“What’s going on?” Tally asked, entering the glass walled room when Lucia waved her hand for us to pass.
“We’re investigating a few other matters,” the dean, Martin Kall, started the moment the doors closed behind us. “We’ve been enlightened to an, um, disturbing situation.”
My brows rose.
“Another?” Tally snottily replied, back straightening. “Or is this the same allegation of Dr. Tomirkanivov raping a student…Hadley Dunston? Which, might I add, is not true?”
Martin’s face pinched.
“That’s not what we’re here to discuss today,” he snapped. “What we’re here to discuss is an inappropriate relationship between you and a teacher.”
He let his gaze shift from me to Tally and back, his eyes doing what his mouth did not, and Tally’s mouth dropped open.
“And what proof do you have of this alleged inappropriate relationship?” I gritted through clenched teeth, crossing my arms over my chest. “Was this accusation made by the same person who also falsely accused me of rape?”
Martin’s face paled and I knew I was right, despite him not agreeing nor disagreeing.
“I’ll go ahead and inform you that all classes that Dr. Tomirkanivov taught this year are under review,” Martin continued, pushing through with his diatribe. “And all tests that were taken by you that were administered by him will also be reviewed to ensure that there has been no special treatment considered upon you, given your inappropriate relationship.”
I could feel the anger rolling off of Tally, and I wanted to hold her hand to calm her down so she could control her reactions.
“I cannot believe that you’re doing this to Dr. Tomirkanivov.” Tally crossed her arms over her chest. “He’s a highly-respected teacher and hasn’t done anything in the classroom that was untoward to anyone, including me. He’s been nothing but professional while we were in school and at the hospital. Whomever is making these accusations is mistaken. Dr. Tomirkanivov is an excellent teacher whom I’ve learned a great deal from, and any future nursing students would be lucky to have him.”
My heart swelled in my chest as I tried not to smile at the things she was saying, and the things she wasn’t saying.
Like how I wasn’t very professional when we were outside of this setting.
Such as when I was fucking her in my bed…or hers.
“Until we can review all of your tests, your diploma will be held,” Lucia started to say. “Unless you have any…”
“You can’t disqualify her grades in my class,” I murmured, breaking into the conversation. “She only had one test in my course, and that was re-administered in the library two days later by one of the aides, who was there the whole time to supervise. Where, you should know, Ms. Dunston, who I presume is the one making these allegations, was not in attendance, so don’t even try to go there, Martin.”
Lucia’s face was pinched with dismay over the whole situation, and I realized that she really was in a bad position.
I could tell that she wanted to believe me.
We’d known each other for years, even before we started working together, but obviously, my youthful reputation still hadn’t completely refreshed despite my efforts to fix it.
“How do we know that you didn’t give her the answers to the tests?” one of the other teachers asked.
“Lucia’s the head of the nursing department,” I broke in before she could finish. “Meaning I had nothing to do with her tests. The test that was sent to her was made up by the other campus teachers, and given to her in the library, according to the new campus bylaws.”
Lucia’s mouth dropped open and her face showed stark relief.
Martin, however, wasn’t satisfied.
“What about the quiz grades?” he asked.
“Those can be vouched for by every single nurse that was at the hospital on the days of her shifts,” I countered. “Any grade she received for that day was given by the nurse she was shadowing that day.”
Martin clearly wasn’t happy to see that this wasn’t working like he’d planned for it to.
In fact, he was pissed.
And it was then that my eyes started to narrow, and I made a mental note to have Aaron stick his nose into a certain school administrator’s business.
He was going to need to work all of his connections to find out exactly what Hadley had on this stupid piece of shit who was trying to act like he was a professional instead of a man who was desperate to fix a problem he’d gotten himself into.
Martin sighed.
“I, of course, have no physical proof of anything, and if this all checks out, I see no reason why you should be delayed from graduating,” Martin finally ground out. “However, if I find any evidence of a relationship between the two of you before you’re graduated next week, I will be taking action.”
Meaning we needed to watch our steps or this could get ugly.
What, exactly, did Hadley have on this man? And was it big enough for him to risk losing his career over?
Apparently, it had to be, otherwise he wouldn’t be grasping at straws to get Tally removed from the course.
“You may go,” Martin snapped at Tally.
Tally turned, ready to take her leave, and I stopped her departure by asking her to wait.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized to the other teachers. “But I was made aware of a student caught cheating off of another student, and I believe you’ll be interested in this information.”
Cheating in class was a big no-no, and it would immediately get you expelled from the program.
Hadley was fucked, and thanks to Lucia informing me of the video cameras in the library, I would now have the proof that was needed to get rid of her.
Not necessarily out of the picture completely, but most definitely out of the program, and it would definitely discredit her.
Something that wasn’t in her favor since she was already on shaky ground because of her allegations.
You know, since I had a rock-solid alibi for the night of my supposed ‘rape’ of her person.
Something I’d found out thirty minutes ago on my way to this useless meeting.
“Which student?” Lucia asked. “Are they in the final semester?”
I grinned.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “Ms. Slater just informed me that she caught Hadley Dunston cheating off of her during her final exam today, and she believes that it’s been going on for some time before that.”
“How do we know that this is true?” Martin grasped at straws again.
I smiled then.
“Well, according to Lucia, y’all just put in a new security system that covers not just these offices, but also the library.”
“Since when?” Martin gasped, turning to look around the room wildly.
I made another mental note to have Aaron find the feed to these videos and do a little investigating.
If my suspicions were anything to go by, he might find some pretty exciting stuff!
Seems Lucia hadn’t told the dean about the cameras, either. Things were likely about to take a turn for the worse. For him and Hadley, anyway.
Fucking awesome!