“My boyfriend, Chad, has been cheating on me with Tiffany for a long time.”
“I wanted to talk to him privately and break up peacefully, but I didn’t expect him to drug me and delete the paper I had been working on for
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so long.”
“He also copied Tiffany’s research report and final draft of her arctic mosquito paper onto my computer, trying to frame me as an academic thief.”
I walked to the desk, reconnected the data cable, and brought up a video file.
The video showed Chad opening a packet,
pouring the contents into a glass, and then
giving the laced drink to me. It then showed him taking advantage of me while I was
unconscious.
Everything was faithfully recorded by a hidden
camera.
Of course, I had edited out the part where I
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dumped the drink.
O
My gaze fell on Tiffany. “You come from an academic family. You have more resources than I do. Why aren’t you satisfied?”
“Do we ordinary people have to give up all our
resources to you, so you can step over our dead bodies to reach the top? Are you that
insecure?”
“Just because my topic was better than yours and Professor Luke chose me to join his
research group, you held a grudge and seduced
my boyfriend to ruin me? You can’t stand that I
am better than you?”
Chad suddenly charged forward and slapped
me across the face.
“Shut up!”
The stage had descended into chaos. Chad
continued to try and hit me, but several
outraged guys rushed onto the stage and
pinned him down.
My nose was bleeding from where he’d struck me, but he didn’t seem to notice, instead launching into a tirade of abuse.
“You fucking bitch, Abby! You think you’re good enough to write papers? Tiffany is a hundred times better than you!”
“Who do you think you are? You were just a distraction when I was bored. You wouldn’t
even put out, you think you’re some kind of saint?”
“You think you’re so smart? A nobody like you
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90
with no connections is nothing in academia!”
“Shut your mouth!”
The assistant dean, who was moderating the presentation, finally couldn’t take it anymore. He roared at Chad, “Look at yourself! What’s the difference between you and a thug? Do you even resemble a grad student anymore?”
“This incident has been incredibly damaging.
The faculty will form an investigative
committee. No matter the outcome, the
university will show no leniency and will treat
everyone equally, no matter who their professor is.”
As he finished speaking, someone stood up in
the audience.
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It was Tiffany’s father, Professor Caldwell.
He was calm, not thrown by the fact that his
daughter had just embarrassed herself in
public.
“I announce that, effective today, Chad is removed from my team. He is forbidden from entering my labs, and he is not allowed to use my lab’s name for research or publications.”
The audience gasped.
Publicly disowning one’s grad student was unheard of.
Professor Caldwell’s swift disavowal of his
prized student was shocking.
It was clear to everyone that he was protecting
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<
his daughter and his reputation.
Hearing his words, Chad collapsed, as if his
spine had been ripped out.
Being publicly disowned like that was
practically a death sentence for a grad student.
No one would dare take him after that.
“No! Professor Caldwell, you can’t do this!”
Chad was beside himself, tears streaming down his face. I never thought he would get scared and start crying because of someone’s words.
“Tiffany and I have been together for so long! You can’t kick me out!”
“Tiffany couldn’t stand Abby, so I sacrificed myself to be with her and get revenge for
***
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Tiffany!”
“I even helped her steal the paper, and you
can’t abandon me now, she made me…”
“Shut up!”
Professor Caldwell’s face was livid. “One more
word and I’ll make sure you can’t survive in this
university!”
Just then, the doors of the conference room burst open, and several police officers walked in.
The officer in charge looked around the room. “Who called us?”
“I did,” I said, raising my hand. I pointed at Chad and Tiffany. “These two conspired to drug me and accused me of plagiarizing research.”
As I finished speaking, another professor stood
<
- up. “Officer, I want to file a report too.”
He pointed at Tiffany. “I have reason to believe
that Tiffany’s experiments involve illegal
biological research that could damage our
country’s ecosystem and pose a threat to
national and public safety. Please take her in
for questioning.”
Professor Caldwell stared at him in shock. “Are
you insane? That’s my daughter. Are you out of
your mind?”
The professor glared at him. “Professor
Caldwell, do you know about your daughter’s
research and paper?”
“You can’t just let her do whatever she wants
because she’s your daughter!”
He pointed at Professor Caldwell and turned to
the police. “He’s Tiffany’s father. I suspect he
knew and condoned his daughter’s destructive
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<
experiments.”
“Take him in for questioning too!”
That afternoon, Tiffany, her father, and Chad
were released from the police station due to
“lack of evidence.”
Chad had drugged me, but I had edited the
video, and I hadn’t suffered any physical harm,
so it wasn’t solid evidence.
He had stolen my paper, but I couldn’t admit
that the arctic mosquito research was mine
without implicating myself.
That arctic mosquito paper, without theoretical
or technical support and filled with nonsense,
was deemed to be garbage.
I knew that this spectacle wouldn’t take them down for good. My goal wasn’t to have them arrested, which would be too easy.
I wanted to plant a seed of doubt in the minds
of the faculty and students, a seed that would
ruin their reputation.
