Chapter 1
The Night They Tried to Steal My Crown
I was sitting in the seventh row when I watched my best friend's dream get stolen in front of nearly two thousand people.
And the woman responsible was smiling.
Nia stood beneath the brilliant stage lights in a sparkling ice-blue gown, waving as though the entire world belonged to her.
The announcer had just declared her the winner of the National American Beauty Crown.
The audience was screaming.
Cameras flashed.
Gold confetti drifted toward the runway.
But I wasn't clapping.
I was staring at the photograph on my phone.
Three numbers.
Three judges.
One score that had mysteriously changed.
And suddenly, everything made sense.
I stood so violently that my chair slammed backward.
"STOP! THOSE SCORES WERE CHANGED!"
My voice cut through the theater.
The music faltered.
Nia lowered her hand.
Her beautiful smile disappeared.
Every camera turned toward me.
For one terrible second, nobody moved.
Then the whispers started.
"Who is she?"
"What did she say?"
"Changed scores?"
I stepped into the aisle.
"My name is Maya Carter, and somebody altered the final results!"
A security guard started toward me.
But I was already moving.
I had promised Evelyn that I would never let what happened to her mother happen to her.
And I had broken enough promises in my life.
Not this one.
Not tonight.
"Security!" Diane Whitmore shouted.
The pageant director rose from her front-row seat, her emerald-green gown glittering beneath the lights.
"Remove that woman immediately!"
I looked straight at her.
"Then show everyone the original judges' scores."
Her face tightened.
"You're disrupting a nationally televised competition."
"I'm exposing a lie."
The audience erupted.
Diane pointed toward the exit.
"Get her out!"
Two guards approached.
One reached for my arm.
I pulled away.
"Ask Arthur Bennett why his score suddenly changed!"
That stopped them.
Arthur was the competition's senior judge.
At sixty-eight, he had spent nearly forty years evaluating national pageants.
He was also the only judge who had refused to sign the final results.
At least, that was what my anonymous source had told me.
I looked toward the judges' table.
Arthur sat perfectly still.
Then he reached beneath his podium.
And stood.
"She's telling the truth."
The theater fell silent.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Diane spun toward him.
"Arthur, sit down."
He ignored her.
In his hands was a sealed cream-colored envelope.
The same envelope I had spent the past six hours trying to locate.
"The results announced tonight do not match the official judging record," he said.
A thousand voices exploded at once.
Nia stepped backward.
"What?"
Her voice barely reached the microphone.
Arthur opened the envelope.
Diane hurried toward the stage.
"You cannot do this without authorization!"
Arthur looked at her.
"Authorization from whom? The person who approved the altered results?"
Her expression changed.
For the first time that evening, I saw fear.
Real fear.
Nia looked between them.
"What's happening?"
Nobody answered.
Arthur raised his voice.
"Bring out the contestant who actually won."
The enormous black curtains behind the runway began to separate.
I held my breath.
I knew who was standing behind them.
But knowing didn't prepare me.
Evelyn Brooks stepped into the light.
My best friend.
My sister in every way that mattered.
She wore a magnificent black crystal gown that shimmered like a midnight sky.
A silver tiara rested above her carefully styled curls.
Her eyes were wet.
Her hands trembled.
But her back was straight.
Three hours earlier, Diane had informed her that she was disqualified.
Not second place.
Not third.
Disqualified.
The explanation had been a supposed violation of an eligibility rule.
Evelyn had cried so hard backstage that she could barely speak.
And now she was walking toward the crown that had nearly been taken from her forever.
The audience began to rise.
First one row.
Then another.
Within seconds, the entire theater was standing.
Nia stared at Evelyn.
The shock on her face was unmistakable.
But something else flickered behind it.
Recognition.
Fear.
I wondered whether she had known all along.
Evelyn reached the center of the stage.
She stopped in front of Nia and extended her hand.
Not to snatch away her crown.
Not to humiliate her.
But to offer her a chance to stand beside the truth.
Nia looked down at that hand.
Then up at Evelyn.
"I don't understand," she whispered.
Evelyn's voice shook.
"Neither did I."
Arthur stepped between them.
He raised the original score sheet.
"The final results were changed after the judges submitted their ballots."
A collective gasp swept through the theater.
Diane grabbed the railing beside the runway.
Arthur continued.
"However, only one ballot was altered. That single change reversed the outcome."
I glanced at my phone.
The picture I had received showed an altered number beside Arthur's signature.
But the signature on the document looked wrong.
I had noticed it immediately.
Someone had carefully imitated his handwriting.
Nia looked at Arthur.
"Who changed it?"
Her voice cracked.
"Please. Tell me."
Arthur lowered the paper.
Slowly, deliberately, he turned toward Diane.
Every camera followed his gaze.
Diane's jeweled hand tightened around the railing.
"Arthur," she whispered.
He took one step toward her.
"You told me this document had been destroyed."
Diane's face went pale.
I felt the crowd leaning forward.
Finally, the truth was about to come out.
But just before Arthur could speak, my phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
One message.
I opened it.
My blood turned cold.
YOU THINK THE SCORE WAS THE ONLY THING WE CHANGED?
Attached was a photograph of Evelyn's mother.
A woman who had died twenty-three years earlier.
A woman whose name had been erased from the pageant's history.
And beneath her photograph were five terrifying words.
ASK DIANE ABOUT THE FIRE.
I looked toward Evelyn.
She was standing beneath the bright lights, completely unaware that the greatest moment of her life was about to uncover the darkest secret of her family.
Then Diane looked directly at me.
And smiled.
Not the confident smile she had worn during the ceremony.
Something colder.
Something that made my stomach turn.
Because in that moment, I understood one horrifying truth.
Diane wasn't afraid of losing her position.
May you like
She was afraid of what Evelyn and I were about to discover.
And she was willing to destroy us to keep it buried.
