Expelled, Betrayed, and $100M Richer

Chapter 3

A large crowd of students from the academy rushed inside, pushing past one another to see Ethan raising his hands on the father that gave birth to him. Dozens of bright phone screens lit up the room all at once.

"Keep recording, everyone!" Julian shouted from the front of the crowd, grinning with cruel excitement. "Make sure the whole campus sees what this ungrateful animal is doing to his own family!"

Before Ethan could even open his mouth to speak, Marcus moved with speed. He dropped heavily to his knees on the hard floor, clasping his trembling hands tightly against his chest in a masterclass of theatrical despair.

Hot, fake tears instantly poured down Marcus's face as he let out a loud, agonizing wail.

"Please stop, Ethan, I am begging you!" Marcus sobbed hysterically, rocking back and forth as if terrified for his life. "Do not hit your own father again! This is the seventh time you have raised your hands against me, even after this old man has begged you so much. Why do you hate me so much?!"

The watching students gasped in absolute shock, their faces twisting in horror at the pathetic sight of an old man weeping on the floor. Several students pushed their phone cameras right into Ethan's bruised face, shaking their heads with deep disgust.

"Look at this monster trying to beat an old man!" Garrett shouted angrily, thrusting his phone forward. "How can someone treat their own flesh and blood with such pure, vicious hatred?"

"He's a heartless beast," another student sneered from the doorway. "He would have murdered him if we hadn't arrived on time!"

Chloe moved just as fast, instantly shifting into the role of a terrified, helpless victim. She snatched a thick math textbook off Ethan's desk with trembling hands, pressing it tightly against her chest. She pulled the white bedsheet securely around her shivering shoulders and forced silent tears to spill freely from her wide, frightened eyes.

"Please... someone protect me from him!" Chloe cried in a tiny, breaking voice that sounded utterly fragile. "Ethan has completely lost his mind! I only came to his room because I was failing my classes and as we all know that Ethan’s father is very good in mathematics”.

She looked directly into the flashing lenses, her lower lip trembling violently.

“Marcus was just trying to help me understand calculus... and then Ethan kicked the door open. He started screaming crazy lies and tried to beat both of us! I am so terrified! How dare he accuse me of cheating with his own father—my boyfriend’s father, of all people!”

Right after dropping those words, Chloe covered her face with her hands and burst into loud, heartbroken sobs, her shoulders shaking as she played the part of a deeply traumatized victim.

The crowd of students erupted into a storm of angry shouts, pointing their fingers at Ethan with looks of pure disgust.

"I can't believe her mind is so pure and he's treating her like trash!" a student yelled. “ This girl is just planning to pass her exam”.

"Look at his dirty, twisted mind!" another shouted, pushing a phone closer to Ethan's face. "Accusing an innocent girl and his own father of something like that! He is an absolute pervert and a monster!"

"A disgusting, ungrateful animal!" someone else spat from the back. "His heart is as rotten as the slums he came from!"

Ethan stood completely frozen in the middle of the room. His hands slowly unclimbed from his fists, dropping limply to his sides. He looked around at the flashing screens, the weeping father, and the trembling, lying girl he called the love of his life.

"You are a total disgrace to Westley Academy!" Julian shouted, his phone lens zooming in close on Ethan's pale, bruised face. "You are an abusive thug who beats women and attacks old people!"

"We are taking this video straight to the dean!" another student yelled from the back of the hallway.

Hearing those words, a cold wave of absolute terror crashed through Ethan's chest, making his heart hammer wildly against his broken ribs. His mind raced as the terrifying reality hit him. 

If these fake, twisted accusations reached the university disciplinary board, his entire life would be shattered into pieces. The strict board members would ban him from taking his final exams, which were coming up in just a few days, without a second thought. 

Being banned from the exams meant losing his full scholarship instantly, and failing to participate meant losing the precious dream of studying abroad that his sweet mother had cherished before she passed away four years ago. 

Four years ago, as she lay pale and sick in that clinic bed, she had held his trembling hand in her weak fingers. With her dying breath, she had made him promise that he would study hard, rise above poverty, become the overall best student, and get the chance to study in France.

To keep that sacred promise, Ethan had worked himself to the bone every single day. While other kids slept, he starved. While others partied, he studied until his eyes burned. Through sheer grit, he had held the top rank as the overall best student in the entire college since his very first year, and no one else in the entire university even came close to rivaling his academic standing.

He needed that top spot to win the golden chance to further his education in France. Going to France was the only way he could finally become the proud man his mother had dreamed him of becoming.

If he lost his chance to participate in the examination now, all those painful years of hunger and endless studying would turn into waste. He would let her down. He could never, ever allow these two wicked liars to destroy the memory of his beloved mother.

Ethan stepped forward with firm steps, standing tall despite the blinding ache tearing through his bruised chest. He looked straight into the bright, flashing phone lenses, his eyes burning with fury. 

He raised his voice high and clear, cutting straight over the noisy chatter of the angry students like a blade.

"Listen to me, all of you! Do not be fooled by their filthy lies and fake tears! You are all standing here filming a lie that was carefully planned to protect two disgusting cheaters!" Ethan shouted, pointing a shaking finger directly at the rumpled bed. "Look at the room with your own eyes!"

For a brief second, the students paused. Their eyes darted nervously between Ethan and the messy mattress.

"I did not attack anyone when I walked inside!" Ethan declared, his voice cracking as he stared straight into the recording lenses. "I opened my door... and I caught the two of them in bed together! They may deny it, but that is the truth”.

Ethan shook his head in shame.

"They were completely naked under those satin sheets, clearly making love without a shred of shame!" Ethan roared, his voice trembling with a righteous fury. "They were sleeping together right behind my back! She was not studying, and he was not teaching! My own father was sleeping with my girlfriend in my own bed!"

A sudden, heavy murmur rippled through the hallway. Several students lowered their phones, their expressions faltering in genuine confusion as they exchanged glances.

Seeing the crowd begin to doubt their carefully crafted lie, panic flared in Marcus's chest. Knowing he was losing control of the narrative, he pushed his performance into overdrive. 

Marcus wailed even louder than before, throwing his arms into the air and beating his own chest with heavy, dramatic thumps.

"Hear how he slanders his own flesh and blood!" Marcus cried out in a hoarse, broken voice, dropping hard on his knees and rocking back and forth. My own son is making up filthy, demonic stories just to destroy my honor and break a father's heart! Look at how much pain this ungrateful boy has caused me over the years! I gave him life, and this is how he repays me—with shame!"

Marcus wept bitterly, squeezing his eyes shut to force out fake tears.

“He is making up lies about an innocent young girl just because he is bitter, angry, and poor!" Marcus shouted directly toward the recording lenses, desperately begging the students for pity. "Do not believe this wicked, unhinged boy, I am begging you all. Do you all think that an old man like me will lie against my own son?”.

"Julian, please make him stop lying against me!" Chloe whispered frantically, her voice trembling with a chilling mix of fear and desperation as she clutched the math textbook so tightly her knuckles turned ghostly white. "He is just trying to destroy my reputation because he knows I finally want to break up with him! Is it now a crime to walk away from a toxic relationship?"

Julian stepped forward instantly, puffing out his chest in anger.

"Shut up your mouth, Ethan!" Julian barked back with venomous rage, his eyes full of pure contempt. "Nobody in their right mind is going to believe the desperate, pathetic lies of a broke scholarship rat over Chloe! As the campus beauty, did you really think you could ruin her life with your filthy lies? It was a massive blessing for you to even breathe the same air as someone like her. Stop slandering an innocent girl!"

Ethan offered no reply to Julian's taunts, nor did he waste any further breath arguing with the hostile crowd. Instead, he turned away from the sneering faces and walked calmly across the room toward his study desk.

Reaching out, he pressed the power button on his desktop computer. The monitor flickered to life with a low, steady hum, casting a cool blue glow across Ethan's unreadable features.

Without a word, Ethan lifted his right hand and pointed directly toward the top corner of the bedroom wall, where a subtle, almost unnoticeable CCTV camera sat inconspicuously mounted near the ceiling.

A faint smile touched Ethan's lips as he turned back to face the stunned audience. 

"You both overlooked a crucial detail," Ethan said, gesturing toward the CCTV camera. "I installed a CCTV camera two days ago, and since then, it has been working non-stop. Everything you did has been captured, and everyone will know who is speaking the truth and who is lying."

Hearing this, Marcus's dramatic weeping instantly ceased as his jaw slacked, while Chloe stood motionless, paralyzed with terror as the textbook slipped from her hands, hitting the floor with a loud thud”.