The Scammer

Jordyn spends most of the next few days studying in the library and avoiding the dorm. She sees Nick a few times but avoids talking to him.

One day, she returns to her dorm to find the police there. They question her about Kammy, and Jordyn tells them everything she knows but doesn’t mention Devonte.

After, Jordyn sees Loren and Vanessa outside. The three embrace, bonding again over their fear of losing Kammy. However, when Jordyn asks what Devonte said, Vanessa is adamant that he can’t be involved with the police. Jordyn pleads with Loren, who hesitates but then sides with Vanessa in refusing to tell the police about him. Angry, Jordyn is adamant that they need to know, so she goes back inside.

As Jordyn approaches her suite door, she sees a police officer coming out with an evidence bag. She recognizes Kammy’s scarf, with bloodstains on it. Another officer asks why she has Kammy’s things in her closet. He tells her that they need to speak with her at the station.

Jordyn spends five hours at the station being interviewed. She repeatedly insists that she doesn’t know anything about Kammy until they finally let her go. She still chooses not to bring up Devonte.

When Jordyn leaves, she is relieved to see that Nick is there. He gives her a ride back to her dorm. He tries to talk to her, but she is adamant that she doesn’t have the energy right now.

Back inside, Jordyn finds the contact information for Devonte’s parole officer, Arnold Woods. She decides to report Devonte anonymously and hopes that they will deal with him. She calls him and tells him that Devonte is committing credit card fraud again. Woods tells her that she needs to call Detective Andy Gates. The panic in his voice makes Jordyn realize that something is wrong. She calls Gates and gets no answer, so she leaves a message. 

She looks up information about Devonte, which she had done before but found nothing. This time, she looks further and finds an article about David Saunders. He was investigated 16 years ago after the death of a college student. He realizes that Devonte must have changed his first name.

Jordyn rushes to Loren’s next class and confronts her, showing her the article, but Loren insists that it is “fake.” She angrily tells Jordyn that she needs to leave Devonte alone.

Over the next few days, things go back to normal in Jordyn’s suite, with Devonte returning and continuing his preaching. Jordyn locks herself in her room, wondering why no one is doing anything about him on campus. One night, Nick calls her. He insists that he is coming to see her. Jordyn tries to stop him but hears him already knocking on the door. She goes out as Kareem and Nick confront each other. She takes Nick into her room and locks the door.

Nick gives Jordyn food that he made. She promises to eat as long as he talks. Nick apologizes for what happened. He tells her that he was overwhelmed, thinking about Ashley, but extremely happy to have her at his house for Thanksgiving. He insists that he wants a real relationship with her, and Jordyn forgives him.

Jordyn and Nick prepare for a holiday party with FUSA. Jordyn asks if he is sure he wants to be seen with her in public, and he is adamant that he does. He plans to announce his candidacy for trustee.

When Jordyn’s phone rings, she assumes it is Detective Gates calling her back, so she excuses herself, promising to meet Nick at the party. Instead, it is Loren. She warns Jordyn that “they’re coming for” her (314), then hangs up. Jordyn contemplates whether to tell Nick. She decides that she doesn’t want to ruin his night.

Jordyn stops in the bathroom before going to the party. A moment later, several girls, including Kerry, come into the bathroom and lock the door behind them. The girls take turns slapping and punching her, muffling her screams. One girl uses scissors to cut off clumps of her hair. She is thrown into a stall, where she hits her head and is knocked out.

Jordyn remembers the last night she saw Kevin. After being at college for a few months, he stopped messaging or calling her. She came downstairs to find him in the kitchen. As he made her tea, she questioned why he stole money from their parents. She asked if he was on drugs, but he was adamant that he wasn’t.

In this version of the memory, Kevin tells her that he wanted her to go to an HBCU so she could experience what it’s like to belong. However, now she needs to “let [him] go. Or else” (319).

When Jordyn is found unconscious, she is taken to the hospital. She calls her parents, and they immediately contact the police. The girls who attacked her were on camera entering the building, and they are all arrested.

When Jordyn is released, she is adamant that Nick take her back to her dorm. He tries to convince her to go elsewhere, but she refuses. He promises to find her a new place to stay, tells her to lock her room, and leaves.

After Nick is gone, Loren comes out of her room. She checks on Jordyn but still accuses her of spreading rumors about Devonte being a killer. Jordyn tries to argue with her, but Loren insists that Devonte has changed her life, and she can no longer just pretend that life as a Black person is fine.

Jordyn goes to talk with Dr. Barnes. She asks him how he can be happy when Black people have always been so mistreated. He explains that she is at a point that all Black people come to in their lives: They need to decide how to handle injustice. Some people confront it directly, use violence, or even ignore it. He chooses joy because it proves that Black people can be happy despite everyone’s attempts to stop them. At the same time, he still works to address injustice.

Jordyn tells Dr. Barnes about Devonte. He points out that it’s likely that no one knows what he is doing or that he is even there. He tells Jordyn that she needs to address the “fire before it spreads” by “depriv[ing] it of oxygen” (327).

When Jordyn leaves Dr. Barnes, she calls Vanessa. Vanessa tries to apologize for what happened, insisting that she didn’t know the girls were going to attack her. However, Jordyn ignores her, asking to talk with Devonte. When he answers, expecting an apology from Jordyn, she instead says, “Lions are not concerned with the opinions of sheep” (328). Jordyn can tell that the words upset him. She tells him to meet her alone.

Devonte comes to Jordyn in her room. He asks where she heard the phrase, and she tells him that he said it once. However, he is adamant that he never did. She asks what it means, and he tells her that it means “kings weren’t meant to starve” (330). She resists the urge to tell him that he’s wrong.

Devonte tells Jordyn that he is in love with her. He wants to take her to Emancipation before anyone else so that they can start a life and a family. She questions why he sent the girls after her, but he is adamant that he never meant for them to hurt her that badly or cut her hair. She asks if she can have her credit cards so that she can buy new clothes, but he insists that she doesn’t need possessions. 

As Devonte touches her, Jordyn is still torn, wondering if there is truth to what he is saying. However, as he kisses her cheek, the door opens behind them, and police officers enter. Jordyn pulls the wire out of her shirt. As the officers search Devonte’s things, she knows that they’ll find more credit cards in her name that she planted there. As she looks back at Devonte, his triumphant smile makes her uncomfortable.

In the police station, Jordyn is unnerved, feeling like it was too simple to trap Devonte. Nick arrives to comfort her. The police reveal that Devonte posted bail and immediately got on a plane to California. Jordyn thinks of how much influence Devonte truly has over people. The lawyer her parents hired, Mr. Harris, assures her that she is safe. They discovered that someone edited the footage from the dorm, and Kammy was last seen leaving with Devonte. They also tracked Jordyn’s cell phone records and discovered that she was rarely in the dorm, clearing her of Kammy’s disappearance.

Back in her dorm, Jordyn packs up her belongings. She is upset that her parents are making her leave yet also realizes that it’s probably for the best. She wishes that things had gone differently at Frazier but knows that her parents are right—she would never fit in here after everything that happened.

Jordyn’s phone rings with an unknown number. It’s Detective Gates. She asks about Devonte’s arrest, noting his credit card schemes, but Gates warns her that he didn’t act alone. They believe that his girlfriend was largely responsible for it. She was also the prime suspect in the murder, but no one really reported on it. Her name is Shameeka, but she’s been known to use the name “Vanessa”; she is actually 32 years old. At that moment, Vanessa walks in the door.

Vanessa asks Jordyn what she wants to talk about. Jordyn forces herself to calm down. As they go into the living room, Vanessa goes into the kitchen to make tea. She returns with two mugs and is putting a white powder into one. She assures Jordyn it’s just sugar, but Jordyn believes it is the hallucinogen that Devonte has added to their tea before. Jordyn gets her phone to try to text Nick, but Vanessa calls her into the living room.

As they sit on the couch, with Jordyn hesitating to drink, Vanessa laughs and switches mugs with her. Jordyn drinks from her mug as Vanessa does the same. Vanessa apologizes for what happened and asks if Jordyn knows where Devonte is. However, she then starts to feel the impact of the drug. She lunges at Jordyn, punching her and pinning her to the ground. As Vanessa starts to choke Jordyn, the drug overwhelms her and causes her to collapse.

Jordyn pulls out her laptop. She shows Vanessa a picture of her brother with Vanessa. Kevin was in love with Vanessa, which led him to believe that he needed to go to Frazier. He loved the show Game of Thrones, the source of the quote Jordyn told to Devonte, signaling that she knew of his connection to Kevin. Jordyn screams at Vanessa that she ruined Kevin’s life and her life, feeling satisfaction as Vanessa passes out from the drug.

Jordyn thinks of the five stages of grief, noting how people forget that “revenge” belongs at the end. She reflects on what happened over the last two years. After Kevin died, she went through his computer, adamant that he wouldn’t die by suicide without a reason. She discovered a file about “Emancipation” and began looking into Vanessa and Devonte. She learned that Vanessa was behind everything and tracked her whereabouts. When she learned that Vanessa enrolled at Frazier while Devonte was in prison, Jordyn bribed Ms. Rogers at Student Housing to ensure that she ended up in the same room as Vanessa.

Jordyn expresses her regret at how influential Devonte turned out to be, so much so that she even started to believe him. She feels bad that her friends were as affected as they were and feels guilt over Kammy’s death, but she is adamant that she didn’t realize how far Vanessa would go. She also admits that she was never a good friend.

After Vanessa fell unconscious, Jordyn planted evidence in her room and on her computer of all the fraud and crimes she committed. From there, she acts as if everything was a coincidence, while her parents ensure that she is defended by her lawyer.

Jordyn pulls out her phone and has a text message from Jack. He praises her for having found Vanessa, while Jordyn notes that he knew what she was doing all along; she trusts him with the truth because he understands her need for revenge. She tells him that she is staying at Frazier.

After finishing their finals, Jordyn and Nick walk through campus holding hands. As a new trustee, he is fighting for strict rules about dorm visitation and stronger mental health counseling. He tells Jordyn that he is proud of her for surviving everything that she went through. She is staying in a new dorm in the spring, despite her parents' offer to get her an apartment. Her mother came to help her move and is supporting her decision, while her father is still uncertain about her decision not to go to Yale. 

Vanessa’s trial will start in the fall, and Loren has agreed to testify; no one has been able to find Devonte. Despite everything she went through and the regrets she has, Jordyn is excited to be at Frazier, and she is sure that Kevin would have liked it, too.