Chapter 206 CHAPTER 206
The tension in the infirmary had not yet settled when a sharp knock sounded at the door, followed almost immediately by its opening.
Two guards stepped in, their expressions serious, their posture carrying the kind of urgency that shifted the air in the room before they even spoke.
“Sir,” one of them said, addressing Aeron before turning slightly toward Liam. “We’ve found something.”
The words drew every gaze toward them at once.
Liam straightened where he stood beside Lisa, his attention sharpening immediately. “What is it?”
The guard stepped forward, holding an iPad in his hands as he spoke. “We reviewed the security footage around the west wing and along Isabel’s movements throughout the day. The cameras near the locker room had been tampered with. They didn’t capture anything useful.”
A brief silence followed, heavy with expectation.
“But,” the guard continued, lifting the device slightly, “something else was caught on camera.”
That was enough.
“Show me,” Liam said.
The guard moved closer, angling the screen so both Liam and the others could see. The video began to play, the scene unfolding in quiet, ordinary clarity.
It was a classroom.
Students sat at their desks, the atmosphere calm, structured, nothing out of the ordinary. The teacher stood at the front, speaking as she organized something on her desk, and then, one by one, the students began to stand and walk forward.
They carried their phones.
There was a tray placed neatly on the teacher’s desk, and each student dropped their phone into it before returning to their seats.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then Isabel’s voice broke through, soft but certain.
“That’s my class,” she said.
All eyes shifted briefly to her.
“Miss Blackwood gave us a speed test this morning,” Isabel continued, her brows knitting slightly as she watched the screen. “She asked us to bring our phones to the front so no one could cheat.”
The video continued.
The tray filled with phones.
The students returned to their seats.
The class resumed.
Everything looked normal.
Too normal.
And then….
The teacher moved.
Miss Blackwood stepped behind her desk, her movements calm, unhurried. She glanced briefly at the class, ensuring their attention was elsewhere, before her hand dipped into the tray.
She did not hesitate.
She selected a phone.
The moment it came into view, Isabel’s breath caught sharply.
“That’s mine,” she said, the words leaving her before she could stop them.
The room stilled.
Everyone’s attention snapped back to the screen.
The teacher’s hand moved smoothly, almost casually, as she lowered the phone out of sight, just below the edge of the desk.
For a few seconds, nothing could be seen.
Only the top of her head.
The stillness of the classroom.
The quiet continuation of the lesson.
Then, just as calmly as before, her hand rose again.
The phone was back in her grasp.
She placed it neatly into the tray, exactly where it had been taken from.
And stepped away as if nothing had happened.
The video ended.
Silence filled the infirmary.
Heavy.
Unsettling.
“I don’t understand,” Isabel said quietly, her voice unsteady as she stared at the now-dark screen. “Why would she… what did she even do?”
Liam’s expression had hardened, his mind already moving through the implications.
“Your phone,” he said, turning to her. “Let me see it.”
Isabel handed it over without hesitation, her fingers trembling slightly.
Liam took it, his movements precise as he unlocked the screen and began to go through the messages. Lisa shifted slightly beside him, watching closely despite the fatigue still lingering in her body.
“It’s still there,” she said softly. “The messages.”
Liam nodded faintly, his eyes scanning quickly, searching for something more.
And then he found it.
His expression shifted.
“They weren’t sent in real time,” he said.
Aeron stepped closer.
“What do you mean?”
Liam lifted the phone slightly, turning it so they could see.
“These messages were written earlier,” he explained, his voice calm but firm. “They were scheduled.”
Isabel frowned, confusion deepening.
“Scheduled?”
“They were typed in the morning,” Liam continued, his gaze darkening slightly. “But set to be sent later… in the afternoon.”
The realization settled slowly.
Then all at once.
Lisa’s breath caught faintly.
“So when I received them…” she said, her voice trailing.
“They were already planned,” Liam finished.
The room went quiet again, but this time the silence carried something sharper.
Understanding.
Aeron’s expression hardened.
“This wasn’t spontaneous,” he said. “This was calculated.”
“Yes,” Liam agreed.
Isabel took a small step back, her thoughts racing, trying to piece together what she had just seen, what it meant, what it implied.
“She had my phone,” she said slowly. “She wrote those messages… and waited.”
Her chest tightened slightly.
“She knew when to send them. She knew Lisa would come.”
Lisa’s fingers curled slightly at her side.
“It was a trap,” she said quietly.
No one disagreed.
Aeron’s gaze moved between them, his voice steady but firm.
“Then we are no longer dealing with an unknown intruder,” he said.
Liam’s jaw tightened.
“No,” he replied.
His eyes lifted, meeting Aeron’s.
“We’re dealing with someone inside the school.”
The weight of that truth settled heavily over everyone present.
A teacher.
Someone trusted.
Someone with access.
Someone who had walked unnoticed through their defenses.
And had come dangerously close to succeeding.
The room remained still, the implications stretching far beyond the walls of the infirmary.
Because now—
The danger had a face.
And it was one they had not expected.