Chapter 5

In the video, my mom was twisting her body stiffly and awkwardly while surrounded by boisterous laughter of men in a luxurious private room.

“Well done. Here’s a tip for you.”

Mr. Larsson’s voice, dripping with disdain, sounded from the video. The scene was then cut to my mom picking up the money on the floor in a fluster.

The volume of the video was turned up high.

The leering laughter of the men in the video resounded in the quiet classroom, sounding exceptionally piercing.

Suddenly, everyone was in an uproar.

“Goodness, I can't believe we have a parent who does such work in this class!”

“Isn’t she wearing a waitress uniform? She’s probably just service staff.”

“What kind of service staff is willing to be humiliated like that? Maybe her sugar daddy likes such things and asked her to dress up like that.”

“Tsk, tsk! Acting like this for the sake of money. I feel embarrassed for her!”

The piercing remarks made me look at my mom with worry.

She was biting her lip hard, her entire body shaking.

Denise and her father, on the other hand, were both acting all high and mighty. They wore a look of mockery on their faces.

I immediately knew where this video had come from.

“Enough! Shut it off! Shut it off right now!”

I rushed up to the stage and plucked out the cable of the projector. The screen went black at once, but everyone’s piercing gazes remained on both my mom and me.

Ms. Sable was furious. She pointed at my nose and yelled, “Jordan Schmidt! Do you have any regard for the rules in class? Why are you trying to stop us from seeing something shameless your mom did in public?”

“Shameless?”

I glared at Ms. Sable.

“My mom swallowed her pride to pick up the money on the ground just so she could pay for my tuition. That isn’t shameless, it’s the strength of a working-class mother! The ones who are truly shameless are the so-called elites in the video who find joy in stomping on other people’s dignity just because they think they have some money!”

I turned around and pointed at Denise’s father who was looking on in amusement.

“Ms. Sable, you talked about discipline at home, didn’t you? Why don’t you talk about the man seated at the head of the table in the video, who's also Denise’s father, Mr. Chadburn?”

Mr. Chadburn’s face darkened.

Denise stood up and yelled at me. “Jordan Schmidt, shut up! Who forced your mom to dance? Who forced her to pick up the money? She's just a gold digger, and a shameless one at that!”

I was so furious, my chest heaved with anger.

Suddenly, a thought came to mind.

“Since you want to do things this way, let’s expose everything right now and let the truth come to light!” I said with a smirk.

I shoved Ms. Sable aside and stuck a thumb drive in the computer. With eyes like searing torches, I glared at Denise and her father.

“I invite everyone here today to take a look at the wonderful daughter this lofty Mr. Chadburn raised. See how Denise Chadburn, whom Ms. Sable loves calling a genius, uses a problem-solving app to clinch her position as the top student of the level!”