Chapter 299 : Not That Simple

Chapter 299 : Not That Simple
Nigel's mind went blank. Before he could process her words, Allison had already turned around.

He reached out and caught her wrist. "What do you mean?" he asked, staring at her. "What exactly are you trying to do? Allison, I feel like I don't know you anymore. You've changed so much. You're becoming more and more unfamiliar to me. Sometimes, I don't even know what you're thinking."

Allison turned around and looked at him for a long moment.

Nigel didn't think there was anything wrong with what he'd said, so he argued, "What do those two videos even prove? Cheating is still cheating. Just because nobody successfully exposed you doesn't mean you suddenly earned that SAT score on your own. You haven't opened a textbook in years. Everything you learned back then should've been forgotten by now."

A trace of mockery crept into Allison's cold laugh. Allison was starting to wonder if something was seriously wrong with Nigel's brain.

The evidence was sitting right in front of him, yet he still chose to believe she had cheated. There was no point trying to reason with someone determined to deceive himself.

She had no interest in arguing with him. Her eyes landed on a book resting on the stone table beside Sherrie. It was the same book Sherrie often carried around whenever she wanted to look hardworking and studious.

Allison casually picked it up and flipped to a random page. After scanning a few lines, she grabbed a pen and made several marks on the paper.

Then she set the book down, tossed the pen aside, and headed for the door.

Nigel was instantly enraged. "Stop right there!" he shouted. "You think you can just leave without settling this?"

Allison ignored him.

Nigel was about to follow her when the book on the table caught his attention. He suddenly became curious. He wanted to know what Allison had written in it. He immediately walked over and reached for the book.

But Sherrie was quicker. Before Nigel could touch it, she grabbed the open book and pulled it into her hands.

The truth was, she had never even read that book before.

The book was actually a secondhand workbook she had bought online. Every exercise inside had already been completed by the previous owner.

On one of those solved questions, Allison had circled several parts.

Sherrie was already a graduate student, but she had never been particularly serious about academics. She stared at the markings for a while but couldn't understand what Allison was trying to point out.

Had Allison found a mistake in the solution? That was impossible. This was a graduate-level question.

Nigel reached for the book.

Sherrie instinctively wanted to stop him. She didn't want him looking at it. What if he noticed something and started asking questions she couldn't answer?

But snatching it back now would only make her look suspicious. All she could do was look at him, unable to hide the anxiety in her expression.

Nigel took the book from her and studied the question carefully, his brows gradually furrowing.

The longer Nigel stayed silent, the more suffocating it felt for Sherrie. It felt as though the living room was slowly running out of air.

Sherrie had bought that workbook on a whim. She had no idea what kind of student the previous owner had been.

What if the solutions inside were completely wrong? If Nigel figured that out, the image she had spent so long building as a top student would fall apart.

Nigel remained silent for an entire minute.

Just when Sherrie was on the verge of losing her composure, Nigel closed the workbook, rolled it up, and said, "I'm taking this book for now. I want to look at it more carefully."

Sherrie was stunned by Nigel's words, while Ruth remained silent the entire time, absentmindedly rubbing two fingers together as though something was bothering her.

Nigel noticed her unusual behavior. He was about to bring up the SAT incident when Ruth suddenly turned toward the doorway, startled like a frightened animal.

Allison had left without even bothering to close the door behind her.

Following Ruth's stare, Nigel looked toward the doorway.

Just then, he noticed a brief flash of light. It was the kind of fill light used by professional cameras.

Someone was outside taking pictures in secret.

"Stop!" Nigel shouted as his expression changed. He immediately rushed out after them.

The man dressed as a paparazzo sprinted away the moment he was caught. A baseball cap covered his head, and he was wrapped up so tightly that no one could make out his face.

He was obviously experienced. In just a few seconds, he had already disappeared from sight.

Nigel had no idea who the man was or what he had been doing there. Breathing heavily, he finally gave up the chase and headed straight for the study, where the security monitor was installed, intending to check the surveillance footage.

Meanwhile, on a nearby street outside the Rogers mansion, Allison stood silently in the shadows. She watched the paparazzo leave with a camera full of freshly captured material.

They wanted to throw mud at me. Fine! Once that mud dried, I'd make sure they got hit by every bit of it.

Ruth wanted to use public opinion to destroy Allison. What she didn't realize was that the cheating scandal had also brought Allison attention and traffic.

The discussion around the scandal had died down somewhat, but that didn't mean no one would bring it up again. If someone could use Allison to reverse the situation and keep the story going, it would only boost their click numbers.

Recently, Allison had become such a trending topic that paparazzi had started following her. That was exactly why she had come to the Rogers mansion and said all those things.

Ruth wanted to drag me through the mud while she and Sherrie walked away clean? She could keep dreaming.

In the study, Nigel checked the surveillance footage and discovered that the paparazzo had been following Allison the whole time.

The man had hidden at the corner across from the mansion, secretly taking pictures from start to finish.

Allison probably had no idea she was being followed.

Nigel racked his brain, trying to remember whether he had said anything inappropriate during their earlier conversation. The more he thought about it, the more anxious he became.

But it was already too late to find the man, and there was no way of knowing exactly what had been captured on camera. No matter how much he worried, it wouldn't change anything.

In the end, the only thing Nigel could do was blame Allison. He blamed her reputation, blamed her for coming here, and blamed her for saying things that were so easy to misunderstand.