"And I will take responsibility for my student. I will marry him and care for him for the rest of his life!"
Eustace left a comment beneath her post:
"With you by my side, I'm not afraid of anything."
Blood rushed to my head. My entire body felt like it had been struck by a sledgehammer.
Below that exchange, the comments section was flooded with congratulations and well-wishes, interspersed with horrifying abuse directed at me.
My photos had been photoshopped into degrading images. People were threatening to dox my home address and "teach me a lesson."
My phone was drowning in a torrent of filth and curses.
I tried to explain, over and over. I hadn't done any of it. Sabina was lying.
No one believed me.
"Your own girlfriend came out and exposed you! You obviously did it!"
"You got any proof you're innocent? No? Then drop dead, you piece of trash!"
With trembling hands, I forwarded Sabina's post to her directly.
"Why would you slander me like this?"
Sabina replied almost instantly:
"Didn't I tell you yesterday to smooth things over with the university administrators for me? You walked out without a care in the world. I've already been held accountable, and this was the only way I could think of to clear things up."
"Besides, everyone was mocking Eustace, calling him a disgrace. He cried so hard yesterday he nearly passed out. This protects his reputation too."
"What about me?! I deserve to be dragged through the mud?"
"Stephen, it's just a few nasty comments from strangers online. Just don't look at them. Give it some time and people will forget. It'll blow over."
"Oh, and the wedding starts in an hour. Eustace's and mine. Hurry up and come be the best man. Apologize to Eustace in front of everyone. If we're going to put on a show, we need to commit to it."
Then, in a tone that was neither gentle nor harsh, she added:
"Be good. If you keep throwing tantrums, I can't guarantee I'll still marry you in three years like we planned. Remember, your mother is gone. I'm the only family you have left in this world."
I shook with rage.
Once, she had stood at my mother's bedside, held my hand, and sworn she would be my last family, that she would take care of me for the rest of my life.
And now this was how she treated me.
Tears were already falling when my phone buzzed with a new message.
"Mr. Fox, there's something I'm not sure I should tell you."
"I have surveillance footage from the day of the incident with Eustace Simmons. I think you need to see what actually happened that day."
I watched the video as it loaded onto my phone, and my body went rigid.
The graduation ceremony, one month ago.
Eustace, who was supposed to be onstage for the tassel-turning, had vanished. So had Sabina.
As the lab's sponsor, I joined several others from the university to search backstage.
We ran straight into Sabina, rushing out with an unconscious Eustace in her arms.
We followed them to the hospital. The doctor gave us a strange look and said, "Young people chasing thrills still need to be careful about safety."
That was how we found out. Eustace had been with someone in a storage room full of high-powered stage lights, looking for a thrill. They'd gotten locked inside and baked under the heat for a full three hours, leaving him severely dehydrated.
The university erupted. The administration immediately ordered Eustace's expulsion.
When Eustace came to, he sobbed and screamed that someone had knocked him out and dragged him in there to hurt him. That his attacker had already fled.
The university pulled the surveillance footage, but the recordings had been deleted.
When they pressed him for details, he refused to say a word. He threw himself into hysterics, threatening to jump off the building.
Sabina also stepped in, threatening to pull her research funding unless the university dropped the investigation and buried the whole thing.
I didn't understand. Time and again, I tried to get justice for Eustace.
