Chapter 5 - The Lie About Derek BrooksThe email accused Derek of falsifying financial information.
Mrs. Callahan claimed Hailey had received “preferential consideration” because her father had exaggerated the family’s hardship.
The accusation made little sense.
The Westbridge Academic Promise Scholarship was merit-based.
Income did not determine the winner.
But it was mentioned in student profiles used by the foundation when discussing additional educational grants.
Mrs. Callahan had apparently hoped the accusation would trigger a broader review.
It had.
Just not the one she expected.
Dr. Ellis called Derek into the district office.
Hailey came too.
So did Chloe and Madison, accompanied by Madison’s aunt because Mrs. Callahan had been instructed not to contact witnesses involved in the investigation.
Madison sat separately.
She looked exhausted.
Dr. Ellis projected the recovered email onto a screen.
Mrs. Callahan had written:
I believe the committee should verify whether Hailey Brooks’s household circumstances have been accurately represented. Her father’s employment situation may not be what has been claimed.
Derek stared at the sentence.
“My employment situation?”
Ellis nodded.
“She attached a screenshot.”
The next page appeared.
It showed Derek’s name on the website of a construction company where he had worked several years earlier.
Under his name was an old title:
Project Supervisor.
Mrs. Callahan had implied that Derek had a higher income than the school knew.
Derek laughed once.
“I got laid off when that company closed.”
Hailey looked at him.
She knew that.
What she did not know was how much he hated talking about it.
For years, Derek had worked construction.
Then the company lost a major contract.
Thirty-seven people lost their jobs.
Derek had taken warehouse work because it offered stable hours and health insurance.
The pay was much lower.
Mrs. Callahan had found an old webpage and transformed it into suspicion.
“She researched my dad?” Hailey asked.
Ellis did not answer immediately.
“Yes.”
Madison looked horrified.
“My mom did that?”
The room became very quiet.
Madison pressed both hands against her face.
“I’m sorry.”
Hailey looked at her.
“You didn’t do it.”
“My name is why she did.”
“No.”
Madison lowered her hands.
“You don’t have to defend me.”
“I’m not.”
Hailey’s voice grew firmer.
“I’m saying she chose it.”
Madison stared at her.
That was the first time Hailey saw something change in her.
Not relief.
Something harder.
Perhaps the beginning of anger.
Dr. Ellis cleared his throat.
“There’s more.”
Derek muttered, “Of course there is.”
The district had searched Mrs. Callahan’s correspondence around the scholarship period.
They found repeated messages to the school counselor asking whether Hailey’s absences, financial forms, disciplinary history, and recommendation letters could be reexamined.
There had been no disciplinary history.
Hailey had missed only three days that school year.
Two because of illness.
One for her grandmother’s funeral.
Yet Mrs. Callahan kept asking questions.
“She was looking for something,” Chloe said.
Derek nodded.
“She was looking for anything.”
Madison suddenly stood.
Everyone turned.
“I need to go.”
Her aunt reached for her.
“Madison—”
“No.”
Madison backed away from the table.
“She told me Hailey cheated.”
Hailey froze.
“What?”
Madison’s voice shook.
“My mom said there had to be a reason you scored higher than me.”
Derek’s eyes hardened.
“What reason did she give?”
“She said your standardized exam score couldn’t be real.”
Hailey felt sick.
Madison continued.
“She said she was going to prove it.”
“When?”
“The night the results came out.”
Ellis leaned forward.
“Did she say how?”
Madison hesitated.
Then she whispered, “She said she still had access to the testing room records.”
The academic director went completely still.
“What testing room records?”
Madison looked confused.
“I don’t know.”
Dr. Ellis stood.
“Principal Reeves.”
Reeves was already taking out his phone.
The standardized assessments had been administered digitally.
Students used school-issued laptops.
Login times, seating assignments, and proctor records were archived.
If Mrs. Callahan had tried to manufacture evidence that Hailey cheated, the investigation had just become far more serious.
Derek saw the alarm on the administrators’ faces.
“What aren’t you telling us?”
Reeves looked at him.
“Academic testing records are restricted.”
“And she had access?”
“She served as a testing coordinator.”
Hailey felt the floor disappear beneath her.
Mrs. Callahan had controlled grades.
Evaluations.
Attendance concerns.
And testing information.
Almost every system used to measure whether Hailey deserved what she had earned.
Derek reached for his daughter’s hand.
Hailey flinched instinctively.
The movement lasted less than a second.
But Derek felt it.
So did Hailey.
She stared at her own fingers.
The ruler had struck her only once.
Yet her body had already learned to pull away.
Derek did not grab her.
He placed his hand flat on the table instead.
And waited.
A moment later, Hailey put her hand on top of his.
Then Dr. Ellis’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
May you like
And turned toward them.
“The testing office found something.”
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