Stephen will not blackmail Josy or Maya and several reasons. First, there's that newspaper article. For that reason alone, several eyes are on Stephen. If he really fucked students, he will be very careful about it, because not only his job is at stake. Jade would get divorced, the girls he fucked could file civil suits against him and that would cost a lot of money.
Even without the MC, Josy and Maya would have friendship relationships with Sage, Jill and Maya would know Jade well too. The risk would be too high for Stephen.
The secrets didn't tear the throuple apart in season 1. They almost didn't make it happen. But to keep secrets would not only damage the group, but also the relationship with the MC. That's why there will be no future secrets between the 3, because Josy and Maya know that then the MC is gone and they love him too much already. But there can still be secrets from the past u which I am more worried about.
But I see another difficulty for the throuple. What if there is a scholarship fund for lesbians and Stephen offers the Maya. Then Maya would not be allowed to show with the MC and only with Josy. That's why there will be the Orange Sky. They will look for a third girl. Then when the four of them have sex with each other, the MC can also fuck Maya and if they are surprised, they can deny everything.
There’s a sordid middle ground where the girls are pressured without explicitly exposing Stephen to retribution. That said… Mona is a wrench in this theory. It doesn’t entirely sink my theory but her directly being upset by Stephen shows a direct link.
The article has wiggle room for plausible deniability. The rumour isn’t that he explicitly pimps girls. It’s the existence of a “quid pro quo”. If Stephen simply directs the girls to parties, social events… business meetings and then has an informal arrangement with “investors” that provide the scholarship donations that they can pressure the girls into sex he’s somewhat isolated. With Quinn pimping the girls anyways it’s not insane they take little to succumb to the investors pressure.
So if he never explicitly “pimps” anyone. He takes donations. Then behind closed doors, with people who are implicated, he agrees to terms. He then arranges for girls to appear at events and donors exert whatever pressure they like to get laid and the girls are primed and amicable due to Quinn.
The distinction here is the only people explicitly aware he’s selling girls into sex are they themselves buying the sex. The girls are pushed into the understanding either by Quinn or the men themselves. Stephen had somewhat plausible deniability. He can shift blame onto the men who actually fucked the girls and they’re a prime target.
I bring this up because then there could legitimately be a scenario where Maya/Josy are pressured without automatically “gotcha’ing” Stephen. If he has some real scholarship, funded by a real donor, and he offers it to Maya he could (behind the scenes) tell said donor he has some lesbians headed their way and all the pressure for sex comes them.
Cue drama. Cue a few episodes of brainstorming how to catch Stephen out. Cue… BaDIK being BaDIK.
