Every Time I Check My Score, It Resets to Zero Chapter 10

I stumbled from the push.

I looked at the cash covering the table, then at the hideous faces surrounding me.

“So you destroyed three years of my life and sold my future for a stack of paper?”

My gaze passed Garrett and landed on Mum:–

“You knew those drugs could cause severe dissociation, and you still mixed them into my milk

every day?”

Mom’s eyes darted away, and tears fell down her face.

“Elena, I did it for this family,” she cried. “Your brother needs a down payment. What’s the point of

a girl getting that much education anyway? One day you’ll get married and leave.”

She stepped forward, trying to hug me.

“We can keep the money. Later, we’ll find you a decent man…”

“Get away from me,” I said coldly.

Mom froze.

Uncle Victor flew into a rage, grabbing a broom from the corner and raising it like he was going to

hit me.

“You ungrateful little brat! I should beat some sense into you today!”

Two of Garrett’s men stepped forward and slammed their heavy hands on my shoulders.

“Girl, my patience is limited,” Garrett said, rising from the couch and walking toward me. “I’ll ask you one last time. Are you recording that retraction or not?”

The hands on my shoulders were painfully strong.

I did not struggle.

I only looked up at him.

Then I smiled.

“Garrett Lowell, have you bought your way out of so many problems that you forgot how to use your brain?”

I glanced at the broken old phone on the floor.

“That was just a backup phone with no SIM card. The post was scheduled, and the original evidence is already online.”

Even if you kill me right now, the state investigation team is already on its way.”

Garrett’s face changed.

One of the men behind him pulled out his phone, glanced at the screen, then went pale and waned

in to whisper something in Garrett’s ear.

Garrett’s cigar slipped from his fingers and burned a black hole into the carpet.

For an absurd second, I caught myself thinking the carpet looked soft enough to steal out of sheer

spite.

Then sirens wailed downstairs.

Not one car.

Dozens.

Red and blue lights flashed through the landscaping outside, flooding the ground floor with color.

Footsteps thundered in the hallway.

The apartment security door was kicked open from the outside.

Several officers‘ rushed in, weapons trained on everyone in the living room.

“Nobody move!”

The last person to enter was a plainclothes investigator.

A state task force badge hung from his chest.

The broom fell from Uncle Victor’s hand and clattered to the floor.

Dad’s legs gave out, and he collapsed in front of the coffee table.

Under the flashing police lights, the stacks of cash looked like the punchline to a very ugly joke.

Lies were fragile in front of real power.

The living room descended into chaos.

Handcuffs clicked shut one pair after another.

Even as Garrett was pinned against the wall, he kept shouting, “I want my lawyer! Do you have any

idea who I am?”

No one answered him.

Mom collapsed on the floor and grabbed a female officer’s leg, sobbing.

“Officer, we didn’t commit a crime! She’s our own daughter. How is signing a paper for our own child illegal?”

Officer Mercer pulled her leg free with obvious disgust.

“Trafficking in personal identity information, fraud, and unlawful confinement,” she said coldly.

“Save whatever excuse you have for the interrogation room.”

The investigator from the task force walked over to me.

“You’re Elena Chase?”

He handed me an evidence bag.

“We’ve already verified your case.”

“The State Department of Education issued an emergency order effective immediately. Ethan Lowell’s enrollment at Eastbridge University has been revoked, and your rightful admission status

has been restored.”

His eyes fell on the red marks covering my shoulders.

“You’ve been through hell, kid.”

Inside the evidence bag was a copy of my Eastbridge University admission letter.

My eyes stung.

But I did not cry.

Three years had already wrung me dry of tears.

By the time I finished giving my formal statement, it was late at night.

Mr. Hale was taken away from his office. Ethan was escorted off the freshman orientation field at

Eastbridge.

The attending doctor at Brookhaven Behavioral Health Center was also suspended and detained for

taking bribes and issuing a false psychiatric report.

Not a single person in the chain got away.

When I returned to the apartment, it had not been sealed yet, so they allowed me to pack a few things.

did not go into the master bedroom to look at the drawers that had been torn open.

I did not look at the muddy bootprints charting the chaos in the living room.

I only took one canvas tote bag though I briefly considered hauling the coffee table out our sheer

spite.

Inside the bag were a few changes of clothes and the SAT prep books I had studied from for free

years.

Standing in the entryway, I looked back at the apartment one last time.

All those nights of pressure and despair were finally sealed behind that door.

I opened it.

The motion–sensor hallway light flickered on.

The early fall night wind brushed across my face.

I left the key on the shoe rack outside the door, then turned and walked downstairs.

One step.

Then another.

My pace grew faster.

Facing the streetlight at the corner, I walked into the deepening night.