Chapter 67 You are now caught

Chapter 67 You are now caught
“I didn’t attack you,” Sophie insisted, immediately slipping back into the helpless, sniveling act she had been putting on.

Her shoulders drew inward, and she wiped at the tears on her cheeks with trembling fingers, making herself appear as vulnerable as possible. “You’re the ones who bullied me for no reason but I didn't do anything to deserve this.”

She turned toward the professor as if he were the only person in the room capable of protecting her. “Professor, please…” Her voice cracked as she clasped her hands together. “I’m so scared.”

The words were accompanied by another shaky breath, and she lowered her gaze, allowing her tears to continue falling.

“Don’t be afraid,” the professor assured her immediately. His tone softened when he addressed Sophie, the concern in his voice noticeably different from the sternness he had shown Liora and Mara. “I won’t let them get away with hurting you.”

He then turned his attention toward Liora, his face hardening once again.

“Bargaining is useless. If you refuse to compensate her again, and I’ll have you expelled....I promise.”

Liora's fingers tightened around the armrest of Dominic's wheelchair because she couldn't believe the situation had reached this point.

They hadn't even been given a fair chance to explain themselves, yet the professor had already decided who was guilty and who was innocent.

Sophie's tears seemed to be enough to erase everything that had happened before they entered the office.

Before Liora could respond, a deep masculine voice came from outside the door. “I’m looking for Professor Michael.”

The voice was calm but carried enough authority to make everyone pause and a moment later, its owner stepped into the office.....iy was the principal.

Professor Michael expression changed immediately and surprise flickered across his face as he straightened.

“Principal Steele,” professor Michael greeted, clearly startled. “What can I do for you?”

“I’m not here for you.”

Principal Steele answer was so direct that professor Michael hesitated.

The principal adjusted his glasses, his gaze moving across the room and there was the faintest trace of dry contempt in his eyes, but it was enough to make the professor uncomfortable.

“I’m here to witness how exactly you dispense justice,” Principal Steele continued, his tone becoming noticeably cooler, “if you can call it that.”

The room fell quiet and professional Michael eyes dropped because he knew exactly what the principal was implying.

It was true that he hadn't taken the time to properly investigate why the fight had started in the cafeteria. He had seen Liora and Mara beating Sophie, and from that moment, he had simply assumed the situation was obvious.

Sophie looked delicate, he had cried and had appeared frightened then Liora and Mara had been the ones standing over her to him, the conclusion had seemed simple and they were the aggressors but now, with Principal Steele standing there and questioning his judgment, a trace of uncertainty began to creep in.

Still, professor Michael couldn't completely understand what he had supposedly done wrong.

He had witnessed the two girls beating Sophie. She looked so delicate that, in his mind, she hardly seemed capable of hurting a fly, let alone provoking such a violent reaction and they had even threatened her right in front of him wasn't that evidence enough that they were in the wrong?

“Why do you say that, Principal Steele?” he finally asked.

Principal Pang Steele answer immediately instead his gaze shifted first toward the man sitting in the wheelchair.

Dominic remained silent, his face partially hidden behind his mask, but there was something about his stillness that made him impossible to ignore.

He wasn't the kind of person who needed to make a scene to command attention because hs quiet presence alone seemed to carry weight.

Principal Steele eyes then moved toward Sophie. “You’ll have to ask her,” he said coldly.

Sophie stiffened and for the first time since the principal entered the room, her confidence seemed to waver.

She didn't understand why she was suddenly being singled out, and the uncertainty made her instinctively return to the only defense she knew would usually work which was her tears.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she whimpered.

Her voice was small and frightened. “You’re frightening me.”

Principal Steele stared at her but there was no sympathy in his expression this time. “You weren’t too frightened to hit a fellow student earlier.”

Sophie froze and Principal Steele gaze sharpened, glinting behind his glasses like the tip of a dagger. He had dealt with all kinds of students during his years at the institution and had seen arrogance, dishonesty, childish arguments, deliberate troublemaking, and students who tried to escape punishment by shifting blame onto someone else but Sophie was different.

There was something almost astonishing about the shamelessness with which she was performing.

She could stand there crying as id she were completely innocent, even though the situation had clearly begun with something she wasn't admitting.

Principal Steele wasn't impressed and his attention remained fixed on her, and for the first time since the confrontation had begun, Sophie's carefully constructed image of herself as the helpless victim started to crack beneath a gaze that refused to be manipulated.