Chapter 32
Davian
Out of Character
Breaking Point
Ahmet Kenan Bilgic, Turgut Mavuk
“I don't understand! She's not even among the top hundred!” Troy's voice rang out from the double-door entrance to the professors' lounge, and I immediately wanted to go back to the small park where, just three minutes earlier, I had given Quill my schedule for debate practice sessions while Monica had explained the process to her.
Neither of us had been listening on that stage. My gaze had somehow become fixed on her blood-smeared fingertips, and the urge to take her hand in mine so she wouldn't hurt herself anymore had almost driven me mad.
“What if Monica pushed Davian to do it?” Thadd?us interjected. “After all, she's involved every time someone here gets the brilliant idea of changing something.”
There was a snort, but I couldn't tell who it came from when I reached the open door.
“This is all just a huge misunderstanding that Davian will clear up as soon as he gets here.”
Tony rarely played the mediator, and I had very little desire to explain anything to anyone, so I took a deep breath, cleared my throat, and entered the tense room.
“Davian is here now and has no reason to clear anything up, because Davian has made a decision that he fully stands by.”
Too late I realized that Arnold was present. So was Joseph.
Both men stared at me, because I never spoke like that in front of my mentor or my boss.
Borgov II
Carlos Rafael Rivera
Again, I cleared my throat, but I couldn't really hide my frustration with my colleagues, so, under their watchful eyes, I walked over to the whiskey table and poured myself half a glass, which I wasn't going to drink anyway.
“Are you done questioning my decisions behind my back?” I asked without looking at them.
I probably had a death wish today, because the suspicion and resentment they all showed toward Quill ignited a rage inside me that I hadn't even known I harbored.
It had been Lucas McMillan who had triggered it with his disgusting comment. I had never wanted to punch a student in the face before. And I knew how ruthlessly they all played each other.
But that comment...
I clenched my free hand into a fist.
Calm down, Davian. You've survived all the wars here. You'll get through this battle too.
“Definitely not!” Troy laughed as if he was about to lose his mind, and I took the first and only sip that would hopefully give me enough strength to get through this meeting. “You’re fostering a troublemaker.”
Why again had I followed Joseph to Maplecrest back then instead of keeping my well-paid job in D.C.? Oh yes... Right. For a quieter life.
“More than that,” Arnold now chimed in. I knew that if he weren't here, everyone would already be escalating. “Miss Veritas is a threat to the reputation of our faculty.”
I slowly turned to him.
“It sounds like you're afraid of seeing her win.”
Now everyone was looking at me as if I had lost my mind, because I had never spoken to Arnold like that before.
Fortunately, Arnold was staring intently at the glass in front of him. Too preoccupied with himself.
I tried to calm myself down, but Joseph's warning gaze didn't exactly help.
He had taught me how to behave around Arnold if I wanted to survive here.
Unfortunately, I despised this man too much, and that, combined with the fact that I was losing control of myself right now, was a sign that I should head back to my office or the park behind it and let my thoughts swirl until they weighed heavier than the three bullets I had given to Quill.
“If this girl wins, which I highly doubt, we'll be sending a message,” Thadd?us remarked, and Troy snorted morosely.
Anthony ran his fingers through his hair before the words just burst out of him.
“How could you grant Monica's wish when you know the girl is leaving Maplecrest?!”
His behavior confused me. This wasn't my longtime friend who valued morality over norms and stood up for the weak. It was as if we had switched roles, except that I rarely let my emotions get the better of me.
“So it was Monica!” Arnold growled, slamming his fist on the table so hard that Thadd?us and Anthony flinched.
“Miss Veritas has decided to stay,” I explained dryly to my best friend.
“What?”
The desperation in Anthony's voice made me raise an eyebrow. And the way Joseph's gaze darkened raised further fundamental questions in me.
What the hell was going on with everyone?
“Wait a damn minute.” Troy stepped forward with his hands raised, looking between Anthony and me with narrowed brows. “This girl wanted to leave?”
Arnold stared between Anthony and me just as intently as his son. Oh, the joy of seeing how much these two vultures resembled each other.
“Her parents stopped funding her studies, but Monica has offered financial aid,” I explained.
“Oh,” Troy laughed. “Of course she has.”
I didn't miss how Joseph clawed at his glass.
“That woman…” Arnold hissed, standing up before marching back and forth with his walking stick. “How dare she?!”
She had the right to support whomever she wanted.
“Monica may seem too idealistic to all of you, but when it comes to the women's quota at Maplecrest, she has my full support,” I clarified, and Arnold paused, glancing at Joseph, who pressed his lips together.
I wondered if this was the moment he regretted making me his protégé.
I hoped not, because I owed him everything.
I hoped that he would eventually break free from his mentor's expectations, but I also regretted putting him in an uncomfortable position, and it wouldn’t get any better if I didn’t shut up soon.
“Without women, Maplecrest Law won’t be able to hold its own. Harvard and Stanford will outrun our reputation,” I added, and Arnold looked at me again, as if he were actually considering my words. “And I would like to avoid that.”
How much I hated having to conceal my university political interests behind strategic advantages for Arnold, just so he could be proud of Joseph. It was as if he stubbornly refused to accept that I, and only I, was responsible for my thoughts and actions, and not my mentor.
I didn't miss Anthony running his fingers through his hair again until it was sticking out in all directions.
Joseph looked pale. I had never seen him clench his fists so quietly in this room before, but he didn't seem angry with me. I had never let it get that far.
An uncomfortable silence fell over the room, and Arnold finally stepped past me.
“I have to go to an important meeting,” he growled, ready to leave behind a battlefield he knew nothing about.
He suddenly stopped beside me and turned his head toward me.
“Davian. I hope you know what you're doing.”
He stared at me a second longer than he usually wasted his time doing so. A second that made it clear to me that Joseph's future depended on me winning the debates with Quill.
“If this girl causes any more trouble, I won't hesitate to disqualify her.”
I didn't need to look at Joseph to know how hard it was working inside him right now.
“I'll do my best with her,” was all I could assure Arnold.
The old Nazi left the room and I prepared myself mentally for the next ten minutes, whatever it was that would come crashing down on me this time.
Playing Mr. Ganz
Carlos Rafael Rivera
Troy couldn’t even keep his mouth shut for five seconds after Arnold had left the room.
“Your best”
He laughed scornfully, piercing me with his eyes.
“Is the Veritas girl now something like the successor to that ridiculous mentor-student chain my father came up with in a moment of weakness?”
Joseph stared at him tensely.
“Will she be the next top lawyer to return to Maplecrest as a professor to take something she is not entitled to?”
“Absolutely not!” Joseph, who had been silent until now, blurted out, and the glass he slammed on the table spilled over.
Now he looked at me. And a rage I didn't recognize burned in his eyes.
“What in God's name made you nominate that girl as a candidate, who not only performs terribly academically, but also writes during lectures, has no manners, and obviously intentionally provokes professors?!”
Even Troy looked at him in surprise, because he had never spoken to me like that before.
Something in my stomach tightened uncomfortably.
Joseph immediately lowered his voice, took a deep breath, and ran his hand over his face, which assured me that there was something else he wasn't telling me. The reason for his anger.
“Of all the perfect students walking around here, you take this... this...”
“Maybe you'll finally admit it, Joseph,” Troy interrupted him and popped one of those little white disgusting mint candies that he had been carrying around with him for twenty years. “Your so exemplary protégé doesn't seem to have been the best choice after all.”
It should be mentioned that Troy had tried to become Joseph's protégé before I had started at Maplecrest. It had been as good as settled, and to this day I didn't know why he had chosen me, a lost orphan boy with a baby, over the best student at Maplecrest.
“Miss Veritas will probably be expelled from this institution before she even has a chance to participate in a debate,” Troy snorted.
“Miss Veritas has an interesting debating style,” I defended her, which Troy – how else should it be – immediately scoffed at.
“You call it an interesting debating style when a rude brat makes the best student at Maplecrest cry in front of the entire lecture hall after showing her smeared wrists?” He shook his head and laughed sharply. “There’s something wrong with that girl.”
That was enough.
I slammed my glass down on the table and pointed to the door with a tense index finger.
“That girl comes from a complicated family background, and I don't even want to know what she's been through.”
Silence. They all stared at me, and I knew I had hit a nerve.
“Fact is, she deserves a chance, and I see potential in her. That's all the justification I owe you!”
I smoothed my vest, took a deep breath, and looked at Troy, ready for battle.
“She's my candidate.”