Chapter 4

4: 4

I was completely lost. "What are you talking about? I—"

He cut me off before I could finish. "Judy got a photo of you on the Barnes family's private jet. You broke up with me today because you'd landed the Barnes heir, right? And I saw it clearly just now, the woman on that shuttle bus was you, and you took a picture of us."

"Don't think a photo of us gives you anything to hold over me. A loose woman like you can just wait to be ruined."

Then he hung up. A cold smile touched my lips. I wondered what his face would look like if he knew the real relationship between Hugh and me.

"Pam, go look at the campus forum, someone's spreading rumors about you."

The message from my roommate left me baffled. I opened the forum, and the top post stopped me cold.

The video showed me boarding the jet first, and then Hugh getting on the same plane.

The title: "Golddigger seduces the heir of Barnes Group for money, provides private services on the plane."

The body went even further, inventing an entire story of how I'd seduced Hugh, in convincing detail.

A few burner accounts led the pile-on beneath it, and someone had even dug up a couple of ordinary photos of Hugh and me on campus and twisted them into fuel for the gossip.

Just plain photos, and somehow people had spun a whole seduction out of them. I screenshotted and saved every one.

You really do bring these things on yourself.

This had to be Steve's doing. Because I'd taken that intimate photo of him and Judy, he'd struck first to smear my name, so that no matter what I said afterward, no one would believe me.

I calmly screenshotted the post and sent it to my lawyer.

Then the class group chat started buzzing too. A few classmates I got along with tagged me, telling me to clear it up.

I acted like I hadn't seen it.

Which only made Steve carry on more gleefully.

"Pamela's hiding because she's guilty. She's just a golddigger who does special services for money."

"I'll be honest with you all. This summer, a friend from high school told me everything. He'd already taken Pamela's services several times."

"And those overseas trips she takes on breaks, she's really out there working old men, doing paid companion services."

"I broke up with her the moment I learned the truth. You all should stay far away from a woman like that."

I watched him dig his own grave with every line and still said nothing, only kept recording my screen to preserve the evidence.

"What are you planning to do? Do you need my help?"

I startled and looked up. Hugh was watching me with concern. I shook my head. "No need. I'm going to let them reap what they've sown."

Just then the advisor called.

"Pamela, this whole thing has blown up. We urgently need your explanation. If you can't prove your innocence, we'll have no choice but to ask you to withdraw."

"Our college can't let its reputation be tarnished over one person."

A cold smile pulled at the corner of my mouth. So it had already reached the advisor. They wanted to convict me by public opinion.

"Aside from a few ordinary photos, do they have any actual evidence? Or is it just a few mouths spreading rumors?"

The advisor was left speechless. "But you really were on the Barnes family's private jet. How do you explain that?"

I paused. "I'll explain when I get to campus."

Then I hung up. The thing had only grown bigger, hundreds of posts on the forum all demanding I be thrown out of the school.

A crowd had even gathered on campus, marching, telling me to get lost.

Steve sent me another message too. "Just apologize to me nicely and I can still help you explain. Otherwise, you can wait to be expelled."

"You'd better pray you don't get thrown out yourself."

I turned to Hugh. "Land the plane on the campus airstrip."

"All right."

The plane touched down. A crowd of students had already gathered in front of the airstrip, Steve standing in the middle of them. "Everyone, let's throw this immoral woman out of the school together."

Judy stood beside him, fanning the flames. "Pamela's scared, isn't she? Too frightened to even come out."

The people around them joined in the chatter. "So now she's scared. Where was that before? After doing something like that, if it were me I'd have jumped off the plane already."

"A woman like her, why would she bother dying? I just wonder if Hugh would be furious enough to kill her if he knew what kind of woman she is."

Facing the sky full of abuse, I walked down from the plane, unhurried.

"I flew on my own family's plane. Is there a problem with that?"