Confessions

Riley stared into the camera lens, seeing her own reflection in its dark surface. Behind that reflection was the world—her followers, her sponsors, everyone who thought they knew her.
They were about to learn the truth.
"My name is Riley Chen," she began again, forcing herself to maintain eye contact with the lens. "I'm twenty-seven years old. I'm a social media influencer with half a million followers. People know me for posting about fashion, travel, and living an authentic life."
She paused, the irony of that word—authentic—bitter on her tongue.
"But there's something about me that isn't authentic at all. Something I've hidden for ten years. In 2015, when I was a senior at Lakewood Academy, a girl named Anna Morrison told me that our English teacher, Mr. Harrison, was sexually harassing her. She was scared and didn't know what to do. She came to me because she thought I was her friend."
Riley's voice cracked slightly, but she pushed forward.
"I told her she was probably misreading the situation. That Mr. Harrison was a good teacher and she shouldn't make trouble. But that wasn't enough for me. After she went to the administration with her complaint, I started a rumor. I told people Anna had a crush on Mr. Harrison. That she was obsessed with him. That she was making up lies because he'd rejected her."
Tears were streaming down Riley's face now, but she didn't wipe them away.
"The rumor spread through the whole school in less than a week. Everyone believed it. Everyone thought Anna was lying, was crazy, was desperate for attention. And it was all because of me. Because I started that lie."
She took a shaky breath.
"Anna tried to kill herself because of what we did to her. She survived, but she has permanent brain damage. She lost her future, her dreams, her life. And I got to go to college, build a career, become successful. All while pretending it never happened. All while pretending I was a good person."
Riley looked directly into the camera.
"I'm not a good person. I destroyed someone's life to protect myself. And I've spent ten years running from that truth. But Anna deserves better. She deserves for people to know what really happened. She deserves justice."
She paused, then added quietly: "I'm sorry, Anna. I know it's not enough. I know sorry can't fix what I broke. But I'm saying it anyway. I'm so, so sorry."
Riley stood and moved away from the camera, her legs shaking. She collapsed into a chair against the wall, burying her face in her hands.
Kyle was already in front of his camera.
"My name is Kyle Martinez," he said. His voice was steadier than Riley's had been, but she could hear the emotion underneath. "I'm an investigative journalist. I've won awards for my reporting on corruption and abuse of power. People trust me to tell the truth."
He laughed bitterly.
"But ten years ago, I used my platform to spread lies. I was editor of the school newspaper at Lakewood Academy. When Anna Morrison accused Mr. Harrison of sexual harassment, I wrote an editorial about false accusations. I didn't name Anna, but everyone knew who I was talking about."
Kyle's hands were clenched in his lap.
"I wrote that editorial because Mr. Harrison offered to write me a letter of recommendation for college. He praised my 'commitment to truth in journalism.' The irony isn't lost on me. I built my entire career on the foundation of that lie. Every article I've written, every truth I've uncovered—it's all tainted by the fact that I silenced a victim to advance my own career."
He looked down, then back up at the camera.
"After my article published, Anna was completely isolated. No one would sit with her at lunch. No one would talk to her. She was treated like a pariah. And I knew it was happening. I saw it every single day. And I did nothing."
Kyle's voice broke.
"Mr. Harrison went on to abuse seven more girls after Anna. Seven more victims because I helped him maintain his credibility. Because I chose my future over Anna's truth. That blood is on my hands. That's something I'll have to live with for the rest of my life."
He stood abruptly and walked away from the camera.
Paige took his place. She sat down with clinical precision, adjusting her position, smoothing her shirt. Even now, she couldn't quite let go of that controlled exterior.
"I'm Dr. Paige Williams," she said. "I'm a resident at Mount Sinai Hospital. I took the Hippocratic Oath. First, do no harm."
Her laugh was hollow.
"But ten years ago, I did immeasurable harm. I was a peer counselor at Lakewood Academy. Anna Morrison came to me after everyone else had turned against her. She was having panic attacks. She couldn't sleep or eat. She asked me to go with her to talk to the school psychologist."
Paige's clinical mask was cracking.
"Instead of helping her, I told the psychologist that Anna had been acting erratic. That I was worried about her mental stability. That she might be having delusions. I planted the idea that Anna was mentally ill, not a victim of abuse."
Her voice hardened with self-loathing.
"I had access to Anna's medical records through my peer counseling role. I saw her declining health—the weight loss, the panic attacks, the depression. I saw the evidence of what our treatment was doing to her. And I used that evidence to undermine her credibility instead of to help her."
Paige's hands were shaking now, her composure finally breaking completely.
"When Anna tried to kill herself, the school blamed her mental illness. The mental illness I had invented. The diagnosis I had planted. I made everyone believe she was unstable, which meant no one believed her accusations. And Mr. Harrison walked free."
Tears were running down her face, though her voice remained steady.
"I became a doctor to save lives. But I can never undo the life I destroyed. Anna will never fully recover from the brain damage caused by her suicide attempt. A suicide attempt that I helped cause. I swore to do no harm, but I had already done the worst harm imaginable."
She stood and walked away, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs.
Aaron approached his camera slowly, reluctantly. He sat down and stared at the lens for a long moment before speaking.
"My name is Aaron Fletcher," he said finally. "I'm a partner at Rothstein & Associates in Manhattan. Corporate law. I defend people for a living."
He paused.
"But I'm not here to defend myself. I can't. What I did is indefensible."
Aaron's lawyer composure was still there, but fragile, ready to shatter.
"In 2015, I was student body president at Lakewood Academy. Anna Morrison filed a formal complaint through student government about Mr. Harrison's harassment. My job was to bring it to the faculty advisor. To make sure it was properly investigated."
His voice went flat, emotionless.
"Instead, I leaked the complaint to the basketball team. I told them which locker was Anna's. I knew what would happen—that they'd harass her, vandalize her property. I knew, and I did it anyway. Because I was worried that a harassment scandal would damage the school's reputation. And a damaged reputation would hurt our college admissions stats."
Aaron's hands gripped the arms of his chair.
"I was more concerned about getting into an Ivy League school than I was about Anna's safety. I watched as her locker was destroyed. I watched as she was humiliated in front of the entire school, including her own father who was a coach there. And I felt nothing."
His voice cracked.
"No, that's not true. I felt relief. Relief that I'd successfully buried the problem. That the school's reputation was intact. That my transcript would look good. I sacrificed Anna's wellbeing for my college application. And it worked. I got into Yale. I became successful. And Anna got brain damage."
He stood abruptly, turning away from the camera.
That left Nicole.
She remained on the floor where she'd been, but she crawled forward until she was in front of one of the cameras. She didn't sit in a chair. She stayed on her knees, like a penitent.
"I'm Nicole Davis," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I'm a school counselor. I work with kids who are bullied, who are struggling, who need someone to believe them."
She looked up at the camera, her face ravaged by tears.
"And ten years ago, I was Anna Morrison's best friend. We'd been friends since middle school. We told each other everything. We made plans for the future. We were going to be roommates at college."
Nicole's voice broke completely.
"When Anna told me about Mr. Harrison, I believed her. I promised I'd stick by her. I promised I'd help her. And then everyone started turning on her. They called me Anna's girlfriend. They started rumors about me too. And I got scared."
She was sobbing now, barely able to get the words out.
"So I abandoned her. I stopped talking to her. I walked past her in the hallways like she didn't exist. And when she came to me, desperate, begging for help, I told her to leave me alone. I told her she was a liar. I told her I never wanted to see her again."
Nicole covered her face with her hands.
"She was my best friend. The person who trusted me most in the world. And I betrayed her to save myself. I chose my reputation over her life. And she almost died because of it."
She looked back up at the camera.
"I became a school counselor because of the guilt. Because I thought maybe if I helped other kids, I could make up for what I did to Anna. But I can't. Nothing I do will ever make up for it. I tell kids every day to stand up for their friends, to speak up against bullying. And I'm a hypocrite. Because when it mattered most, I did neither."
Nicole remained on her knees, her shoulders shaking with sobs.
The room fell silent except for the sound of crying and the relentless tick of the countdown clock.
02:12:34.
Just over two hours left.
The temperature display showed 58 degrees.
The hidden door opened again, and Harrison emerged. He looked at each of them—broken, crying, exposed—and nodded slowly.
"You've told your truths," he said. "Now I'll tell mine."
He sat in front of the last camera.
"My name is Robert Harrison," he began. "I was an English teacher at Lakewood Academy for twelve years. And during that time, I sexually harassed and assaulted nine female students. Anna Morrison was one of them."
The confessions continued.
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**End of Chapter 10**