Chapter 34: The Full Truth
Monday arrived with five days on the clock and the specific relief of a threat that had been neutralized.
April walked past the Dean's office at 8:14 AM and felt it — the absence of the weight that had been sitting in her chest since Tuesday, the particular lightness of a sword that had been hanging over her head being quietly removed. The academic integrity review was closed. Vanessa had submitted the withdrawal on Thursday afternoon, exactly as promised, citing — according to the formal notification April received Friday morning — a misreading of circumstantial evidence that upon reflection did not meet the threshold for a formal complaint.
It was the most Vanessa sentence April had ever read. Precise, face-saving, giving nothing away.
She folded the notification and put it in the front pocket of her notebook and didn't think about it again.
