Home / They Cut Me Out, I Hold Their Fate / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of They Cut Me Out, I Hold Their Fate: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

The students had made a new group chat, apparently forgetting that one of the accounts in it was one we shared. The second I logged in, messages started pouring in."What's so special about him being a senior? We only treated him like some big shot because we were being nice. Guy doesn't know anything.""Exactly. What did he even do? Talk at us for a while and tweak a few numbers? We're the ones who stayed up all night writing everything, putting the slides together, and running around getting stuff done. Why should he get a cut?""Right. We stick to the story that this was just a final project. And nobody says a word in the old chat. Leave it dead for a few days, then delete the group."A final project? That was the excuse they'd used to rope me into this in the first place. And now they were planning to ride that lie all the way to the end.Annoyed, I opened the old group chat, switched to my own account, and sent a message."I've been advising you on this project for a while n

Chapter 2

"And now that you've heard that we made it to the finals, suddenly you're trying to scare us off? Come on. You obviously just want a piece of the prize money."Elowen sent an eye-roll emoji. "You couldn't even put together a team of your own, so you jumped into some random group chat, threw around a few pointers, and now you think you're entitled to a cut? That's shameless."With every message, they got nastier.I frowned and answered them plainly. "I joined because you posted on the forum asking for help with a class assignment. I had no idea you were entering a competition."I added, "I have zero interest in your prize money."The message had barely gone through before Elowen hit me with another eye-roll reaction. "Oh, please. If you didn't want the money, why would you go out of your way to help a bunch of strangers?"She added, "Unless… you saw our team photo, spotted someone you liked, and decided this was your chance to impress her?"A guy named Lucas Ashmore immediately j

Chapter 3

Across more than a dozen screenshots, they'd managed to paint me as a serial plagiarist who'd aggressively demanded both a consulting fee and a share of the prize money.They'd even made it look like I'd sent Maris a string of creepy, suggestive messages, constantly hinting that I wanted to sleep with her.But what really made my blood boil was the doctored payment record.I had sent her five thousand dollars. They'd flipped the transaction around and claimed Maris had paid me five thousand dollars to leave her alone—that was how bad the so-called harassment had gotten.I took a deep breath and immediately started typing out an explanation. Except I couldn't post it. A forum moderator had restricted my account. Every function had been disabled, including replies.Then I remembered something Maris had mentioned before. One of the moderators was her roommate.My phone buzzed several times. Maris had sent me a laughing reaction. "Seen the post yet? You know, when you really think ab

Chapter 4

That made the others pause. A few of them glanced back toward the staff checking invitations at the entrance.The finals were about to start, and I didn't have time for this. I was about to tell them exactly why I was there when realization suddenly dawned on Maris. Her smile turned even more mocking."Oh, I get it. Did you sleep your way in? One of the judges maybe? Or some angel investor?" She looked me over again. "Broad shoulders, narrow waist, abs… Yeah, I can see it. You're exactly the type some of those older women would go for."My expression hardened. "Maris, watch what you're saying. You're making things up about me, and if you keep spreading slander, I'll report it to the police."The group burst out laughing. "Go ahead," Elowen said. "We've got proof."She pulled something up on her phone and held the screen out toward me, her chin raised smugly. The moment I saw it, my blood ran cold.They had taken my selfie and used AI to fabricate dozens of explicit images of me

Chapter 5

"Maris, I guess you don't have to worry about your mom's medical bills anymore. Didn't you borrow another 100 thousand dollars from relatives? You can pay all of that back too!"At the mention of that money, something dark flickered across Maris' face as she looked at me.So she'd never told them where that money had actually come from—me."You guys go inside and check in," Maris said. "Lucas, you and one of the others stay with me. We'll find somewhere to keep him until our presentation's over. I'm not letting him sabotage this.""What? You can't—"Before I could finish, Lucas clamped a hand over my mouth. He and another guy grabbed me and forcibly dragged me toward the restroom.I fought them the entire way, trying to call for help, but everyone who recognized me only stopped to stare and gossip."Did you see the group chat? That's Caspian Rooke, the guy who plagiarized everything, tried to extort his team, harassed their leader, and supposedly slept his way into the finals."

Chapter 6

The moment my name was announced, it wasn't just Maris, Elowen, and the others waiting in the wings who went rigid.The students seated farther back were stunned too.Even from the judges' table, I could hear the whispers spreading through the room."Wait—which Caspian Rooke? The Caspian Rooke from Maris' forum post?""I thought he was an upperclassman. Since when is he an economics professor? And the head judge?""Shh! Keep your voice down. There are cameras everywhere."My phone was still in Elowen's pocket. Her whole body had started trembling. She pulled it out, but the second the lock screen lit up, her fingers went slack.The phone hit the floor. The others looked down.My lock screen was a photo from my master's graduation, taken outside the university where I'd earned my degree.That was all it took."W-what do we do, Maris?" Lucas stammered. "He really is a judge…"His knees looked ready to give out.Tristan was in even worse shape. He stood there biting at his fin

Chapter 7

"I was perfectly clear. The material was acceptable for an ordinary class assignment. It was never to be submitted to a competition."But instead of listening, you decided to get ahead of the story by spreading malicious lies and destroying my reputation. And just before the event started, you locked me in a restroom and subjected me to harassment."The second I finished speaking, the entire hall erupted.Maris' legs began shaking so badly she nearly stumbled backward in front of everyone. The other five immediately retreated as well, as though putting a few extra feet between themselves and the judges' table might somehow save them.But there was only so much room on the stage.The university president, Shaun Trenton, who had been seated at the other end of the judges' panel, strode over with a grim expression. "Maris, is what Prof. Rooke just said true? Did your team actually do these things?"Maris swallowed hard. She turned toward Elowen, clearly hoping she would step in, b

Chapter 8

I stopped the officers before they could leave. "There's one more piece of evidence. The hallway security footage."I told you that before the competition, Maris, Lucas, and the others dragged me into a restroom and locked me inside."And beyond the defamation and fabricated evidence, I want what happened in that restroom investigated too, including the attempted assault and the recording they tried to take without my consent."Sweat poured down Maris' face. For a second, she looked like she might actually pass out. The lies on the forum were one thing. She could still try to claim she'd gotten angry, lost her temper, and said things she didn't mean.What happened in that restroom was another matter entirely."I… I didn't mean to do anything! It was… it was Elowen and Lucas! They kept telling me Caspian was into me—that the only reason he joined the group was that he wanted me… So I thought…"Elowen snapped. She swung at Maris. "Are you kidding me? You're blaming us now? You're t

Chapter 9

The whole incident made me infamous across campus.Once the restrictions on my student account on the forum were lifted, people started digging through my post history.What they found spoke for itself.Every comment I'd left was thoughtful and detailed. I had spent years answering questions seriously, including the advice I'd given Maris and her team before I ever joined their group chat.Public opinion turned almost overnight.Students tore into Maris and her team for throwing away an opportunity most people would've been grateful to have.At the same time, my inbox flooded with private messages. Some students had questions about their classes. Others wanted feedback on startup ideas or business proposals.But that account had become tied to far too much ugliness. So I deleted it. I kept only an official faculty account and made a post on the forum."If you have questions about coursework, research, or a business idea you're developing, leave them under this post. If I see yo

Chapter 10

Celeste gasped, her eyes going wide. "You gave her the money? No. That's impossible! She told me it was scholarship money!"I let out a humorless laugh. "A scholarship? What exactly did she do to earn one?"Although if her team had actually taken this competition seriously and done the work themselves, they might have won something. First place and the 1.5 million would've been out of reach, but between the six of them, 100 thousand in prize money wasn't impossible."Celeste's lips trembled. Whatever little color remained in her face disappeared.By then, my neighbors had pieced together the whole story. Their sympathy for Celeste vanished with it."That's not some harmless mistake. Prof. Rooke is right. After everything he did for them, this is how they treated him?""Imagine taking someone's help and money, then turning around and trying to destroy him. And now she comes here acting like he's the villain? No wonder her daughter's facing charges."The crowd gradually dispersed.

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