Chapter 3

Just as I knew it would, the moment came.

The day the placement list went up, I was in the middle of my open lecture.

Matthew shoved the door open.

Every head in the room turned toward him.

Same as last time, he glared at me.

"Professor, you really had to push me this far, didn't you? I wouldn't meet you at the motel that night, so you gave my placement to someone else?"

The class detonated.

"Holy crap, this is good."

"I always said Professor Pruitt gave him the most attention. So there was something going on?"

"Tsk, how come I never got that kind of luck..."

Snickers, chatter, the soft clicks of phone cameras quietly starting to record, all of it tangled together. I ignored it and kept my eyes on Matthew.

"Matthew, you say I told you to come find me at the motel that night. Where's your proof?"

"Do you have a recording of the call? A message I sent you?"

"If you can't produce it today, I'm calling the police right now."

The arrogance froze on his face.

He clearly hadn't expected this from me.

In his script, I was supposed to panic, go pale, deny everything.

A full minute passed before he got a word out.

"Don't think that's going to scare me. If I had no proof, I wouldn't be here demanding answers."

"Disrupting a class? Spreading a filthy rumor about me? You call that demanding answers?"

"I'll report exactly what you've said to the police and to the academic affairs office."

He listened, went white, gritted his teeth.

"Professor Pruitt, remember, you're the one forcing this. You're sure you want me to say it in front of everyone?"

I knew the person Matthew had brought was livestreaming everything happening in this room right now. One slip and I could end up right back where I was before. I had to hold steady.

"Of course, Matthew. Isn't fairness exactly what you want? Go on, tell everyone what happened."

He plugged a flash drive into the computer, clicked twice, and a video began to play.

I froze at the sight of it.

The woman in it was me, in sunglasses, wearing the pink floral dress I'd been wearing a lot lately, in heels, walking up to the entrance of a budget motel.

Glancing around, making sure no one was watching, then hurrying inside.

This...

While I stood there stunned, Matthew's voice reached me again.

"Professor, what you said to my face, no, I don't have proof of that."

"But while you were at the motel waiting for me, I happened to be passing by and filmed it."

The room went silent, then erupted again, every gaze on me now strange and cold.

"What an act. A second ago I actually thought she was innocent."

"This is ironclad now. Let's see what she says."

"Look, Professor Pruitt's gone white."

Seeing my reaction, Matthew's mouth curled into a cold, cruel line, and he added one more thing.

"Professor, why aren't you talking now? Go ahead. Call the police."