Forward, Without Him Chapter 14

Forward, Without Him Chapter 14

Total silence on the line.
Then, after a long pause, he actually tried to argue it.
“That’s different.”
“You’re brilliant. Even starting over a year behind, you’d land somewhere great. I… I don’t have what you have. If I get expelled, my dad will never forgive me–”
I almost laughed at the logic.
“Ethan, do you hear yourself right now?”
“Taylor, I’m begging you. Just this once. I’ll do anything if you drop it.”
I didn’t waver.
“Ethan. You made your bed. Now lie in it.”
I hung up. Blocked that number too.
One month later.
Columbia didn’t release an official disciplinary statement — FERPA rules kept that private — but the Columbia Daily Spectator broke the story anyway.
“Two undergraduate students have been suspended pending a Disciplinary Hearing, following findings that they allegedly gained unauthorized access to another student’s application system and deliberately altered admissions records, in serious violation of the university’s academic integrity policy and student conduct code.”
One of my roommates dropped the link in our group chat.
“OMG Taylor, the victim in this article kind of sounds like you? And the two facing expulsion — is one of them that guy who was following you around?”
She asked it carefully.
I sent back one word.
“Bingo.”
The chat went quiet for a solid three minutes.
Then everyone exploded at once.
“Holy shit!! Taylor that’s insane!!”
“Okay but that is KARMA.”
“Thank god you’re done with those two toxic disasters. We’re going out tonight to celebrate. Downtown. No arguments.”
……
A few months after that, between the identity theft charges and the unauthorized computer access, Ethan and Lexi were formally expelled.
Then came the criminal charges from the district attorney. They resolved through a Plea Deal. A separate Civil Settlement came after that, and they paid me a significant amount in damages.
That was the moment I finally got back what had been taken from the version of me sobbing alone at midnight a year before.
What happened to them after that, I never looked into.