Chapter 1

After being slandered by my professor's wife as an academic seductress, I was cornered in my dorm by a mob of self-righteous students.

"She's nothing but a high-end escort. She's a disgrace to this university!" one girl screamed.

"Instead of studying, you thought you could sell your body to get ahead? In your dreams, honey," another mocked.

They shouted insults while trashing my room, smashing everything in sight.

I calmly dialed my father's executive secretary.

"Tell my father to find the husbands of every person here today. I don't care if they're professors or deans―strip them of their titles and put them on gate-watching duty."

"Also, call the police and my legal team. These people just destroyed over fifteen million dollars worth of antiques, luxury jewelry, and haute couture. I want them bankrupted."

1

I had just walked back into the dorm when I heard my roommates whispering.

"It couldn't really be her, could it?"

"What if she caught something nasty? I don't want her infecting the whole floor," one of them buzzed.

Their tone was dripping with malice. I walked over, curious.

"What are you guys talking about?" I asked.

Piper gave me a quick rundown of the drama.

Apparently, there was a girl at our university who decided to take the easy way out. She was acting as an academic trophy for some old guy on the faculty.

A video had been posted to the campus confession board. The guy's wife had already commented, vowing to come down today to catch the "home-wrecker."

"Lulu, what's your take on this?" Piper asked, eyeing me.

I just shook my head and walked back to my desk. "Let's wait for the facts. It might just be a misunderstanding."

The room went quiet again, but that's when we heard the commotion downstairs.

Piper ran to the balcony and turned pale.

"The girl everyone's looking for... she lives in this building!"

"No way! Are they actually coming for her?"

I looked out the window too. Leading the pack was a woman dressed in flashy, expensive-looking clothes.

She looked familiar. I squinted to get a better look.

"Wait, isn't that Mrs. Miller? Why is she here?"

Mrs. Miller―Beatrice―was usually the quiet, introverted type.

Whenever I'd run into her at faculty events, she'd just give me a polite nod.

Now, she was a woman possessed. She pushed past the security guards and stormed into the dorm with a small army behind her.

My other roommate, the campus sweetheart Cassandra Beaumont, was nonchalantly painting her nails.

"That girl must have had a real thing with the professor to get all those perks," Cassandra remarked.

Suddenly, loud, heavy footsteps echoed in the hallway.

Beatrice's voice was deafening.

"That academic tramp! I treated her like my own daughter!"

"A teacher is supposed to be a mentor, a father figure! This is practically incestuous!"

The footsteps stopped right outside our door. My heart skipped a beat.

Was the girl they were looking for really on our floor?

I reached out to open the door to see what was happening, but before I could, Beatrice slammed it open.

Cassandra stood up abruptly.

Before I could even process what was happening, Beatrice shoved me hard. I hit the floor with a thud.

Behind her stood several large men, likely her relatives.

Down the hall, students were peeking out, holding up their phones to record the scene.

Beatrice pointed a finger at my face. "You're so young, and instead of studying, you're learning how to be a professional mistress? You think it's that easy?"

I heard the crowd gasp.

"It's her! She slept her way to the top of the class!"

"If her parents knew, they'd be too ashamed to ever show their faces in public again!"

A guy in the back shoved a phone in my face, recording every second.

Beatrice continued to scream, "Look at her, everyone! This is Lulu Sterling! She's the one who seduced her own professor!"

Cassandra, who usually couldn't stand me, suddenly stepped forward to help me up.

"Lulu, tell me you didn't do this just for the National Scholarship..."

She trailed off, leaving the implication hanging in the air for everyone to feast on.

Beatrice was triggered. She lunged forward and slapped me across the face.

"I'm going to the dean right now to make sure your scholarship is revoked!"

Then, she spat right on my face.

"I spit on you! You're a little predator who knows how to manipulate men. I bet you're rotten inside!"

I wiped my face with my sleeve, the smell making me gag.

Beatrice's face was ghostly white, her chest heaving with rage.

I finally caught my breath and tried to defend myself.

"Mrs. Miller, you have the wrong person. This is a mistake."

"A mistake? Look for yourself! Is this you in the video or not?"

The man who had been filming held his phone out and pressed play.

In the video, a girl in a floral dress was kneeling between a professor's legs.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening.

I pointed to the timestamp in the corner of the screen.

"That isn't me! On the 16th, I was working my shift across town. Besides, I don't even own a floral dress like that!"

Beatrice raised her hand to slap me again.