Chapter 8

For the next week, Isabel got a room at a hotel near the college. Fortunately, there wasn't anything else in the villa that she needed anymore. All she wanted to do now was finish writing her report so she could leave this place forever with the research results she'd worked hard to get. She didn't hear from Kendall anymore after a few days of hiding and thought perhaps he'd given up. One day, she headed to the lab with her laptop, wanting to wrap things up for her report. However, she failed to enter the building despite scanning her face a few times. She was denied access no matter what she did. She pulled out her phone and called her advisor. "Professor, why have I lost access to the lab?" He was usually amicable, but his tone was cold and hard when he spoke this time. "You're no longer part of our lab from this day onward, Isabel. You won't be able to enter the building anymore." Isabel felt like she'd been struck by lightning. She swayed on her feet uncontrollably. "But why?" she asked in disbelief. All that answered her was the dial tone. She immediately sat on the floor and turned on her laptop, only to find that she was denied access to everything related to the lab. She couldn't check anything to do with it, and she couldn't even see the results of the experiments she'd slaved away at! Isabel stormed to the faculty office in a rage, but she didn't see her advisor there. One of the professors with whom she was familiar said lowly, "There's no use going to your advisor, Isabel. He didn't want this, but he can't do anything about it." She left the office and crouched outside, feeling cold all over as despair washed over her. She should've expected this. Kendall wouldn't have given up after she'd rejected him. He would've thought of something else. Could anyone other than the Court and Johnson families make the college and her advisor cave so easily? At the same time, a group chat with the whole faculty in it became abuzz. Someone sent a message congratulating Winifred on the results of her research, saying that they had gained the recognition of many experts in their field. Congratulatory messages and stickers flew past, and even through the screen, it was evident how pleased Winifred was. She wrote, "Thank you, everyone. I'm so happy that the experiment I worked on for so long has finally yielded results! I'm throwing a party at Bayside Hotel tonight to celebrate, and you're all invited!" "Whoa, Bayside Hotel! That place is expensive!" "Come on, Winifred is the Court family's heiress! What does a meal matter to her?" "Exactly! Winifred is pretty and kind, and she's also so skilled in scientific research. She's amazing!" As everyone sang her praises, someone sent a message that stood out like a sore thumb. "Why are Winifred's research results identical to Isabel's? She didn't plagiarize Isabel's work, did she?" The person who sent that was a young man whose presence usually went unnoticed. The group chat went silent at his words. On the other end of the line, Winifred clutched her phone tightly and stomped angrily. "What should we do, Felix? Isabel announced her research results earlier than I did, and everyone now thinks I copied her!" Felix smiled, looking unfazed. "Don't worry. I've already made preparations!" An hour later, a post on the college forum sent shockwaves through the college. The poster shared screenshots of Winifred's research journal and went into detail about everything she'd experienced over the past year of scientific research. At the end of the post, they even named Isabel and warned her to act with integrity, saying that it was a disgrace to plagiarize someone else's work. All the students were stunned, and the post quickly became the most talked-about topic in the faculty. Everyone talked about how Isabel, a genius who'd gotten scholarships for three consecutive years, had plagiarized someone else's work. She'd even shamelessly claimed the results as her own and announced them before the owner could. Isabel was swarmed by insults and mockery. She walked along a path on campus, feeling completely abandoned as the students who passed her pointed at her and whispered among themselves. She clearly heard them calling her a plagiarizer. She'd worked so hard for so long to ultimately be labeled as a plagiarizer. She was dazed for a moment before suddenly breaking into a sprint. She screamed at the top of her lungs, "I'm not a plagiarizer! I didn't claim anyone else's work as my own! I didn't do it! The research results are mine!" The more hysterical she was, the more people stopped to watch her. They surrounded her and flung insults at her, drowning out her attempts to tell the truth. Just then, her phone buzzed. She answered the call, only to hear a voice say, "I'm calling from the college's administrative office, Ms. Court. The administrators saw the post on the forum, and we've spoken to your professors and classmates. "We've verified the authenticity of the post. The college will not condone any form of plagiarism, so you will be punished with expulsion."