Chapter 8 - The Cornered Rat"Dr. Sterling," Dean Holloway said, her voice dropping the temperature in the room by ten degrees as Ethan and his lawyer approached the table. "Please take a seat. We were just reviewing your collaborative contributions to the West End oncology trial."
Ethan’s defense attorney, a sharp-faced man in a tailored charcoal suit named Mitchell, quickly stepped forward, placing a hand on the back of a leather chair. "Good morning, members of the board. My client is here voluntarily to clarify what appears to be a clerical misunderstanding regarding administrative metadata routing—"
"Save your breath, Mr. Mitchell," Marcus interrupted smoothly, sliding a certified document across the mahogany table toward the lawyer. "That isn't a clerical error. That's a cryptographically signed asset transfer executed while Dr. Sterling was contractually obligated to be attending a municipal marriage ceremony."
A few chuckles rippled among the junior regents. Ethan’s face flushed a violent, mottled crimson.
"That’s irrelevant to the research integrity—" Mitchell tried to salvage, but Harrison Thorne raised a single hand, silencing him instantly.
"Dr. Sterling," Harrison said, his voice cold and cutting. "Let's dispense with the legal choreography. Yesterday afternoon, while your fiancé was sitting alone in a courthouse waiting for you to show up for the third consecutive time, you were in an R&D annex transferring proprietary institutional patents to a private shell company co-owned by your family trust and managed by Sophia Lane."
Harrison paused, leaning back in his chair and pinning Ethan with a glare that had broken dozens of arrogant residents over the decades.
"In simple terms, Doctor: you tried to rob your own lab, steal your partner’s life work, and run off with your administrative coordinator while pretending to get married."
Sophia flinched visibly at the back of the room, her eyes darting toward the exit, only to find the heavy oak doors firmly closed by a university security guard standing quietly outside.
"It was a joint decision!" Ethan suddenly blurted out, his composure completely shattering under the collective weight of the room's gaze. He pointed a shaking finger toward the back doors. "Sophia told me the institutional grant was failing! She said West End Biotech was going to pull the funding unless we restructured the IP ownership immediately!"
Sophia gasped, stepping out from the shadows. "Ethan! That is a complete lie! You told me Dr. Montgomery had already signed off on the transfer weeks ago! You said she wanted my name on the filing to balance the tax liabilities!"
"You lying bitch!" Ethan screamed, lunging forward before his attorney managed to grab his arm and yank him back down into the chair. "You were the one who pushed for the buyout so we could move to Boston together!"
Dean Holloway slammed her palm flat against the mahogany table.
"That is quite enough!" she barked, her voice echoing off the high ceiling. "You are in an official university inquiry board meeting, not a tavern brawl. Your unprofessional conduct, combined with clear evidence of federal grant fraud and IP misappropriation, leaves this board with only one logical course of action."
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She turned her gaze to Marcus Vance.
"File the immediate injunction. Terminate both Dr. Sterling’s and Ms. Lane’s institutional credentials effective immediately, and freeze all research assets pending a federal grand jury review."
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