Chapter 5

Mr. Harrison was the first to panic.

"Sophia! Are you insane?"

"We haven't even investigated this internally yet! Why are you calling the police?"

I looked at him with sheer disgust.

"Exactly. It hasn't been investigated, which is why the police need to handle it."

"Or were you planning to play judge, jury, and executioner in this conference room?"

He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Amber recovered quickly, pivoting her phone back to me.

"Are you all seeing this? The moment a victim speaks out, the school administrator calls the police to intimidate her. Is this how they silence victims?"

I walked right up to her face.

"Miss Amber, you’d better save this livestream raw."

"You are filming minors without consent, disrupting school operations, and actively inciting a targeted harassment campaign against a teacher's family. My lawyer will be receiving a copy of every single second of this."

Her expression soured. "Who do you think you're threatening?"

I smiled. "Try me."

Chloe started sobbing loudly again. "I don't want the police involved! I just wanted an apology!"

Hearing this, the parents outside started murmuring again.

"Look how terrified she is."

"Calling the police is just going to traumatize her more."

"The school can't use the law to bully a student."

I suddenly raised my voice, cutting through the noise. "Chloe."

She flinched. I locked eyes with her.

"In your viral video, you claimed that on the night of March 27th, after after-school tutoring ended, Richard kept you alone in the third-floor classroom. Is that correct?"

She bit her lip, then nodded. "Yes."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes."

"And you claim there was no one else in the room but the two of you?"

Her face went pale for a split second, but she forced herself to double down. "Yes."

Richard stood up abruptly. "I did not—"

I pressed a hand firmly on his shoulder, keeping him grounded. "Easy, Richard."

Then, I turned to Mr. Harrison.

"Mr. Harrison, pull up the security footage from the third-floor hallway from that night."

Mr. Harrison frowned.

"Sophia, the hallway cameras only show people entering and leaving. They can't prove what happened inside the classroom."

A flash of smug satisfaction crossed Chloe’s eyes.

She thought she had won.

She knew she hadn't done anything suspicious on the hallway cameras, and she knew the cameras couldn't see into the corners of the classroom.

She knew that allegations like this succeeded because they were impossible to disprove.

As long as she stuck to her story, Richard would never be able to wash the dirt off his name.

But what she didn't know was that I had been planning for this exact day for an entire month.

Two police officers arrived shortly after. "Who called 911?"

I raised my hand. "I did."

I gave them a quick, clear summary of the situation and handed over a sealed manila envelope I had prepared in advance.

As the officers flipped through the documents, their expressions became incredibly serious.

Mr. Harrison wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Officers, the public backlash online is severe right now. Maybe we should just suspend Richard first to prevent—"

"No," I interrupted him flatly.

He glared at me.

I ignored him, looking directly at the officers.

"Officers, Chloe is accusing my husband of an incident that allegedly occurred after 9:45 PM on March 27th."

"That class took place in the AV recording room. All students signed a consent form prior to starting the program."

"I am officially requesting that we play the audio recording from that classroom from that night, right here, right now."

Chloe’s head snapped up. Amber’s hand holding the phone began to tremble.

"Classroom recording?" Chloe’s voice pitched high, laced with sudden panic. "But... I thought the mic was turned off after class ended!"

I stared at her, my voice ice-cold.

"The notice on the door is very clear, Chloe."

"The audio equipment automatically records from the start of class until thirty minutes after the room is cleared. You signed the agreement yourself."

The color completely drained from her face.

Amber tried to salvage the situation, yelling, "How do we know you didn't tamper with the audio?"

I reached into my bag and pulled out a sealed, transparent evidence bag.

"The voice recorder used that night was checked out by the teaching assistant according to school protocol, and sealed immediately upon return."

"The seal, the log, and the serial numbers are all fully documented."

I looked around the room.

"Chloe, didn't you want justice?"

"Let's listen to what actually happened in that room."