Lahat ng Kabanata ng I Stopped Saving My Students: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

After my message landed in the group chat, Brooke Hayes went quiet.I leaned back in my chair and shut my eyes.In my first life, graduation had been less than three months out. Most of the seniors I advised still had no placement, and without verified practicum hours they couldn't earn the credit, which meant they couldn't graduate.That was why I'd asked my father, Warren Morgan, to take them on at Morgan Components. Two months on the floor and he'd certify every one of them.Once Dad heard they were my students, he treated it like a personal debt. He was worried the kids wouldn't settle in, so I had a whole floor of company housing wallpapered and fitted with new bunks. Every week he paid out of his own pocket to upgrade their meals.They got their degrees on schedule. Then they listened to Brooke, signed a joint complaint, and took my family apart.Now that I had the year to live over, they could do whatever they liked. I wasn't going to manage them anymore.Whether Brooke's

"Then I'm out too."Brooke panicked."No. Everyone's going!"The shout killed every other sound in the office.In my first life I never understood why she was so desperate to drag the whole cohort into that company.I found out later that going after me was only half of it. Brooke had been sleeping with my fiancé, Marcus Hale, and she was also drowning under the private loans she'd taken out to keep up the rich-girl act.Meridian Global Partners had promised her a thousand dollars for every student she delivered.She caught everyone staring and made herself smile."Nobody needs to panic. The company belongs to a relative of mine. The salary is a favor to me. They sponsor college students all the time — it isn't a scam."She gestured at Rachel and Dylan."They know. They both toured the offices with me."Rachel nodded fast. "A town car picked us up. Afterward the CEO's assistant took us out for a seafood buffet that had to cost a fortune."Dylan thumped his chest."I'll vou

The bus had been driving for almost two hours with no sign of a destination.Rachel pressed her face to the window, stared for a long moment, then tapped Liam Price in the seat ahead of her."Have you checked the map? Are we going the wrong way?"Liam swiped at his screen and passed the phone back, frowning."I've been watching it. The marker says we're deep in the mountains. And look."He turned the screen around.No service.The color went out of Rachel's face. She nudged Dylan and dropped her voice."Do you have a signal?"He pulled out his phone and his brow furrowed."No. Nothing. Maybe there aren't enough towers out here."We've been driving two hours. Why does the road keep getting worse?"Zoe Miller leaned over from the row behind, a tremor working into her voice."I thought they were taking us for massages. Are we getting them on a mountain?"The whispering got louder. Students who'd been sprawled asleep across their seats started waking up.Lily Hart rubbed her

"Don't give us the runaround!"A middle-aged man cut me off."I'm asking you one thing. Where is my son? You're his adviser. Did you know he was going off on an internship?""I did know." I raised a hand to finish. "Brooke Hayes brought the placement to the cohort as a company owned by a relative of hers. Eighteen thousand a month, overseas retreat included."My first reaction was that it wasn't credible, and I said right there that I was going to call every one of you.""So did you?" a woman demanded.Gerald frowned at me too."Ms. Morgan, if you suspected fraud, why didn't you contact the parents? Why wasn't the employer flagged to this office?"I looked at him, then at Marcus, pale and silent in the corner."Because Director Hale ordered me to stay out of it."Marcus jerked upright."Claire, don't lie. I never said any such thing."I turned away from him and spoke to the room."I tried to make those calls from my office. Director Hale stopped me. He told me he'd inspect

"I'm fine, Dad."Of course nothing about it was fine.Over the following weeks the scandal rolled downhill and picked up everything in its path. The state education board opened an investigation. Police coordinated across borders. Reporters chased every new development, and the public got angrier by the day.It sat at the top of the trending lists for the better part of a week. The first headlines read, "Twenty-Seven Students Vanish Overseas After University-Approved Internship." Then, "Inside the Recruitment Pipeline Behind Fake Job Offers." Then, "Video: Administrator Destroys Adviser's Phone to Stop Parent Calls."Once the office recording got out, the clip of Marcus hurling my phone through the window and threatening me was everywhere.The comments called him criminally negligent and said he'd treated a room full of kids as disposable.Then investigators surfaced his private messages with Brooke. Every exchange in them was intimate.Brooke's loan records came out too, along