Expelled, Betrayed, and $100M Richer

Chapter 5

Marcus and Chloe stepped into the silent, tense room, carefully positioning themselves near the center of the floor.

Chloe kept her eyes lowered, her posture painfully fragile as she let small, breathless sobs escape her trembling lips. She held the math textbook tightly against her chest like a protective shield, repeatedly casting quick, terrified glances toward Ethan whenever he shifted in his seat, making it look as though she feared for her life.

Beside her, Marcus moved with the slow, unsteady steps of a completely exhausted and broken father. He kept one arm wrapped supportively around Chloe's shivering shoulders while pressing his other trembling hand over his own heart, projecting the image of a man whose soul had been crushed.

Ethan sat stiffly across the room, watching the sickening, flawless performance with cold, paralyzing horror.

"Stop pretending," Ethan whispered through dry, cracked lips, his voice raw with a deep, suffocating agony. "Just tell them what really happened..."

Chloe let out a tiny, frightened gasp of pure panic, burying her tearful face deep into Marcus's coat as if hiding from a monster.

"Please do not hurt us again, Ethan," she whimpered, her voice trembling softly.

"Silence!" Dean Raymond barked from behind his large mahogany desk, his voice cracking like a whip.

The Dean's face was very cold. Beside him sat two senior board members, Professor Miller and Professor Lawson, both glaring across the room with disgust.

“What is the issue? What happened?” Dean Raymond asked.

“I was—” Ethan began, his voice breaking with desperation.

Before he could finish, Marcus suddenly let out a loud, theatrical wail, violently beating his chest as fake tears streamed down his face.

“I was teaching Chloe calculus in Ethan’s apartment when Ethan suddenly burst in!” Marcus sobbed hysterically, playing the part of a heartbroken, abused father to absolute perfection. “Instead of thanking me for helping his girlfriend, he accused us of the most vile, unspeakable things, saying that I am making love with his girlfriend! When I challenged his madness, he struck me across the face—slapping me six different times! He was about to hit me a seventh time when Julian and the other students entered to save me. I want justice to prevail, Dean Raymond. I have endured his abuse for far too long!”

As Ethan opened his mouth in sheer horror to defend himself, Julian stepped forward with a solemn, righteous expression.

“Today is the anniversary of Ethan and Chloe's relationship, and as her friends, we planned a wonderful surprise for them,” Julian said smoothly, shaking his head in profound disappointment. “Instead, when we entered, we were horrified to see Ethan raising his hand to violently strike his own elderly father over a sick, baseless delusion.”

Julian signaled to Garrett, who immediately stepped forward and connected his phone to the large committee screen. The room watched in heavy silence as the shaky video played, showing Ethan with his hand raised in an attempt to hit his father.

The Dean, the two professors, and everyone in the room gasped, their faces hardening with absolute disgust.

“Instead of admitting he was wrong,” Julian continued, “he tried to cover up his violence by claiming he had absolute proof on a CCTV camera. But when we requested the footage, his screen was completely blank. He had nothing.”

Marcus let out a deep, trembling sigh, lowering his head with glistening, sorrowful eyes.

“I apologize for bringing this public shame to the academy, Dean Raymond,” Marcus whispered weakly, his voice cracking with manufactured grief. 

Dean Raymond turned slowly toward the desktop monitor.

“We are going to review the official evidence,” the Dean announced in a stern voice. “Replay the video. This time, in slow motion”.

The video was replayed. 

As the final frame of the video froze on the monitor screen, a suffocating, heavy silence blanketed the room, broken only by the sharp, collective gasps of the onlookers as their mouths hung open in absolute horror.

"Good heavens..." Professor Lawson whispered, her voice trembling violently as she recoiled in visceral revulsion, shaking her head in deep disgust. "I held you in the highest regard as an upright, trustworthy student, Ethan, but to discover that beneath that innocent facade lies a heart so profoundly monstrous and wicked—it nauseates me!"

Seizing that precise split second of overwhelming emotional devastation, Marcus hurled himself dramatically to his knees upon the office rug with a sickening thud, his entire body shuddering as he buried his face in his trembling, gnarled hands to portray a heartbroken father entirely broken by grief.

"Where... where did I fail my own blood?" Marcus wailed hysterically, his agonizing sobs tearing through the silent room like a blade. "I poured my soul into raising him! I gave him everything! God above, why does my own child burn with such demonic hatred for me?!"

Beside him, Chloe tightly squeezed her eyes shut, forcing a torrent of brilliant, glistening tears to stream down her flushed cheeks as she ducked her head, projecting a picture of complete vulnerability and tragic despair.

She clutched the calculus textbook to her shivering chest as if clinging to life itself, her chest heaving as choked, pathetic gasps of anguish escaped her lips, thrilling the room with her heartbreak.

Unable to bear the agonizing spectacle any longer, Professor Miller sprang up from her chair, rushing swiftly across the floor to drop to her knees beside Marcus and wrap a fiercely protective arm around his convulsing back.

"Please, Mr. Raymond, I beg of you, rise!" Professor Miller pleaded, her voice cracking with deep empathy and outrage. "You must not degrade yourself like this! No loving parent should ever have to kneel in agony before a cruel, ungrateful child!"

"My heart is shattered, Professor!" Marcus choked out through desperate, pathetic gasps, his tears soaking through his sleeves. "My own flesh and blood raised his fist to strike me... he wanted to embarass me in front of the entire academy!"

“It is fine, Mr. Raymond,” Professor Miller promised softly, her voice filled with deep sympathy as she rubbed his back. “Justice will be served.”

Marcus wiped a fake tear from his cheek, looking up with a pathetic, shattered expression. “I don't even want much... I just want him to face the full punishment for lying against me and brutally assaulting his own father.”

Hearing those venomous words, Ethan felt his entire world collapsing. He stepped forward, his voice cracking with agony.

"That is a lie!" Ethan cried out, his hands trembling as he looked pleadingly at the committee members. "I never beat him! I never raised my hand to hurt him! I walked into my own room and caught them—I saw them with my own eyes, doing the act right there on my bed! They are framing me!"

Hearing this, Marcus scrambled up from his knees, his face twisting into a mask of pure, vicious hatred as he pointed a shaking finger straight at his son.

"You ungrateful, lying wretch!" Marcus shouted, his voice breaking with theatrical fury. "Look at him, Dean Raymond! Look at how he continues to slander his own blood without a shred of remorse! He is a cold-blooded liar and an unfilial son who only wants to see my downfall and destroy everything I've built!"

Dean Raymond adjusted his seat slowly. He rested his hands on the mahogany desk, his stern eyes sweeping across the tense faces of the committee before landing on Ethan.

"Let us calm down," Dean Raymond said, his deep voice carrying a quiet authority that instantly silenced Marcus's protests.

He let out a long, heavy sigh, rubbing his temples.

"The evidence before us is chaotic, and emotions are running dangerously high," the Dean continued, choosing his words carefully. "Let us look at this objectively. Perhaps... Perhaps Ethan walked in and saw his father and Chloe in an unfortunate position, which made his young, heated mind jump to a terribly false conclusion. It is entirely possible that grief caused him to assume the worst was happening between the two of them."

The Dean paused, glancing toward the video footage. 

"And as for the physical altercation... if he truly believed what he thought he saw, the confrontation and the raised hand would have been done entirely out of blind, unthinking rage, not premeditated malice."

At those words, a sudden, sharp intake of breath echoed through the room.

Marcus’s triumphant expression froze instantly, his jaw tightening into a hard, venomous knot as panic flickered in his eyes. Beside him, Chloe’s breath hitched, her fingers digging so violently into the math textbook that her knuckles turned stark white. 

Across the room, the color rushed back into Ethan’s pale, bruised face. A glimmer of hope sparked deep within his chest, and a faint, trembling smile touched the corners of his lips as his heart soared. 

“He sees the truth,” Ethan thought, tears of relief welling up in his eyes. “The Dean believes me. I'm saved. I can still write my exams. I can still fulfill my mother's dream.”

Dean Raymond shifted his gaze back to the official files on his desk, his expression softening just a fraction.

"Our final examinations are only a few days away," the Dean said, his tone turning remarkably gentle. "And as an institution, we must weigh the future of our students. Issues that stem from sudden emotional distress, while serious, can sometimes be overlooked, resolved, or compensated for if the situation warrants it. It is truly heartbreaking to watch those videos of a young man losing his composure..."

The Dean looked up, locking eyes with Ethan. 

"...but Ethan has been an exceptionally honest, brilliant, and dedicated student ever since I have known him. I remember his mother, and I know the relentless sacrifices that brought him to this academy. I begged Marcus and Chloe to kindly overlook what happened and forgive him. Ethan, to me, is a person of true integrity, and we must not allow a single mistake in a moment of weakness to cost us such a brilliant, honest, and exemplary student."

Chloe suddenly burst into a sharp, piercing laugh. Her laughter rang so loud and harsh against the walls that every single person in the committee room jerked their heads around to stare at her in astonishment.

Then stepped forward from Marcus's side to address the committee members and the crowded room.

"Honest? Upright?" Chloe sneered, shaking her head with an exaggerated expression of disbelief as she locked her venomous eyes on Ethan. "I understand completely why the Dean wants to spare him. You all believe he is some kind of saint because of his grades as the overall best student. But the truth is... he is nothing of the sort."

An uneasy murmur rippled through the room. People began whispering behind their hands, casting suspicious glances at Ethan.

Dean Raymond frowned, raising a steady hand into the air to silence the rising chatter instantly. He leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. 

"Explain yourself, young lady. What are you implying?"

Chloe smiled thinly, a triumphant glint flashing in her eyes.

 "I have been dating Ethan since the very first year we stepped foot on this campus. I know him better than anyone else. I know his deepest secrets... every single one of them."

At the mention of secrets, Ethan’s breath caught in his throat. He gazed at her in sheer confusion and mounting dread, trying to figure out what twisted lie or trap she was attempting to pull now.

Chloe noticed the panic flickering across his bruised face and smiled wider. 

"For over three years, I swore to protect his secrets. I kept quiet to shield him. But now?" She let out a bitter scoff, turning her palms up in mock. "Since my own boyfriend of three years can stand here and lie about me cheating with his father, I owe him no more loyalty. I have no regret telling everyone the absolute truth."

"What secret?" Dean Raymond demanded sternly, his patience wearing thin. "Get straight to the point."

Chloe nodded, raising her hands dramatically. She looked at Ethan, then toward the committee. 

"If the Dean wants proof of who Ethan really is, ask him to step away from the desk. Let him stand right at the center of the room."

Dean Raymond turned his stern gaze to Ethan. 

"Ethan, step to the center of the room."

Heart hammering wildly against Ethan ribs, and he swallowed hard. With trembling legs, he stepped away from the desk and stood alone in the middle of the floor, feeling every pair of eyes boring into him like daggers.

"Go on," the Dean instructed Chloe. "Speak."

Chloe took a slow, triumphant step forward, her voice ringing out clearly across the silent room.

 "Ethan got lucky enough to win a scholarship to study in our academy, yes. But the truth behind how he managed to maintain his position as the overall best student semester after semester? It has nothing to do with genius or hard work. It is because Ethan has been cheating and engaging in academic malpractices all along!"

The room erupted into absolute chaos. Loud gasps and angry murmurs exploded from every corner.

"Cheating? The top student?"

"I can't believe it... though what he did to his father was terrible, lying about academic fraud is a whole different level."

"Is there proof? Or is she just bitter?"

People whispered and argued back and forth, completely shocked by the heavy accusation.

Chloe laughed loudly, turning her back on the whispering crowd and focusing entirely on Ethan, who stood frozen in horror. 

"Look at them, Ethan. Why don't you confess your crimes to the whole school right now? Save yourself the further embarrassment."

Ethan raised a trembling, shaking finger at her, his voice cracking with pure outrage. 

"Stop it, Chloe! Stop telling these monstrous lies against me! You are making all of this up!" He turned frantically toward the committee, his eyes wide with desperation. "Dean Raymond, please shut her up immediately! Accusing me of exam cheating is a malicious attack designed to destroy my entire academic career!"

Chloe threw her head back and laughed again, a sound devoid of any human warmth. "Lies? You think I'm lying?" She stepped closer to the committee desk. "I have proof."

She pointed a finger directly at Ethan's coat pocket. 

"Why don't you ask him why he is holding onto a certain paper I asked him for earlier today?”.

Ethan froze, his hand instinctively brushing against his pocket.

"It... it was just a love letter," Ethan stammered, his face draining of color as sweat broke out across his forehead. "I wrote it for her because... because of our anniversary..."

Chloe scoffed loudly, letting out a harsh, theatrical bark of laughter. 

"A love letter? Oh, Ethan, you truly are a pathetic liar!"

She turned directly to Officer Briggs and the campus security guards standing near the door. 

"Search him! Search his body right now before he gets the chance to tear it up or throw it away!"

Before Ethan could even step back, two security guards lunged forward, grabbing his arms and pinning him tightly in place. Despite his desperate struggles, one of the guards thrust a hand deep into Ethan's jacket pocket and pulled out a folded sheaf of documents.

The guard handed the papers over to Dean Raymond.

Chloe stepped forward, her eyes gleaming with malice as she watched the Dean unfold the document. She raised her voice so everyone in the room could hear it loud and clear.

"Go ahead, Dean Raymond! Read what is written on those papers!" Chloe announced triumphantly. "Those aren't love letters! That is the confidential, leaked copy of the upcoming Advanced Applied Mathematics final examination—the exact exam that isn't supposed to be written until four days from now!"

The entire room fell into a dead, suffocating silence.

"How on earth did a poor scholarship student get his hands on the locked academy vault papers?" Chloe asked, her voice dripping with venom as she looked around the room. "If he is truly as honest, upright, and good as the Dean claims... how did he end up walking around with stolen final exam questions in his pocket?"