Chapter 13 - THE TRUTH ABOUT MY FATHER
The payment was made when Sterling Global was close to bankruptcy.
Ten million dollars had moved from Westbridge’s scholarship reserve into my father’s company through a fake investment fund.
“You knew,” I said.
My father didn’t deny it.
“I knew the money saved the company. I didn’t know where Arthur got it.”
“When did you find out?”
“After your mother’s crash.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“And you kept it?”
“I tried to return it. Bell threatened you. Then Sterling Global grew, and I convinced myself I could use the company to do more good than exposing the truth would accomplish.”
“That sounds exactly like something Bell would say.”
He closed his eyes.
“I know.”
My mother stood beside me but did not defend him.
That mattered.
My father had been framed for the current conspiracy. He was not innocent of the past.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“Tell the truth.”
His attorneys warned him that a confession could cost him Sterling Global and possibly his freedom.
He walked into the press conference anyway.
“My company began with money stolen from students,” he said before hundreds of cameras. “I did not arrange the theft, but when I learned the truth, I chose silence. That silence protected my success and harmed people who had far less power than I did.”
Reporters shouted questions.
He continued.
“I will place my controlling shares into a restitution trust. Every student whose scholarship was taken will be compensated with interest.”
Sterling Global’s board removed him as chief executive that afternoon.
He accepted it.
For the first time, I wasn’t proud of my father because he was powerful.
I was proud because he had finally stopped hiding behind that power.
Bell, Hale, Nolan, and Chase were formally charged. Veronica faced charges too, but prosecutors considered her cooperation and the abuse she had suffered from her father.
Westbridge’s board resigned.
The university appointed an interim president and offered me a public apology.
I declined it.
“A statement isn’t accountability,” I told them.
I demanded an independent student protection office, scholarship transparency, and disciplinary rules that applied equally to donors’ children.
They agreed to discuss it.
I told them there was nothing to discuss.
Then a package arrived at my dorm.
Inside was the silver camera button stolen during the blackout.
There was also a note.
YOU EXPOSED THE PEOPLE YOU COULD SEE. NOW FIND THE ONE WHO ERASED THE FOOTAGE.
May you like
The note was signed by Professor Lang.
He had disappeared.
