“Well, not forgetting about,” he corrected himself. “More like…you don’t know about yet.”
“Uh huh,” I replied. “And that is?”
“Lizbeth’s testimony.”
My whole world shifted. I felt like I was tumbling through space, away from Earth, away from everything I’d ever known.
“No…” I whispered.
“Yes,” Dean Warmer grunted. “That’s right, Caleb. You did her dirty and all it took was one little chat with me, and Christy, to convince her to talk. Easy really!”
The look on Dean Warmer’s face was one of pure evil and spite. The bastard’s wife had tried to fuck me, I’d turned her down, but he was still pissed at me. And not at her, of course. The guy was a total cuck. He’d stay with her forever and go after every guy she stepped out on him with. And now he’d even gone after Lizbeth to get to me. God knows what lies he told her to get her to side with him.
“You son of a bitch!” I bellowed, stepping towards him. I was that close to slamming my fist into his teeth and spilling them all over the office.
“You’re fucked, Caleb,” he grinned. “And there’s nothing that smile of yours can do to get you out of it.”
Dean Warmer stepped out of my office, leaving me feeling crushed, like everything I’d known had just been turned on its head. First Christy and her baseless accusations and now Lizbeth? It just didn’t make sense. I wanted to call her, but realized we hadn’t even exchanged phone numbers. I didn’t even know what dorm she lived in. I literally had no way of reaching her.
“Fuck!” I growled as I slammed my fist against my desktop. Just minutes ago, I’d known that if I somehow lost my case and job, I’d be all right because I had Lizbeth. But now…now I had apparently lost her too? Somehow the dean had gotten to her and told her enough lies that she’d forgotten the most important thing of all: that we loved each other.
My world came crashing down around me.
“This hearing will come to order,” Dean Warmer announced, the same shit-eating grin on his face, as we all sat down at the long table where my hearing had been convened. “The charges are allegations of sexual misconduct against Professor Caleb Grey by one Christy Jenkins and Lizbeth Brady.”
Neither of the girls were there, of course, as the kangaroo court of faculty had determined I would be too “intimidating” to them and they should be kept in the next room when it came time for their testimony.
I glanced around the room at the familiar faces: Professor Mack and Professor Schrader from the English department, Professor Collins from Philosophy and Professor Gregs from the Physics department. None of them were looking at me.
They’ve already made up their minds, I realized. I’m fucked.
“So let’s get this going, shall we—” he bellowed. But just before he could finish, the side door to the room burst open and Christy and Lizbeth came rushing in.
“What is this?” Dean Warmer growled.
“We have new evidence to present to the court!” Lizbeth shouted.
“Miss Brady,” Professor Mack said with a disapproving glare. “It is not your time to speak. We will call for you—”
“But we have evidence—”
“Which you will present at the time you are called to testify against Professor Grey.”
“We are not testifying against Professor Grey,” Lizbeth said, turning her big, beautiful eyes to me. “We are testifying on his behalf.”
My heart leapt. Her face was beautiful, caring and filled with love. How could I ever have been so stupid as to have doubted her?
“What is all this?” Dean Warmer growled. “Miss Brady, you will kindly leave the room—”
But then it happened. Lizbeth, my beautiful little angel, pulled out her cell phone, pressed something, and a recording began to play. I recognized Christy’s voice immediately.
“He made me say these things about Professor Grey. But I never even met him. We never even interacted. I don’t even think I asked a single question in class!”
“What is this?” Professor Collins asked.
“This is inadmissible!” Dean Warmer cried out, slamming a gavel against the desk. “Shut that off, Miss Brady!”
I leapt to my feet as the recording continued to play, Christy spilling her guts with every detail of Dean Warmer’s scheme to destroy me. By the time it was all over, the faculty were just staring at each other with wide eyes.