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Chapter 7 - Chapter 9: To Ashes or to Rise

It started with one article.

Then another.

By Monday morning, St. Briar's was in freefall. The headteacher was suspended pending investigation. Mr. Callahan had resigned. Three students were under review for academic fraud. The prefect system was frozen. An emergency PTA meeting was held behind locked doors.

But Amira? She sat in the front row of assembly, untouched.

Kieran watched her from the back — pale, shaking, broken. Luca was gone. Zara transferred schools overnight. Everyone else wore the fear of what might come next.

And still Amira said nothing.

When she finally stood in front of her class for her final literature presentation, she didn't speak of Shakespeare or Dickens.

She spoke of fire.

> "Sometimes the only way to rebuild," she said, eyes burning, "is to burn everything down first."

She finished, head high.

And she walked out.

Some said she was a monster.

Others, a martyr.

But all agreed: she was unforgettable.

Because in the end, she wasn't punished by love.

> She punished love itself.

And she rose.

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End.

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