Page 77 of The Marriage Deal
"But we all know whoever sent it is from here because it's about me," Wyatt said.
"I don't know," David said, his eyes on his laptop, "Maybe you have some foes in Russia." He tapped his laptop twice and swung it around and showed it to Thompson. Thompson leaned over, peering at the screen, a furrow marking his brow. His gaze scanned the screen, and he adjusted his glasses, then, seeming to give up, he said,"What am I supposed to see?"
David pointed at the far right corner of the screen. "You see this RU here? That's the ISO for Russia. It could be from there or it could be from anywhere. Any hacker worth their salt would obfuscate their location."
Thompson blanched. "Was the email, you know, containing hacker material?"
"Hacker material?"
"You know, a Trojan horse or whatever you people call it."
"No, it was a pretty safe email." David slid the laptop over to his side of the desk. "The user used Proton email as their server, so it's going to be hard to trace them, but other than that, I don't think it was harmful. "
"But it was still harmful to me. And she's the one who sent it." Wyatt pointed at me. "I don't care if it says Russia on your little computer, Dave, what matters here are the lies being spread. Lies about me."
"Are they lies?" Levi said, his much quieter voice somehow having more force than the shouting that Wyatt was doing. "As far as I can tell, there's a video of you and your girlfriend talking to one another and claims, with proof, of you cheating. I think a man like Thompson here is much more concerned with thesecond one. If true. It shows that you lied to the university, and that you defrauded a hallowed institution such as ours. Right, Professor Thompson."
"Right? Right! It's uh," Thompson shuffled in his seat, straightening his tie. "It's very concerning that you might have cheated, if true. These are serious accusations that are being made."
Wyatt broke down in laughter. "So now I am the one at fault here? Me? How the fuck do you all suddenly believe blatant lies! You stupid, little small minded—" he got up. Straightened his ruffled hair and tie. "You'll be hearing from my lawyers. Again!"
"I wouldn't be so quick if I were you," Levi said.
Wyatt, who had already marched to the door, turned on his heel. "What did you just say?"
"I said I wouldn't just rush out just yet. We don't know if you're a fraud or not. If the accusations are true, who knows what might happen next? Plenty of students that you taught might demand refunds and compensation from the university. And that's just the students. Let alone the college itself, which hired you under the assumption that your degree is real. Isn't that right, Christine?"
The HR manager nodded. "If he faked his doctorate, we might have to look into it."
"I didn't fake my doctorate you bastard, you know this! We fucking went to the same fucking school!" Wyatt raked his fingers through his hair. "Oh, my god. You did this. Of course you did." A strained chuckle came out of him. "Of course," he scoffed. "You have always been obsessed with Elle from the very beginning, and it bothered you so much that I was with her. And one slight against your precious little queen, you act like this. You try to destroy my life."
My heart hammered against my chest. Obsessed? Levi? With me? When my gaze went to him, Levi's face was as stone cold asit was when we came here. He was portraying zero emotion, but Wyatt must have seen something because he said, "Fuck it, I am right. I knew it was you."
"He's accusing me now," Wyatt said to Thompson, "Everyone else except the truth."
"Professor Carrington, is it true? Is what the email alleges true? You can submit proof that debunks the allegations, and we will investigate it."
Wyatt sighed, exasperated. "Now I have to prove my actual fucking thesis because a stupid website says I paid someone to do it."
"I said we will investigate it."
"Fuck you, Thompson," he said and marched out of the room, banging the door on his way out.
Thompson made a loud and rumbling exhale. "That was, is, insane. He's going to sue the school again, isn't he?"
"Uh, I think he will reconsider after he cools off." Levi said. I glanced at him, wondering if he had other information we all weren't aware of. The Wyatt I knew would not take this lying down. Heck, he was suing me for throwing tea at him.
"I don't know, Levi," I said. "I think he's serious."
Levi took my hand from under the desk and squeezed it. "Trust me, babe. He'll come around."
33
Elvira
OVER THE FOLLOWING DAYS, the TruthAboutWyatt website posted a ton of Wyatt-related stuff. Whoever owned the website, would drop an item about Wyatt every day. A few people were sympathetic toward Wyatt at first, seeing him as a victim of a hack. The same people thought that I might be responsible, but the information was so varied and over long periods of time, it became clear that a TA who barely had any knowledge of how to operate her own computer would do something like this.
Some didn't care where the information came from; they were happy to see someone as snobby as Wyatt finally get what was coming to him. It posted information about his gambling habits, which were degenerate, if I was to be kind. He regularly spent huge amounts on bets that failed spectacularly. But since Wyatt was literally the son of a billionaire, this didn't hit as much as the stuff that dropped later.
