Lahat ng Kabanata ng Tamed By The Campus Bad Boy: Kabanata 171 - Kabanata 180

AARON'S POVWe made it through the rest of the meal without giving anything away, though the effort of maintaining ordinary conversation while carrying the weight of Hayes' confirmed suspicion felt almost unbearable."This has meant more to me than I can say," Walter said as we finally parted ways outside the restaurant, pulling me into an embrace that felt, now, deeply, unsettlingly hollow. "I hope we can do this again soon.""We'll be in touch," I said, my voice carefully even despite everything churning beneath it.We reconvened at Patricia's apartment the moment he was safely out of sight, Hayes joining us via video call, her expression grim as she laid out what her team had uncovered."His real name is Gerald Voss," she said. "Extensive history of identity-based fraud schemes, primarily targeting people involved in adoption reunions and long-lost family searches. He's incredibly good at what he does — thorough research, patient relationship building, always targeting the emotiona

AARON'S POVI read the letter three times before I trusted myself to speak, an entirely new wave of exhausted, wary disbelief crashing over the fragile relief we'd only just begun to settle into."Another one," I said finally, my voice hollow. "Leon, how am I supposed to trust anything in this letter after everything with Gerald?""I don't think you're supposed to trust it blindly," Leon said gently. "I think you verify everything, carefully, exactly the way we should have from the very beginning with Walter. But I also don't think the existence of one con artist means every subsequent claim has to automatically be false."I appreciated the measured wisdom of it, even as the exhausted, protective part of me wanted nothing more than to throw the letter away entirely and simply never think about it again.We called Patricia immediately, and her response carried the same careful, thorough caution that had already proven so essential in unraveling Gerald's scheme."Send me everything he's

AARON'S POVThe two weeks leading up to the hearing passed in a haze of anxious preparation, Patricia working tirelessly alongside a family law specialist she'd brought in to strengthen our case, both of them poring over character references, documentation of Noah's steady progress in our care, and careful, thorough responses to every uncomfortable piece of our history that Noah's biological mother's legal team had flagged for the court's consideration."They're going to try to paint you both as unstable," the specialist, a sharp, no-nonsense woman named Renata, explained during one of our final preparation sessions. "Given the scandal, the parole hearing, the recent fraud situation. I want you both prepared for pointed, uncomfortable questions designed to make that narrative land.""How do we counter that," Leon asked, his exhaustion evident despite his determined focus."By being honest," Renata said simply. "Every single crisis you've faced, you faced together, and you came through

AARON'S POVWe arranged to meet Thomas two weeks later, at a quiet park near his house, a neutral, gentle setting Patricia had helped select specifically to keep the first in-person meeting low-pressure.He was waiting near a bench when we arrived, and the moment I saw him, something in my chest tightened with a strange, disorienting recognition — the same jawline I saw in the mirror every morning, the same slightly crooked smile Maya had once pointed out in an old photograph of our mother."Aaron," he said, his voice thick, standing carefully, giving me space rather than rushing forward the way Gerald had once done with such calculated, hollow warmth. "Thank you for coming.""Thank you for waiting," I said, surprising myself with how genuinely I meant it. "For actually respecting what she asked of you, all those years."We sat together for nearly two hours, Leon quietly supportive beside me, Thomas sharing careful, honest fragments of a life shaped entirely around a promise he'd neve

AARON'S POVI felt my stomach drop reading the message over Leon's shoulder, the fragile, hard-won peace of the evening evaporating instantly."Don't respond," I said immediately. "Not yet. Not until we know more.""Aaron, they said they know who I am," Leon said, his voice tight. "If that's true, my anonymity's already compromised regardless of whether I respond."We sat with the message for a long moment, old, hard-earned instincts flaring immediately — the particular, exhausting wariness that had become such a permanent fixture in both our lives after everything we'd survived together."Let's screenshot everything," I said finally. "Document it the way we always do now. And let's see what else they say before we decide how to respond."Leon nodded, and we spent the next hour combing through the account's public activity — sparse, careful, no obvious identifying details, just a handful of thoughtful, detailed comments left on various chapters of Leon's story over the past several mo