The place Leonardo chose for the meeting with Amanda was an abandoned building on the outskirts of the city, a concrete skeleton covered in graffiti and dampness.
When Amanda arrived, hesitant and scared, she found Leonardo leaning against a graffitied wall, arms crossed, an almost imperceptible smile on his lips.
He no longer wore the expensive clothes he had used to deceive Amanda's mother; he was in his usual worn-out clothes, but his posture was completely different.
"You came," he stated, his voice calm, without any trace of surprise.
"Smart, or perhaps just desperate."
Amanda shivered, hugging herself.
"What do you want from me, Leonardo? Haven't you done enough?" her voice was a mixture of anger and exhaustion.
"Enough?" he laughed, a dry, humorless sound. "I've barely begun, Amanda, and you could be a very interesting part of my new project."
"Project?" she stared at him, trying to find some trace of the pathetic boy she used to torment.
There was nothing, only a calculating man.
"I don't want to be part of anything of yours."
"Oh, but I think you do," Leonardo said, pushing himself off the wall and taking a few slow steps towards her.
"Your life is in tatters, isn't it? Caio hates you, your mother has become my private little toy, and your 'friends' will soon stab you in the back when the scandal spreads."
"And it will spread, Amanda. I guarantee it."
Each word was a needle pricking her skin. She knew he was right. Her popularity, her status, everything was about to crumble.
"What do you want?" she repeated, her voice failing.
"I want to offer you a choice," he said, stopping a few meters from her.
His eyes seemed to penetrate her soul, seeing all her insecurities, all her fears.
"You can continue being the victim, crawling in the mud, waiting for the world to pity you, or you can join me. Take some of this opportunity I've discovered and turn the tables."
Amanda looked at him, incredulous. "Join you? After what you did to my mother? To me?"
"Your mother made her choices, Amanda, and willingly accepted them. She found a kind of satisfaction she never had before." He smiled, a perverse glint in his eyes.
"And you? You have so much wasted potential. So much anger, so much ambition hidden beneath that high school queen facade."
He moved closer, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "I read your diary, remember? I know your secret desires. I know about your frustration with Caio, your envy of other girls, even that sick little attraction to Vítor."
Amanda's face flushed. To be exposed like that, to have her innermost thoughts revealed by him, was humiliating.
But it also made her curious.
He was seeing Amanda as she truly was, not the artificial image she had crafted over the years.
"What are you proposing, exactly?" she asked, curiosity battling disgust and fear.
"I'm proposing an alliance," Leonardo said. "You help me with a few things, and I help you get what you want. Revenge against those who wronged you, power over those who despise you, maybe even a new position in the social hierarchy, one that no one dares to challenge."
He gestured to the abandoned building around them. "This world is dirty, Amanda. The strong devour the weak. Do you want to remain the feast, or do you want to sit at the table with me?"
The metaphor was crude but effective. Amanda had always wanted to be at the top, always feared insignificance. The life she knew was crumbling.
Maybe... maybe he was offering a lifeline, however rotten it might be.
"And what would I have to do?" she asked, her voice still hesitant, but with a new tone of interest.
Leonardo smiled.
"For starters, you'll help me sow a little more discord. Your knowledge of the school's dirty laundry is valuable. We'll expose some secrets, topple some kings and queens from their paper thrones."
He thought of Vítor. Amanda, despite her superficial aversion, had a strange fascination for him, according to her diary. Perhaps he could use that.
And Natalia... Amanda knew Natalia through her mother. She could be a bridge.
All Leonardo wanted to do was use Amanda as best as possible and discard her at the first opportunity.
His plan was in motion.