She Used My Photos to Seduce Men,Then Tried to Ruin Me

After class, a man I'd never seen before was waiting for me outside the lecture building.

Right there in front of everyone, he announced I was the girlfriend he'd been dating online for six months.

I stared at him, completely blank. I had never seen this man in my life.

When I denied it, he lost it and started yelling.

"I transferred thousands to you just last month, and now you're pretending you don't know me?"

"Ten minutes ago you sent me a message saying you missed me!"

My roommate jumped on that immediately, loud enough for the whole crowd: "Oh wow, so *that's* why you're giggling under your covers every night."

All around me, students were turning to staresidelong, suspicious looks that weren't even trying to hide.

The next second, I upended my bag and shook everything out onto the ground: textbooks and one basic phone. Nothing else.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm from the countryside. I've never even used a smartphone."

The smirk froze on my roommate's face.

Susan Edwards stared at me like she couldn't process what she was seeing.

"Rebecca, what are you playing at? Who doesn't have a smartphone these days?"

I just looked at her. My face didn't move.

"So what if I don't have a phone? Back home in the mountains we don't even get signal. What would I need one for? This one was my grandpa's. As long as it makes calls, that's enough."

My dad had given me money to buy a new phone when I came to college.

But the city had too many ways to get scammed, and I didn't trust myself not to fall for one. Everything on campus ran on meal cards anyway, so I just never bought one.

Susan wasn't having it. Her voice went sharp.

"Drop the actyou definitely have a phone!"

"Then what are you messing with under your blanket every single night? I've seen the light coming off it!"

I answered honestly: "Reading novels with a flashlight. You don't do that?"

Susan's mouth opened, then closed. Nothing came out.

Mr. Pierce was getting frantic now, his face flushed red.

"Your name's Rebecca James, right? Avery University, School of Business and Economics. That's you?"

I nodded.

"Then it IS you!"

He shoved his phone screen right in my face. "My online girlfriend's name is Rebecca James!"

"Everyone, look! Here's the transfer history. Over eight thousand dollars in just the last two months! Now that she's got the money, she acts like she's never met me!"

I stared at the screen, trying to make sense of it. The numbers were realreal money, real transfers.

But the person chatting with him wasn't me. I didn't even have an account. How could I have taken his money?

Whispers rippled through the crowd.

"Transfer records don't lie"

"But that phone of hers really is a basic phone. How do you explain that?"

"What if she's faking it? People will do anything for money these days."

Just then, a campus security officer pushed through the crowd, already looking irritated.

"What's going on here? Another relationship dispute? How many times do I have to tell you people, don't cause scenes on campus!"

The moment Mr. Pierce spotted him, he latched on, voice cracking with desperation.

"Please, you have to sort this out for me!"

"I rode a hard-seat train for over twenty hours to find her! She played me, led me on, and took my money!"

"Look at these chats, look at these photos! That's her, isn't it?"

The messages on his phone left nothing to the imagination.

*Baby, I reaaally want that little dress*

*You're the best ? mwah mwah*

But what shook me were the photos in the chat history.

Photos of me in the classroom. In the cafeteria. Even inside our dorm room.

The security guard looked at the photos, then at me, open disgust on his face.

"These are clearly you."

Susan gasped, putting on a perfect show of shock.

"Rebeccaoh my God, how could you do this to someone?"

I shook my head, brow tight. "I didn't send any of these messages. I don't even own a smartphone. How could I have been texting him?"

The guard rolled his eyes, not buying a word.

"What if you've got another phone hidden somewhere?"

Then something on Mr. Pierce's screen caught my eye: a purchase record.

A pale yellow dress. I recognized it immediately. Susan had worn it just a couple of days ago.

I whipped my head toward her. "That dress, isn't that your"

"She's hiding another phone, obviously!"

Susan cut me off instantly, rushing over her words. "What young person doesn't have a smartphone? Don't believe a word she says!"

I looked at her flustered face, and a thought hit me out of nowhere.

Susan had been getting packages delivered almost every single day lately.

And those photos of meespecially the ones taken in the dormonly a roommate could have shot those.

The security guard waved his hand impatiently.

"Enough. You're not going to settle this standing here arguing, and you're causing a scene."

"All of you, come with me to the campus security office. I'm calling your faculty advisor to deal with this."

Right before we left, Susan deliberately caught my arm, her voice all comfort and concern.

"Don't be scared, okay? Just explain everything to them clearly."

She let out a sigh, shaking her head with exaggerated regret:

"You know, I noticed ages ago you'd be up in the middle of the night giggling under your covers... I really should have said something. How could you lead someone on like that?"

I gave her one cold look.

Now I was certain.

Nobody scrambles that hard to shift the blame unless they're the one who did it.

I shook her hand off and turned to the guard. "Fine, let's go. But I didn't do this, and I'm not admitting to a single word of it."

Didn't everything online require real-name registration now? Whoever owned that accounthow hard could it be to trace?

My mind was clear.

Photos could be stolen and lies could be told, but actions always left a trail.

When the truth came out, we'd see who ended up humiliated.

Advisor Chavez arrived at the security office in a hurry, heels clicking sharply, radiating barely contained irritation.

She glanced at me, then at Mr. Pierce still puffed up and furious, and her frown deepened.

After the guard explained the situation, she turned to Mr. Pierce first, her tone pleasant enough.

"Sir, please try to calm down. The university takes these matters very seriously, I assure you."

Then she turned to me, and the warmth vanished. Her expression went flat, impatient.

"Rebecca, what's this about? He's saying you took more than eight thousand dollars from him, and he's got the chat logs and photos right there. Start talking."

I held my ground.

"It wasn't me. I don't have a smartphone. Whoever was chatting with him, it wasn't me."

Advisor Chavez raised a hand and cut me off before I could finish.

"Enough."

"This man came all this way. He's furious. And the longer this drags on, the worse it looks for the university."

She tapped the desk twice. Case closed.

"Here's what's going to happen, Rebecca. You pay the man back, we put this to rest, and nobody hears another word about it."

I sat there, stunned. She wasn't even pretending to ask.

"I never took his money. Why should I be the one paying it back?"

Eight thousand dollarswhere was I supposed to scrape that together? I didn't have it. Not even close.

Advisor Chavez's voice shot up, her finger jabbing so close it nearly touched my face.

"Then how do you explain these photos!"

Mr. Pierce slammed his palm on the table and shot to his feet.

"Exactly! She played with my feelings and took my money. I want every cent back! Eight thousand two hundred, not a penny less!"

I clenched my fists until my knuckles went white.

"I didn't do it. Period. If you don't believe me, then request an investigation. Find out whose name is actually on that account"

Advisor Chavez cut me off hard.

"Check the account? Do you know what a hassle that is? You want the school to go digging through IP logs, pulling camera footage, dragging in the cyber policeall for you?"

"The man can't wait around for that. And the school sure doesn't have time to waste on this."

I didn't get angry. I laughed.

"If you won't check the account, how do you prove it was me? That's just pinning it on someone."

Advisor Chavez's patience snapped.

"The man came all the way to campus and identified you. You're still denying it? Students these daysnothing but lies!"

"And you said you don't even have a smartphone. Well, your roommate Susan Edwards just told me to my face she's seen you using one!"

I frowned.

Why would Susan lie about that?

Everything clicked. Susan was framing meshe'd run the scam, she was scared of the fallout, and she needed me to take the blame.

Advisor Chavez kept going, eyes locked on me.

"Pay him back now, and I'll talk to the man, get him to let it go. I keep this whole thing from going up to the dean. That's the best deal you're going to get!"

I was silent for a few seconds. Then I stood.

"Advisor Chavez, I need to step out and make a phone call."

A satisfied smile spread across her face. She thought I'd come aroundthat I was calling home to scrape together the money.

She waved me off. "Go ahead. Make it quick."

I took my basic phone and walked out.

On speakerphone, my voice carried through the crack in the door and back into the room.

"Hello, Village Head Hale? It's me, Rebecca."

"You told me before there are legal aid attorneys nowones who help people from the countryside with lawsuits. That's real, right?"

"Good. Let me get the number down. People like us, out here on our own, when somebody tries to pin something on youyou've got to have somewhere to make your case, right?"

The moment I finished, a crash came from inside the room.

I ended the call and pushed the door open.

Advisor Chavez's face was drained of color. The cup beside her hand had tipped over, and she hadn't even bothered to wipe up the spill.

That overbearing posture from moments ago had vanished completely.

She'd pushed for a private settlement because she was afraid of the matter escalating.

But it never crossed her mind that some hick from the mountains would actually go looking for a lawyer.

When she saw me walk back in, she forced an awkward smile.

"Rebeccayou're back? Sit, sit, sit down."

"About all that ahem, I got a little heated earlier, that's all."

"I'll take care of it, okay? Justdon't go running off to some lawyer. This is a school matter, we can talk it through"

I watched her face change and said nothing.

Fine. If nobody here was going to make this right, I'd do it myself.

How Susan impersonated me to con people, why the faculty advisor rushed to cover for herI was going to dig up every piece of it.

And when I did, everyone who owed something was going to pay.

After I left the campus security office, Susan kept fishing for information, trying to sound casual about it.

I kept my voice flat.

"I didn't do it, so obviously I'm not paying anything."

Her face visibly changed. She forced out a thin, dry smile.

"Oh well, good then."

Of course she was disappointed. If this didn't go away, Mr. Pierce would keep pushingand the more noise he made, the closer the trail got to her.

So she'd come for me again. That was a given.

I wasn't afraid. The more she tried, the deeper she'd bury herself.

That night, I finished washing up and headed back to the dorm.

A crowd had gathered at the doorseven or eight girls clustered together, craning to see what was going on.

Inside, Susan was tearing through drawers, her voice thick with tears.

"It's really gone! I left it right on the desk!"

The moment I walked in, she looked up, eyes red-rimmed.

"Rebecca, you're back? Have you seen my lipstick? The one in the silver case? I just bought itit was over five hundred dollars."

I laughed to myself. So this was her next move.

The scam angle hadn't worked, so now she needed me labeled a thief.

And if people bought that, the money thing from before would be even easier to believe.

One of our roommates sighed:

"No idea where it went. The door's been locked the whole time, the window was shutnobody from outside could've gotten in"

The implication couldn't have been louder.

The thief had to be someone already inside the room.

I didn't take the bait. I walked straight to my desk and sat down.

A few minutes later, Susan drifted over.

"Rebecca, it's just us in here, right? I've already gone through everyone else's stuff."

"So you don't mind if I peek in yours too? That way we can all just clear the air and nobody feels weird."

I said nothing.

This was obviously a setup.

But the second I hesitated, the whispers started buzzing around me.

"Right? Like, just let her look. If you won't even open it, that kind of says something."

"An innocent person wouldn't think twice. Just pop it open and prove everyone wrongwhat's the problem?"

I knew that if I refused to let her search, the label "thief" would land on me right here, right now.

When Susan saw I wasn't pushing back hard, a flash of triumph slipped through her eyes.

She didn't wait for permission. She reached over and yanked my drawer open.

She knew exactly where to lookfingers diving straight to the very back, digging around

Her expression stiffened.

I stood beside her with my arms crossed.

"Find anything?"

She pulled her hand back empty.

Nothing. She'd found nothing.

I'd expected this. The moment I noticed something extra had been planted in my drawer, I'd thrown it away.

Susan wasn't about to let it go that easily.

She suddenly crouched down, scooped up a black lipstick tube from under my chair, and held it up with exaggerated shock.

"Isn't this my lipstick?!"

"Wasn't the one you lost supposed to have a silver case?"

Susan faltered for a second, then went shrill.

"I just realized this one's missing too! So you stole two of my lipsticks, Rebecca!"

I watched her perform. Not a flicker of guilt in meI knew I hadn't touched her stuff.

"I don't know anything about it. I didn't take them."

"No idea which lowlife shoved it under there."

Susan's expression couldn't hold together anymore, so she pulled out her trump card.

"Rebecca, if you don't apologize, I'm telling the faculty advisor! You know what happens when they catch you stealing? That's a major demerit!"

I didn't move.

"Then go. I didn't take anything."

She could stomp and fume all she wanted. I wasn't budging.

Her little threats didn't even hit as hard as my second aunt back home.

I knew exactly what she was playing at.

Pin the thief label on me first, and once that stuck, the online romance scam money could be dumped on me too.

Too bad for her. It didn't work.

The onlookers weren't stupid.

"It was under the chair. Could've just rolled there off the floor"

"She said one was missing a minute ago. Now it's two?"

"Then again, someone did show up accusing her of scamming money. Maybe she really does have sticky fingers."

I stayed perfectly calm through the speculation.

One thing about growing up in the mountains: you learn not to flinch when people run their mouths.

Whether Susan actually went to the faculty advisor, I never found out. Nobody came to me about it.

The advisor never brought up the money Mr. Pierce had demanded from me, either.

Over the next few days, as I kept my eye on Susan, I actually spotted something off.

Her phone was full of photos of other girlstons of the good-looking ones in our program, specifically.

Chat windows, one after another. She was juggling conversations with dozens of people at once.

A few days later, halfway through a major lecture.

I caught Susan making a move.

She had her phone hidden in her sleeve, the camera sneaking toward someone seated behind her and to the right.

I followed the angle.

Jill Gilbert.

The most well-known rich girl in our schoolpretty enough it almost hurt to look at her.

I couldn't let Susan get away with this.

I shifted in my seat, leaned hard, and went crashing to the ground, chair and all.

The noise was enormous.

Jill's attention snapped toward the commotion on my side of the room.

A second later, her gaze locked directly onto Susan, who was scrambling to cover her tracks.

Susan killed the screen and shoved the phone down, pretending to read her textbook.

But Jill didn't look away. She watched for a long moment, then stood up.

In front of every student and the professor, she walked straight to Susan's desk.

She stuck out her hand, voice flat and cold.

"Phone. Now."