Provost Keene climbed the steps toward the student.

“Give me the phone.”

The young man stood.

“My name is Owen Price.

It’s my phone, and the video is already online.”

“You recorded a minor without consent.”

Elijah looked up at him.

“I consent.”

Keene stopped one step below Owen.

“You could lose your place at this university.”

Owen swallowed.

“I laughed when Professor Hollis humiliated him.

I’m not making that mistake twice.”

Hollis turned toward Dean Grant.

“End this spectacle.

Remove the boy and his father.”

“Elijah stays,” she said.

“So does Thomas.”

Keene signaled to the officers.

One approached Thomas while the other stood beside the lectern.

Hollis bent close to Elijah.

“Do you see what you’ve done?

Your father had a pension, medical coverage, and a steady job.

By tonight, he may have none of them.”

Elijah’s face crumpled.

He dropped the chalk and turned to Thomas.

“Dad, I shouldn’t have come in.”

Thomas caught him by the shoulders.

“Look at me.

You did not take my dignity away.”

“But your job—”

“A job that requires me to watch someone bury your future is not security.”

Elijah blinked hard.

“You told me the Young Scholars Program had delayed its decision.”

Thomas’s hands slipped from his shoulders.

“What is he talking about?” Dean Grant asked.

Thomas drew a folded letter from his uniform pocket.

“The rejection came six months ago.”

Elijah stared at it.

“You kept it from me?”

“The letter said your work showed no original value.

You stopped eating after your mother left, and you had only just started smiling again.

I couldn’t put that letter in your hands.”

“You lied to me.”

“I did.”

“Every morning, I thought I wasn’t good enough.”

Thomas’s voice broke.

“I thought I was protecting you.”

Elijah stepped away and pressed both hands against the blackboard.

His shoulders shook.

Maya came down from the front row and placed the chalk beside him.

“My first adviser told me I had no mathematical imagination,” she said.

“Professor Hollis knew that.

He used it whenever he wanted me silent.”

Elijah turned.

“Why didn’t you speak before today?”

“Because I was afraid.” Maya glanced at Hollis.

“And because fear can make a person help the wrong man.”

Hollis scoffed.

“What touching theater.”

Maya took out her phone.

“Three weeks ago, you called me into your office.”

Keene stepped forward.

“Do not play anything until counsel is present.”

“I recorded the conversation because Professor Hollis ordered me to change the date on Elijah’s manuscript.”

Hollis moved toward her.

“That recording was made illegally.”

Dean Grant stood between them.

“Stay where you are.”

Maya pressed the screen.

Hollis’s voice filled the room.

“Move Carter’s submission date to December.

By then, my conference abstract will already be on record.”

Then Maya’s recorded voice asked, “What if his father kept the receipt?”

Hollis answered, “Thomas Carter cleans toilets.

No one will take his word over mine.”

Thomas closed his eyes.

Elijah reached back and took his hand.

Owen raised his phone higher.

“Thirty-two thousand people just heard that.”

For the first time, Keene looked at Hollis instead of Thomas.

Hollis pulled out his own phone.

“This proves nothing.

An edited recording can say anything.”

Maya opened another file.

“Then perhaps we should listen to the part where you discussed Provost Keene.”

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Keene’s face lost its color.

“Turn that off,” he said.