost custody of me as they sent me to the settlements to live,” she countered, frowning down at the concrete floor, confusion filling her. The irrational, emotion-driven statement didn’t seem like him at all. “ You know the Icons can’t keep their children once they come of age.”

“I would have found a way.” He slammed a hand down on a table, forcing objects to rattle around. That was more like him. “I’ve been talking to lawyers, you know …”

“And they’ve been telling you it’s impossible.” It wasn’t a question. Her father certainly wasn’t the first Icon, and there was no way he was the first to try and keep his children after they came of age or graduated from Ironside.

If it had been possible, it would have been done.

“Why did you run?” he demanded. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why didn’t you tell me you kidnapped Teak?” she shot back, feeling Gabriel and Elijah’s eyes on her.

She shifted closer to them as soon as she felt their concern through the bond, slipping onto Gabriel’s lap just as he turned the chair, his arms easily catching her, neither of them paying much attention to the way their bodies drifted and curved together without thought or effort.

Elijah leaned on the desk beside them, catching her fingers and dragging them over his hard thigh.

They listened with their Alpha hearing as her father paused for a little too long on the other end of the phone.

He let out a short sigh. “How did you figure that out?”

She hadn’t told him that she could see the remnants. She hadn’t told him a lot of things—just as he hadn’t told her a lot of things.

Maybe it was finally time.

What was there to lose?