3: 3

Savannah's crying cut off for an instant, then picked right back up through the tears.

"Those two students were threatened by your brother. He told them if they said the wrong thing, he'd make sure they never graduated. They're too scared to testify."

I turned to the dean, my voice hard. "Dean, just bring those two students in for a face-to-face. Four people were in that car. Ask them and the truth comes out."

The dean turned straight to the counselor. "Go get them."

The office went quiet in an instant, nothing left but Savannah's crying.

I crossed to my brother and took his hand.

He looked at me, his voice raw. "Maria, I really didn't. I swear I didn't do it..."

I gripped his hand tight. "I know. I believe you."

The office door flew open.

My brother's fiancée, Juliana Fox, stood in the doorway.

Her hair was a mess, like she'd run the whole way here.

Miles froze. "Juliana? Why are you here?"

Juliana didn't say a word. She walked straight up to him.

She stared at him, hard.

The next second.

Crack!

A ringing slap. Everyone in the room sucked in a breath at once.

His head snapped to the side with the force of it.

Juliana's tears kept falling. "Miles Pruitt, the engagement is off."

He panicked, reaching to catch her arm. "Juliana, let me explain, it isn't what—"

"Explain what?!"

She wrenched her hand away like a woman gone wild and screamed in his face. "You harassed a female student! You're that filthy! And you still have the nerve to explain to me?! I must have been blind to ever get engaged to you!"

I rushed forward and put myself between them. "Juliana, calm down! There were four people in that car! Two other girls were with them the whole way! How could my brother do something like that in front of two witnesses?! Use your head! Don't let them fool you!"

Juliana went rigid. A flicker of doubt crossed her eyes.

And in that pause.

Footsteps at the door.

The two summoned girls walked in, heads down.

I spoke at once. "They're here! Listen to them say it themselves! What actually happened!"

I fixed my eyes on the two of them. "What actually happened on the way to the hospital!"

The two girls exchanged a glance and answered under their breath. "He touched Savannah's thigh on the way there.

"And he threatened us! Said if we said the wrong thing, he'd make sure we never graduated, that we'd never be able to stay at this school again!"

The words landed and the whole room erupted.

Juliana looked at my brother, all the hope gone from her face. "Miles Pruitt, what do you have left to say?"

His head jerked up and he roared at the two girls.

"You're lying! I didn't!"

"I had both hands locked on that wheel the whole time! I never let go for a second!"

"I never said a single word to either of you! And I never touched her."

Juliana said nothing more. She turned and walked out.

He stood frozen where he was, tears of despair sliding down. "I really never said one word to them. I didn't do anything..."

4: 4

The whole office went dead silent.

Every administrator, every teacher, stared at my brother with nothing but contempt in their eyes.

I stepped right up to the two girls and lowered my voice.

"Slandering someone, giving false testimony on purpose—that's against the law. That's a crime. It goes on your record, you go to jail. You're lying right now. Can you really live with what comes next?"

Savannah blew up on the spot.

She shot up out of her chair, jabbed a finger at my face, and shrieked through her tears.

"Professor Pruitt, this is going way too far!"

"The dean is standing right here! You're openly threatening witnesses!"

"Your brother did something filthy, and the proof is right there! Now you want to use your position to bully students and force us to shut up?"

The second the words left her mouth, every teacher and administrator around us erupted, all of them pointing at me, all of them shouting me down.

"So arrogant! Threatening students in the open!"

"Throwing her weight around, plain and simple!"

"The two of them, brother and sister, both running wild! What a disgrace to the profession!"

Savannah looked at me and said, cold and flat,

"If your Pruitt family doesn't give me an answer today, I'm calling the police."

She fixed her eyes on me, certain of herself.

I suppose, in her mind, at this point I should have been panicking.

I laughed out loud.

"Stop crying," I said coldly.

Her sobbing caught in her throat. She frowned at me.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

"This call to the police—let me make it for you."

Right in front of everyone, I dialed 911.

Savannah's eyes went wide.

The line connected, and I said calmly,

"Hi, I'm in the dean's office at Blueridge University. Someone here is accusing my brother of sexual harassment."

The officers arrived quickly.

Savannah launched into her tearful account, talking fast, running through the "details" again and again, each pass more specific than the last.

The two girls stood beside her, nodding along without a break. One said, "I saw him touch her." The other said, "When he threatened us, his voice was really vicious." The three of them meshed together without a single seam.

An officer turned to me. "Do you have anything else to say?"

"No way."

I stood beside my brother.

"My brother would never do something like this."

Savannah started crying again, harder than before.

"I know… I know your Pruitt family has money and power. I'm just a girl from the country. I can't afford to take you on…"

She lifted her head and looked at me, her whole face wet with tears.

Her voice climbed. "But I know that if I don't stand up, more girls like me are going to get hurt later on!"

The people around us picked up the cry, one after another.

"That's right! We're behind you!"

"They can't get away with this!"

The shouting rolled over me like water.

Then I clapped my hands.

"Wow, wow, that was really something. I almost got choked up."

"Oh, but I forgot to mention—I signed my brother up for a hidden-camera driving show. The whole time he was in that car today, they were filming him in secret."

"And the episode airs in five minutes."