The academy's weekly charity event was supposed to be a low-key affair—just students, faculty, and a few local donors gathering to support scholarship programs. Nothing dramatic, nothing newsworthy, nothing that would create international social media incidents.
That lasted approximately forty-five minutes before everything exploded.
I was near the refreshment table, attempting to have a normal conversation with some students from my European Economics class, when my phone started buzzing nonstop with notifications. i********:, Twitter, t****k—every social media platform was simultaneously alerting me to something that was apparently going viral in real-time.
Roni appeared beside me, her face pale beneath perfectly applied makeup. "Isabella, you need to see this. Right now."
She pulled
