The sun was starting to dip below the horizon, casting long shadows across the university grounds. Siobhan, ever the tenacious journalism student, wasn’t content to wait for Dean Holbrook’s return.
She grabbed her phone and disappeared, telling me she had a “hunch.” Less than an hour later, a text message pinged on my phone: a link to a campus news site.
The headline blared: “Varsity Captain Admits Bribery in Patel Smear Campaign.”
I clicked it, my fingers trembling slightly. The article featured a grainy, but undeniably clear, video. It showed Jaxson Reid, the football captain who had broken my bracelet on the quad, looking nervous and agitated, backed against a brick wall behind the student center. Siobhan, holding her phone-camera steady, was visible in the frame.
“So, Jaxson,” Siobhan’s voice, calm and steady, came through the speaker. “The university judicial board will be reviewing the quad footage. Assault on a fellow student is a serious offense. That scholarship of yours?”
Jaxson shifted uncomfortably, running a hand through his hair. “Look, I didn’t mean any harm. I was just… paid to.”
My eyes widened. Paid to.
“Paid to do what?” Siobhan pressed, her journalistic instincts kicking in.
Jaxson sighed, his shoulders slumping. “To provoke her. Make her look unstable. Her dad’s people said she was, like, a danger to herself. They wanted me to make a scene.”
Then came the kicker. Jaxson, under Siobhan’s relentless questioning, pulled up his phone. He scrolled to an app, held it up to Siobhan’s camera. It was a Venmo transfer.
The screen clearly displayed: “$2,500 received from ‘Harish Patel Consulting’.” The memo line, stark and damning, read: “Create public disruption regarding Maya.”
Jaxson’s face was a mixture of fear and relief, as if getting it off his chest had been a weight. “They said it was for, like, student outreach. To help a family in crisis.”
Siobhan zoomed in on the screenshot. “Right,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Student outreach. Thanks for the clarification, Captain.”
The video cut out. The article then provided context, linking the Venmo transfer directly to Harish’s financial activities and his recent smear campaign. Siobhan had not only gotten a confession but undeniable financial proof of his manipulation.
Harish had hired a college athlete to stage a public breakdown, all to support his narrative of my “psychotic break.” The campus was now seeing the real story. My father’s carefully constructed image was crumbling, piece by piece.
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