Chapter 4 - THE PUBLIC UNMASKINGDr. Sterling slammed his hand down on the podium, his face red with indignation. "Excuse me! This is a closed doctoral defense! Who authorized these men to—"
"I did," Richard Vance’s voice boomed across the auditorium, cutting the professor off instantly. Richard stepped forward, pulling a thick manila folder from his breast pocket. He turned to face the entire assembly, his presence commanding the room with effortless authority.
"My apologies, Dr. Sterling, and members of the committee," Richard said, his tone dripping with iron politeness. "I am Richard Vance, CEO of Vance Global Enterprises, and more importantly, the father of the brilliant woman standing before you. I am here today because an attempted crime was committed against this university, against academic integrity, and against my daughter."
A shockwave of gasps swept through the audience. Students scrambled to record the scene on their phones.
Hunter lunged forward, his voice cracking with panic. "Dad—stop it! You're insane! Selena, tell him to stop!"
Richard didn't even deign to look at Hunter. He snapped his fingers, and one of the security guards stepped forward, clamping a heavy hand onto Hunter’s shoulder, forcing him back down into a seat.
"Quiet, boy," Richard growled without turning around. He opened the manila folder and pulled out a stack of printed photographs and legal documents. He walked right up to the edge of the stage and laid them out neatly on the examiners' table, right under Dr. Sterling’s nose.
"What is this?" Dr. Sterling asked, bewildered, looking down at the papers.
"That," Richard said loudly, pointing a finger directly at Hunter, "is proof of a systematic, malicious campaign by my son-in-law and his mother, Barbara Vance, to sabotage my daughter's academic career. For two years, Hunter has systematically undermined her research, hidden her grant approval letters, and gaslit her into believing she was unfit to be a scholar."
Hunter’s face turned the color of ash. "That's a lie! She's lying! She's hysterical!"
"Really, Hunter?" Richard’s voice dripped with lethal sarcasm. He turned around, pulling out his own smartphone, tapping the screen, and pressing a button.
The auditorium’s high-end audio system—still connected to Selena’s laptop—suddenly boomed with a recorded phone conversation playing at maximum volume.
“You’re not going tomorrow,” Barbara’s recorded voice echoed clearly through the massive speakers. “You’ve embarrassed this family long enough... Maybe now you'll learn your place.”
And then Hunter’s cold, mocking laughter filled the hall, followed by the horrifying sound of scissors snipping through hair.
The entire auditorium sat in stunned, horrified silence. Every eye turned from the speakers to Selena up on the stage, noticing for the first time the harsh bobby pins holding together her butchered, jagged hair.
May you like
A collective wave of pure, incandescent rage swept through the room. Several female professors in the third row visibly bared their teeth, glaring at Hunter with murder in their eyes.
Selena stood frozen on the stage, a single tear cutting a clean path down her cheek—not of sorrow, but of the overwhelming realization that she was finally, completely free.
