Righteous Damage

<p><em><strong>Righteous Damage</strong></em></p><p><strong>By Nico James Veper</strong></p><p>Josh Atkinson a wheelchair-using Careers Advisor enrols on a counselling diploma course he's been sent by his employer. He meets Lorna Romanetti magnetic manipulative and brilliant; whose charismatic presence begins to distort the group dynamics. Lorna sets her sights on Caroline the polished but emotionally unstable participant drawing Josh into an erotic and psychological alliance. At first Josh is captivated: by Lorna's intellect her mystery her control. But soon he becomes her instrument or has he become complicit?</p><p>Together they isolate Caroline exploiting her insecurities and pushing her toward professional and personal collapse. Josh believes he's helping Lorna expose hypocrisy; in truth he's deepening the damage. As Caroline unravels Josh begins to question whether he's liberator or accomplice too late to stop what's coming.</p><p>But Lorna's revenge runs deeper than Josh understands.</p><p>After Caroline is disgraced and gone Lorna targets a darker network: Stephen<strong> </strong>Locke her retired probation officer with a history of coercive control and his old colleague Elliot<strong> </strong>Drexler whose name appears on multiple survivor forums. What began as personal catharsis becomes a campaign of exposure. Lorna uses old contacts her sexuality and strategic whispers to unravel the protective veil around these men.</p><p>Josh now confused emotionally but besotted watches as Lorna transforms into something less like a victim and more like a vigilante. Drexler becomes the final mirror: a man who once protected predators now sweating under Lorna's gaze. The climax unfolds violently intimately a confrontation charged with grief revelation and blood. Lorna exacts her revenge but in the process accidentally and tragically shoots and kills Josh. When the dust settles Lorna disappears into flame and myth leaving Josh and her perpetrators dead and sends a cryptic postcard months later from far away to a friend that reads: <em>Still haunted. Still standing. Love L.</em></p><p><em>Righteous Damage</em> is an erotic psychological thriller about seduction complicity and control. Told through the emotionally unreliable lens of a man both in love and in denial it asks: how far can you be manipulated before you're culpable and what happens when the one pulling the strings vanishes?</p>