Chapter 4

I left Aaron with nothing but a complete mess.

Since the final step of the withdrawal process required signatures from both the principal and the homeroom teacher, I picked up my things and headed to the principal's office.

But before I reached the door, I heard Eleanor's sharp, angry voice coming from inside. "Mr. Blackwood, you have to do something about this! Sylvana is not only a stupid student who drags down the class average, she's also a thief!"

I stopped and looked through the half-open office door.

Eleanor was sitting on the couch, throwing a fit, while Aaron stood beside her with red eyes, pretending to look pitiful.

Isla chimed in, filled with righteous anger. "Sylvana was jealous that Aaron was going to win the national championship, so she secretly copied his core algorithm!"

Eleanor gritted her teeth as she accused me. "Her mother even destroyed all the original drafts with a shredder right in front of me! She knows her daughter is useless, so she wants to destroy Aaron too, just to get revenge on the school for winning the national championship!"

I listened to them and couldn't help laughing.

Then I pushed the door open and walked inside.

The moment they saw me, the room fell silent.

As soon as Isla saw me, Isla angrily demanded, "Mrs. Montgomery, how dare you come back? Sylvana stole confidential information, and you destroyed the core materials for the competition. Both of you have committed crimes!"

Alistair Blackwood slammed his hand on the desk in anger. "Mrs. Montgomery, the reputation of a top-ranked high school like this isn't something we take lightly. Aaron is one of our most promising students, and he has a guaranteed spot at a top college. What you and Sylvana have done out of spite is absolutely disgraceful."

I walked straight to his desk and placed the withdrawal form in front of him. "Why don't you check the security cameras before accusing Sylvana of stealing based on nothing but their one-sided stories? But none of that matters anymore. Just sign the form. We're leaving."

Eleanor suddenly rushed over and tore the withdrawal form to pieces. "Oh, so your plan is to transfer her and run away from this mess? No way. This isn't over until you've paid us 500,000 dollars in damages!"

The more she talked, the more worked up she became.

She suddenly grabbed me by the collar and reached for the canvas bag in my hand. "I want to see what else this little thief is hiding in her bag!"

I struggled to pull myself free, but she clung to the strap like a madwoman.

I turned and looked at Alistair and Isla.

Alistair calmly drank his water while staring at the ceiling, pretending he hadn't seen anything.

Isla simply stood there with a smug, mocking smile.

Eleanor kept pulling until everything inside my bag spilled across the floor.

Her eyes immediately landed on a small crystal teddy bear.

It was the USB drive containing a backup of Sylvana's core algorithms.

Its outer shell had been specially designed to disguise it, so it looked like an ordinary glass figurine.

Because the USB drive was extremely important, I had always kept it with me.

Eleanor picked up the crystal teddy bear and looked at it with disgust. "Oh, I thought you had gold bars hidden in that bag. And after all that, it's just some cheap plastic toy?"

My face darkened.

I stared coldly at Eleanor. "Put it down. Now. I warn you, that's not a toy. If you damage it, your entire family won't be able to afford the cost."