Chapter 16 - The Recording
Mason lunged for the phone.
Ethan reached it first.
Mason tackled him.
They hit the concrete hard. Ethan's elbow scraped the ground. Mason clawed for the device.
"Delete it!"
Ms. Ruiz grabbed Mason's shoulder.
"Stop!"
He threw her arm away.
The rooftop door slammed open again.
Thomas Bennett, two security officers, and a police officer rushed through.
Mason rolled off Ethan instantly.
"He attacked me!"
The words came automatically.
Ethan lay on his back, breathing hard.
Then he started laughing.
Mason stared at him.
"What?"
Ethan held up the phone.
"You really only have one story."
The officer took the phone as evidence after Ethan explained the recording.
Mason's expression changed when he realized how much he had said.
He turned toward Ms. Ruiz.
"You set me up."
"No," she said. "You talked."
Police escorted Mason downstairs.
Laura reached the roof minutes later and hugged Ethan so hard his scraped elbow hurt.
"Never do that again."
"I know."
"I mean it."
"I know."
She pulled back and looked at him.
"Are you hurt?"
"Mostly embarrassed."
"Good. You should be. That was incredibly stupid."
He nodded.
Then she hugged him again.
By afternoon, Westbridge's board had suspended Vale and Danner. Victoria Whitmore stepped aside from board duties after the other trustees demanded an independent investigation.
But the biggest change came at 5:20 p.m.
Police executed a warrant at Whitmore Construction seeking records connected to Daniel Cole's old safety complaints.
Pike warned Ethan not to assume what investigators would find.
"Facts first," he said.
Ethan repeated the phrase like a rule.
Facts first.
That night, a reporter knocked on their door.
Laura did not answer.
Another waited near the driveway.
By morning, a local news station had the headline:
ELITE SCHOOL UNDER INVESTIGATION AFTER STUDENT ASSAULT CLAIMS AND DELETED VIDEO.
Ethan's name was not published because he was a minor.
Mason's was not either.
Online, people argued anyway.
Some called Ethan brave.
Some called him a liar.
Some said rich families always got away with things.
Some said the school was being unfairly attacked.
Ethan stopped reading comments after five minutes.
At noon, Pike called.
"They recovered data from the broken flash drive."
Ethan stood so fast his chair fell backward.
"How?"
"Grant Whitmore didn't destroy it as well as he thought."
"What's on it?"
Pike went quiet.
"An email your father saved."
"From who?"
"Grant Whitmore."
Ethan gripped the phone.
"What does it say?"
May you like
Pike exhaled slowly.
"It says, 'Sign the inspection tonight. I don't care what you saw.'"
