A Call from the Future Begged Me Not to Apply to Harvard Chapter 06

A Call from the Future Begged Me Not to Apply to Harvard Chapter 06

Sam shook her head frantically.

A moment later, her gaze darted sideways.

“Mark set me up. He and Emily planned this together.”

“The file I submitted isn’t the project I created. Mark switched it, and he and Emily framed me.”

“I just realized the version I turned in was different.”

Her desperate excuse made me laugh.

“Then where’s your version, Sam?”

“You can’t produce it, can you?”

Sam’s voice cracked. “Of course I can’t produce it. My files were deleted because Emily had Mark erase

them.”

“Really? Then tell me the subject of your research and the methodology you used.”

“How long did it take? What sources did you consult? What was the underlying principle, and what were its

potential applications?”

Sam opened her mouth, but no words came out.

One panelist’s tone hardened.

“Sam. You need to come clean.”

Sam’s eyes darted as she burst into tears again.

“I don’t know. They set me up. They’re a couple. They planned this together.”

She looked at Mark as if she expected him to take the blame for everything.

Instead, Mark yanked her hand away from her face.

“That’s enough, Sam.”

“You’re unbelievable. You begged me to help because you felt inferior to Emily, then took all the credit when there was glory to claim. Now that things have gone wrong, you’re throwing me under the bus.”

“I didn’t steal Emily’s research for myself. I did it for you.”

Sam’s face twisted in shock.

“Mark, you’re turning on me now?”

“Professor, they’re working together. I’m innocent—”

“Innocent my ass.”

Mark pulled out his phone, hands shaking hard.

“Here are the messages showing Sam manipulating me into helping her. I saved every one of them.”

“Every message is genuine, and you can have them all forensically verified.”

Sam lunged for his phone.

“Mark, how could you do this to me?”

Mark shoved her off.

“How could I do this to you? I gave you everything, and this is how you repay me?*

“You played the victim before this blew up, but the second things went wrong, you tried to pin everything on

me.’

“I was an idiot to feel sorry for you.”

Live comments poured in.

[So Sam was the thief all along, and she still had the nerve to accuse Emily first.]

[She stole her best friend’s research and her boyfriend. Shameless.]

go to school with them. Sam was always posting photos with Mark like they were a couple.]

[I saw them all over each other whenever Emily stepped away. It was disgusting.]

[So much for Harvard’s reputation. One of its students stole a University of Michigan student’s research.]

[I was in Emily’s class. She was our valedictorian and could easily have gotten into Harvard. I never understood why she chose Michigan, and people called me a paid commenter when I said so.]

The panel turned the footage and messages over to campus police immediately.

After reviewing the evidence, police arrested Mark and Sam on suspicion of computer intrusion, data theft,

and fraud

As Mark passed me, tears streamed down his face.

“I’m sorry, Emily. I was stupid. I…”

I stepped aside without expression.

His apology was nothing but crocodile tears.

If that mysterious call had never reached me, I would have gone to Harvard with them and never planted the

watermarks in my files.

Everything the caller predicted would have happened: my work would have been stolen, I would have been branded a thief, and I could have ended up in prison.