She touches his face. “You don’t have to be cruel to be strong.”
“The cruelest intentions are often the most honest. The kindest hearts, the most dangerous.”
Kathryn, furious at losing the bet (Sebastian refuses to claim the car or the cameras), decides to destroy both of them. She spreads a rumor that Sebastian slept with Annette and then posted her nude photo online—a complete lie. The school erupts. Annette is humiliated. Her father, the headmaster, threatens to expel Sebastian. cruel intentions -1999-
For the first time in his life, Sebastian does not have a line. He shakes his head.
Annette slaps him. Hard. “You’re not a monster,” she says, tears streaming. “You’re worse. You’re a man who knows better and chooses evil anyway.” She touches his face
And somewhere across the city, Kathryn Merteuil sits in a bare apartment, her designer bags emptied, her influence gone. She stares at a mirror and for the first time—truly sees the monster.
On New Year’s Eve, as fireworks explode over Times Square, Sebastian stands alone in a snowy field in Vermont. He takes out his phone. He has Annette’s number. He does not call. She spreads a rumor that Sebastian slept with
The target: Annette Hargrove (19), the new headmaster’s daughter. She has just transferred to their elite private school, Manhattan Day, from a small town in Ohio. She is beautiful in an unpolished way—no highlights, no designer labels, no cynicism. Worse, she has published an op-ed in the school paper titled “Virginity: Not a Disease,” arguing for abstinence and integrity. The school’s wealthy, jaded students have mocked her mercilessly. Sebastian finds her… interesting.