Chapter 3

"Why are you still standing around in a daze?" the examiner snapped, shooting an irritated look at Sophia and the others. "The exam has started! Take your seats!"

Only then did Sophia and the others snap back to their senses and stumble to their seats.

Sophia's face was still full of disbelief when she walked past me. "You… Why are you…"

I ignored her, kept my head down, and answered the questions. I had an easy time since they weren't too hard.

Meanwhile, Louis kept glancing at me from the corner of his eye. His pen even slipped from his fingers several times.

It didn't take long before the exam was over.

A powerful force collided against me seconds after I left the exam hall. Sophia roughly grabbed my arm and roared, "How did you get into the exam hall? There's no way that you got a replacement for your ID and admission ticket so soon. How the hell did you sneak into the hall?"

"Let go, Sophia," I said, looking down at her hand that was wrapped around my arm.

Not only did she not let go of me, but she also tightened her grip around my arm.

Louis also burst out of the exam hall and rushed over to us. "Didn't you say that he would be absent for the exam, Sophia? I lost all interest in the exam when I saw him. It's all his fault if I get poor results."

A steely look appeared on Sophia's face as she took in Louis' furious expression. She whipped her head toward me, pointing at me and exclaiming, "You must have used some illegal method to sneak into the exam hall just to mess with Louis, didn't you, Xavier?

"Come with me! We're going to look for the examiner, and you're going to turn yourself in. You're going to tell her that you snuck into the exam hall illegally, so your exam results will be disqualified!"

Sophia was causing a ruckus, which quickly attracted the attention of the reporters who were hanging around outside the exam hall.

Louis stared directly into the camera and exclaimed, "Xavier Grant was still able to take the exam even though he doesn't have his ID and admission ticket. He must have found a way to sneak past the security check!

"Since he was able to sneak past the SAT' security check, he definitely must have cheated during the exam itself as well!"

Everyone turned their attention to me upon hearing the word, "cheat". The reporters also aimed their cameras at me.

I took a deep breath. I was just about to speak when Sophia beat me to it, saying, "It's no wonder that he kept looking down at his watch during the exam. He wrote down his answers after looking at his watch every single time! Do you think that you're being fair to the other students by cheating, Xavier?"

What?

Anger boiled within me as I removed my watch and offered it to the people around us. "Take a good look, everyone. Tell me whether this watch has any cheating capabilities. I'm going to call the police if it doesn't!"

Sophia smacked my watch to the floor and stomped on it. "Don't trust him, everyone! It only makes sense that he tampered with it after leaving the hall since he used it to cheat during the exam."

The people around us were stunned. Some of them began whispering among themselves.

Sophia straightened her back when she noticed the slightly strange atmosphere. Her voice boomed clearly through the air as she exclaimed, "Grant Group personally picked me to nurture me because of my outstanding qualities. There's no way that I'm lying! I'm only speaking out because I won't stand for his cheating!"

Chaos erupted among the crowd upon hearing her words.

"Grant Group? Is she talking about the world-renowned enterprise, Grant Group?"

"She was selected even before she graduated? She must be the cream of the crop among the students. We definitely can believe her!"

The parents, who were waiting outside the gates, immediately lost their tempers. One of them pointed an accusing finger at me and shouted, "Cheating students should be disqualified! He's going to ruin the futures of the other students!"

"That's right! People like him are the scum of the earth. What are the students who actually worked hard during the exams going to do if he steals their spots?"

"Expose his name right now! Disqualify his results!"

I couldn't move as the emotional parents and students shoved me around.

The corners of Louis' lips curled up into a smile. He moved his lips closer to my ear with a smug expression, lowering his voice when he sneered, "So what if you made it to the exam hall on time? You're just making things even harder for yourself by showing your face here."

He then intentionally stuck his leg out, causing me to trip over his foot.

Completely caught off-guard, I lost my balance and fell. My knees and palms stung painfully as they collided against the muddy ground. I gritted my teeth and slowly crawled back to my feet while bracing myself against the ground.

"A staff member of the exam office personally escorted me into the exam hall," I said. "You can ask them if you don't believe—"

Sophia stomped on the back of my hand before I could finish my sentence. "You were with us 20 minutes before the start of the test, Xavier! How could you have possibly replaced the necessary documents so soon? Do you take us for fools?

"I was truly blind in the past. I can't believe that I was attracted to a cheater like you. It's a good thing that we're not together anymore. You might even ruin my chances at Grant Group's multi-million dollar funding and training plan if they found out!"

"Multi-million dollar funding plan?"

The crowd was forcefully split apart at that moment.

Dad stormed toward us with a steely expression. His eyes were trained on Sophia as he exclaimed, "Grant Group has cancelled its plan to fund you, Sophia Rothwood!"