Chapter 36 Harper #2
“Now what?” I said to Ezra as two students gave me the stink eye, and one muttered “Fucking Bender” as we passed.
“I haven’t the faintest,” Ezra said. “But it certainly brings back schoolyard memories when I was the only boy in my class who wore eyeliner and the occasional skirt.”
Tessa Carlyle hurriedly fell into step next to me. “Oh my God, Harper, what is happening?”
I glanced around and then at her, a ball of dread dropping into my gut. “You…you heard?”
She nodded. “It’s bullshit. It has to be right?”
“Bullshit? Wait, what are you talking about?”
“Langford,” Tessa hissed. “There’s a rumor going around that you lost the NoSci and freaked out in the auditorium. That you threatened to make up an assault unless he gave you the win. When he refused, you filed a false complaint.”
I felt faint. “Oh my God…”
“Bloody hell,” Ezra murmured.
Tessa looked between us. “I know that’s bullshit…but what actually happened?”
“The opposite,” I said, my face on fire as we passed a cluster of students, all of them stopping to watch us pass. “He…he threatened me, saying that Orion won, but if I did what he wanted…” I couldn’t even say it. “So I made a complaint.”
“Oh God,” Tessa said, her eyes filling with tears. “Oh, Harper, I’m so sorry. Everyone loves Langford. I’m not even in the science department and I know that. All these people…” She threw her arms around me. “I have rehearsal I can’t get out of but… Is there anything I can do?”
“No. Thanks,” I said, sounding shell-shocked to my own ears.
“Okay, call or text when you can.”
She reluctantly left, and I clutched Ezra’s arm.
“Who told them…?” I breathed.
“Langford,” Ezra said darkly. “He’s trying to get ahead of it. Come on. Let’s take a detour.”
He led me out a side door into blinding sunshine.
“He’s a piece of steaming shit, but this is a lot, Harper. Too much, maybe. You tell me what you want. Keep going or…?”
I sucked in a breath. “Keep going.”
***
Ezra and I were ushered into President Sterling’s office where half a dozen people were pacing, agitated, including Sterling. They all stopped, and an array of faces stared back at me—I barely registered Orion’s parents were among them—because my blood had gone cold at the sight of Langford.
“It’s abhorrent that she should be in the same room with him,” Ezra declared, tattooed and pierced amid all the suits. “We all know that, right?”
Dr. Sterling held up his hands. “Professor Wolfe, if you please. No one has been formally charged. Keep that in mind.” The man next to him, his lawyer presumably, nodded. “Please be seated.”
Ezra turned to me. “You don’t have to do this. We can leave right this bloody second.”
“It’s okay,” I said so only he could hear. “Let’s get this over with.”
Moving on stiff legs and looking anywhere but at Langford, I sat in the chair farthest from everyone else, Ezra beside me like a buffer.
“We’re just waiting on Orion, then,” Sterling said, with a deferential nod to his parents, who sat near the window, perpendicular to the desk.
Ezra and I shared shocked glances.
“What for?” he asked.
“This is an internal meeting regarding a faculty concern, and the integrity of the Novus Prize for Scientific Innovation,” Dr. Sterling said.
“Orion’s name was brought up, and because his parents are here and such valued members of our Academy family, we thought it best to include all involved parties. ”
“I see,” Ezra said with biting sarcasm. “I thought we were here to discuss a student complaint against a faculty member. Silly me.”
A knock came at the door, and Orion was ushered in. He looked just as appalled as Ezra that Langford was here.
“What the hell…?”
“Orion, hush,” his father said placidly. “Sit.”
Orion didn’t want to sit. He looked ready to murder Langford. I shook my head at him, and he reluctantly took a seat with his parents, hands gripping the armrests of his chair.
“Now that all parties are present…” Sterling said, and nodded to his lawyer, who turned to me.
“Miss Bennett, if you would.”
I swallowed, sat up straight, chin up defiantly, though my heart was jackrabbiting in my chest.
“Last night, I went to the auditorium to retrieve my laptop around six p.m.,” I began, only the slightest quaver in my voice. “Dr. Langford arrived and told me that Orion had won the contest because of his family’s influence, but that he—Langford—could change the outcome if I…cooperated.”
“And what did you take ‘cooperated’ to mean?” the lawyer asked.
“That he wanted me to have sex with him,” I stated clearly.
Sterling and the Mercers visibly flinched while Orion’s face was a mask of rage.
“And what gave you that impression?”
I clenched my teeth against the tide of humiliation and said in a rush, “He touched me inappropriately on my arms, my face, my neck. I told him to stop. He refused. He had me caged in.” My voice was beginning to break down.
“I fought him off and ran. I hid in the storage closet until a janitor found me and then I left. To Atlas Hall.”
“Why didn’t you go home if you were so distraught?” the lawyer asked.
“Is that relevant?” Ezra interjected.
“I’m merely trying to get the whole picture,” he said.
“I went to Orion. Dr. Langford was waiting for me in the parking lot,” I said, and everyone shifted uncomfortably. “I told Orion everything, and then—”
“And then spent the night at his place?”
“Bloody hell, man,” Ezra snapped.
“Professor Wolfe.” Dr. Sterling placed a hand on his desk. “You will have an opportunity to ask questions momentarily.”
“Yes,” I said. “Because I was exhausted and scared. The next morning, I immediately came here.”
The lawyer and Sterling conferred, and then Sterling said, “Dr. Langford, would you like to give your version of events?”
My entire body stiffened. Froze. As if it were in the auditorium all over again. I kept my eyes straight ahead, at a fixed point on the wall.
“I was in the auditorium last night, wrapping up NoSci business,” Langford said.
“Harper was there, and she was upset about the committee’s decision.
She expressed a dire need for the prize money.
I told her I couldn’t change the outcome or influence the other judges, nor would I try.
The conversation became emotional, so I removed myself. ”
I wonder how it must be to lie so easily. Without a shred of remorse or hesitation.
The lawyer for the school nodded, made a note. “There was no further interaction?”
“That’s correct. It was a very short conversation. As for waiting in the parking lot, it’s true, I lingered. I was upset. Unsure about the threats she had made and what might happen to my reputation. If there is security footage, I’m certain that’s what it will show.”
Ezra snorted. “So thoughtful of you to bring that up first.”
Sterling and the lawyer conferred, and then Sterling folded his hands on his desk. “Well, this seems rather inconclusive, I’m afraid.”
I went cold all over. That was it? Nothing more to say or do? They were going to drop it, and he was just going to get away with it? And do it again and again…
My hands twisted in my lap, and I winced.
My middle finger was swollen and red around the ring Orion had given me after I had struck Langford last night.
Ezra’s gaze flickered down at my hand, then over at Langford, but he remained silent, eyes narrowed, like he used to do when he was listening to us play in piano class.
“Inconclusive?” Orion burst out. “That’s it?”
“Without evidence or corroboration, there isn’t enough cause to take any further action.”
“You can’t afford to suspend your precious award ceremony, you mean,” Orion said, disgusted. “This was never about getting her a fair hearing. It was about damage control.”
“Orion, please,” his mother chided.
“Be that as it may,” Sterling said, “I have an institution to run. Rumors are flying—”
“Rumors he started!” Orion thundered, jabbing a finger at Langford.
“Orion, that’s enough,” his father admonished.
“No, this can’t be all.” Orion shot to his feet, glancing around at everyone, and I loved him for it, even as I sat, dumbstruck and defeated. “I thought we were here for Harper. For her.”
“Yes, and she told us her story,” Sterling said.
“Her story?”
“But some things are bigger than one student,” he said, not looking at me. “This is the first Novus Science prize, and it was years in the making. It’d be a black mark on the Academy to have it fall apart at the eleventh hour. I propose we proceed as scheduled. Orion accepts his award and then—”
“The fuck I will,” Orion snapped.
“Orion,” his father scolded. “My God, that is quite enough.”
“No chance,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m not getting up there and accepting an award I don’t deserve.”
Sterling scrubbed his hands down his face. “And why not?”
“Because I cheated.”
My head snapped up. I looked again to Ezra, but he only watched and listened.
“Cheated?” Celeste Mercer said with a small laugh. “Darling, please.”
“I did. I got outside help. An envelope of ideas from Mercer Chemicals, and I used one to make my project. I didn’t win anyway.
Langford himself said Harper did. The prize goes to her.
” He turned to me. “I’m so sorry, love. I should’ve told you a long time ago.
I never should’ve entered in the first place.
” His voice thickened. “Maybe none of this would’ve happened. ”
He straightened and faced Sterling.
“You can’t give it to me, and if you put me on the stage and hand me that award, I’ll tell everyone what happened and pass it right on to her.”