CHAPTER 3: The Man They Should Never Have Provoked
CHAPTER 3: The Man They Should Never Have Provoked
The thick folder in Richard Carter's hands landed on the table beside the committee with a sharp crack.
No one moved.
Hunter forced out a laugh.
"What is this supposed to be? Some kind of threat?"
Richard didn't even look at him.
Instead, he addressed Professor Collins.
"I apologize for disrupting the university's celebration."
He inclined his head politely.
"But I believe everyone here deserves to know why my daughter walked into this building looking as though she'd survived an attack."
Professor Collins nodded solemnly.
"You have the floor."
Richard turned back to Hunter and Barbara.
"For twenty-eight years, I taught my daughter one lesson."
"Knowledge is something no one can steal."
His eyes drifted to Selena's mangled hair.
"I was wrong."
"They tried."
The hallway remained deathly quiet.
Barbara crossed her arms.
"Oh, stop being dramatic. Hair grows back."
Richard's gaze snapped toward her.
"So does evidence."
He opened the folder.
Inside were glossy photographs.
Hotel security footage.
Printed phone records.
Financial statements.
Legal documents.
Hunter frowned.
"What is all this?"
Richard slid the first document across the table.
"A private investigator's report."
Hunter's face lost color.
"What investigator?"
"The one I hired six months ago."
Selena stared at her father in disbelief.
"You... hired someone?"
Richard finally looked at her.
"When you called me crying three months ago and insisted everything was fine..."
"I knew you were lying."
"You've never lied well."
Selena felt tears sting her eyes.
She remembered that phone call.
She had hidden in the bathroom after Hunter screamed at her for staying late at the laboratory.
She had smiled through the video call.
Her father had smiled back.
Apparently...
He hadn't believed a single word.
Richard removed another photograph.
Hunter standing outside an expensive downtown restaurant.
Holding hands with a blonde woman.
The date was printed in the corner.
Two weeks earlier.
Barbara immediately stiffened.
Hunter grabbed for the photo.
"That's not what it looks like."
Richard ignored him.
Then came another.
Hunter kissing the same woman outside a luxury hotel.
Another.
Checking into the hotel.
Another.
Leaving the following morning.
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
Selena couldn't breathe.
She stared at the photographs as though they belonged to someone else's life.
Hunter's affair.
Captured frame by frame.
Professor Collins quietly removed her glasses.
Several faculty members exchanged uncomfortable looks.
Hunter looked desperately toward Selena.
"I was going to explain."
"You don't understand."
Richard interrupted.
"Oh, she understands."
"You married a woman pursuing one of the most demanding degrees in the country."
"Instead of supporting her..."
"You cheated."
Hunter opened his mouth.
Richard wasn't finished.
"You mocked her."
"You isolated her."
"And yesterday..."
His voice became frighteningly calm.
"You physically restrained her while your mother assaulted her."
Barbara scoffed.
"It was discipline."
The words had barely left her mouth when a university security officer stepped forward.
"Ma'am..."
"I strongly advise you to stop speaking."
Barbara laughed.
"What?"
"Are you going to arrest me over a haircut?"
One of the graduate students slowly raised her hand.
"I recorded everything."
Every head turned toward the young woman.
She held up her phone.
"I started recording when they arrived."
"My livestream has been running for twelve minutes."
Hunter's stomach dropped.
"What?"
She turned the screen around.
Thousands of viewers.
The comments were exploding.
Call the police.
That's assault.
She admitted it!
Protect Dr. Carter!
Hunter lunged toward the phone.
The security officers stepped between them.
"Don't."
Barbara suddenly looked nervous.
"This is a family matter."
Professor Collins answered coldly.
"It stopped being a family matter when violence entered it."
Richard pulled out one final envelope.
"This one concerns finances."
Hunter frowned.
"What finances?"
Richard handed Selena several pages.
She scanned them.
Her face slowly froze.
Joint credit cards.
Bank transfers.
Student loan payments.
Her scholarship deposits.
Dozens of withdrawals.
Large ones.
Repeated.
Without her knowledge.
She looked up.
"Hunter..."
"What is this?"
Hunter swallowed.
"I was going to pay it back."
Richard answered instead.
"No."
"You weren't."
He pointed to another page.
"Over ninety-three thousand dollars."
"Taken over three years."
Selena's hands shook violently.
"That's..."
"My research grant."
"My fellowship..."
"My savings..."
Hunter finally shouted.
"I NEEDED THAT MONEY!"
The hallway echoed.
"My business failed!"
"I couldn't tell you!"
"So I borrowed it!"
Selena stared at him.
"You stole from me."
"It was our money!"
"No."
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"It was mine."
For the first time...
Hunter saw something disappear from Selena's eyes.
Hope.
She looked at him as if he no longer existed.
"I defended you."
"Every time someone warned me."
"I defended you."
She slowly removed her wedding ring.
The tiny circle of gold caught the sunlight coming through the windows.
Then she placed it on top of the financial statements.
"I'm done."
Hunter's face turned white.
"No..."
"You don't mean that."
"I do."
Before anyone could speak again...
Two uniformed police officers entered the hallway.
One approached Professor Collins.
"We received multiple emergency calls reporting an assault."
The other looked toward Barbara.
"Which one of you admitted to attacking Dr. Selena Carter?"
Barbara's confidence finally cracked.
She looked at Hunter.
Hunter looked at the floor.
May you like
For the first time in her life...
Barbara realized no one was coming to save her.
