He Mocked My Scar, So I Left Him to His Regret Chapter 17

He Mocked My Scar, So I Left Him to His Regret Chapter 17

The hearing was held a month later.

I attended remotely.

The vice principal of Cedar Ridge Academy sat on the other end

of the screen. He looked older than I remembered, but his tone

hadn’t changed.

“Miss Vega, teenagers are bound to take jokes too far.”

“The academy did speak to the students involved at the time. Trying to revisit it now makes it difficult to reconstruct every detail.”

I held the notebook up to the camera.

“This is not a detail.”

The title on the cover, the dozens of names under mine, the ink

blurred by tears-it all appeared clearly on the screen.

Next came the poll Holden had posted.

Then, the old form canceling my lunch subsidy. Bianca’s comment “She lives in a neighborhood that requires a

keycard”-was still there.

The vice principal’s expression shifted.

“The anonymous report was reviewed by the academy.”

“Reviewed how?” I asked calmly.

“The house was in my name because my mother was afraid I’d end up homeless. You never asked about my actual financial support. You never asked why the man who held custody of me- your own financial officer-wasn’t paying my living expenses.”

“One keycard was enough for the academy to take away a minor’s

lunch.”

“But during that same period, Bianca cheated on multiple exams, and you never investigated her once.”

The committee projected the notes Holden had mailed in onto the

shared screen.

Every note listed question numbers, answers, and threats

directed at me.

Bianca shot to her feet.

“That doesn’t prove I wrote them!”

Holden sat diagonally behind her. His voice was hoarse.

“I saw you slip those notes into Lucia’s locker with my own eyes.”

“And you were the one who told me that if she deliberately changed half her answers to be wrong, the teachers would believe she was the one cheating.”

Bianca whipped around to glare at him.

“You agreed to help me!”

The moment the words left her mouth, the hearing room fell silent.

She realized too late what she’d admitted and turned to Lockwood

in a panic.

He didn’t comfort her. Instead, he slapped the table and stood up.

“I donate so much to the academy every year, and you couldn’t

even handle something this small?”

“All I asked was for Bianca’s recommendation status to be

preserved. Who told you to leave those records in her file?”

The vice principal spun toward him.

“Officer Lockwood, you were the one who said the two Lockwood daughters couldn’t both appear on the education channel, or people would start asking questions!”

The two of them started pointing fingers, neither noticing that the

court reporter’s hands had never stopped moving.

I didn’t interrupt.

I simply sat there and watched them speak the truth they had buried for three years.

Before the hearing ended, the committee rescinded every cheating record in my file on the spot and restored the honors that

had been revoked.

As for Bianca’s grades, the academy’s negligence, and Lockwood’s interference, each would be referred for further

investigation.

On the screen, the status of my file changed from red to green.

I’d thought I would be thrilled.

But when I saw it, all I did was slowly let out a breath.

I had never been the one in the wrong.

And now, the record finally said so.