the main clue why we considered Sage to be Jade's daughter was the scene where Jade throws the family portraits at Burke, where we see 2 portraits, one of which is Tybalt and the other remains hidden, scene which of course Mc doesn't see.
that Sage used the name Morgan was a novelty added on the run to make the whole thing less unbelievable.
There is also Jacob warning MC to be careful with Sage that makes it obvious that there is more to Sage than her relationship with Chad and her position among the HOTs. MC cuts Jacob off before he can drop the Burke bomb.
Then at the prep party Sage complains that her parents are there. I haven't combed through that recently, but I'm pretty sure Sage specifically says her mother is there but the only grown woman who has any lines is Jade.
So there are hints to it, but they are the kind of hints that stand out after multiple playthroughs. For a first timer the revelation might as well have zero foreshadowing and the idea that MC should have seen it coming is entirely based on things that happened off-screen. It's sloppy.
My example was admittedly heavy handed and kinda reliant on the rest of the characters being more fleshed out so there'd be more red herrings. More name drops so Sage doesn't stand out so much and such. My idea is that there should be subtle hints that a perceptive first timer might pick on and the vast majority of first time players would go "Why didn't I see that coming?" at the reveal. Really get the players to identify with the MC in the moment.
Instead we got... sloppy.
