Chapter 12 - The Offer
A month passed, and the media circus slowly began to quiet down.
The legal machinery was grinding my family to dust in the background.
I received an unexpected email from Dr. Thorne.
He asked me to meet him at his campus office.
I walked into his office, feeling a strange sense of nostalgia.
"Sarah, it is wonderful to see you," he smiled, gesturing to a leather chair.
"Thank you, Dr. Thorne."
"How are things holding up?"
"The university is recovering," he said smoothly.
"We formally rescinded Julian's degree, and we've implemented stricter oversight to prevent bribery."
"But I didn't call you here to talk about your family."
He slid a thick folder across his mahogany desk.
"I called you here to talk about your future."
I opened the folder.
It was an acceptance letter to the university's highly prestigious Master of Data Analytics program.
"I reviewed the evidence you presented on the projector," Dr. Thorne explained.
"The way you traced those shell companies, the algorithms you used to link the offshore accounts..."
"It was brilliant, graduate-level forensic accounting."
"We are offering you a full-ride scholarship for your Master's degree."
"Plus a paid position as a graduate teaching assistant."
I stared at the letter, my vision suddenly blurring with happy tears.
"I don't know what to say."
"Say yes, Sarah," he smiled gently.
May you like
"You earned this entirely on your own."
I signed the acceptance paper right there on his desk.
