Chapter 8

Lina's POV

The next morning, I stood on time at the door of the board meeting room of St. Herman Noble Academy.

The meeting room door was dark walnut-colored, with the academy's emblem carved on the handle—a soaring eagle gripping an open book in its talons.

I straightened my expression, took a deep breath, and pushed open the door.

At one end of the long table sat the principal, a balding man in his sixties wearing a dark gray suit with his tie fastened meticulously.

His gaze paused on me for a second before quickly moving away, as if looking longer would bring him trouble.

On either side of the principal sat several board members, both men and women, all dressed in expensive formal wear with varying expressions—some serious, some indifferent, some with a hint of anticipation as if watching a show.

At the other end of the long table sat a man in his fifties.

He wore a navy blue custom-tailored suit with a gold pin on his chest—the logo of Winston Real Estate.

The man's hair was salt-and-pepper, slicked back with a shine, and his features were seventy percent similar to Blair's—the same high nose bridge, the same thin lips, the same posture of slightly raising his chin when looking at people.

He was Blair Winston's father, Marcus Winston.

Behind Marcus stood a lawyer in a black suit, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, holding a brown leather briefcase.

The lawyer's lips were pressed into a line, his gaze sizing me up and down, like evaluating the defects of a commodity.

Blair's figure was not in the meeting room, she was currently in the hospital.

Since no one greeted me, I picked a chair on the side of the long table and sat down, waiting for Luca to come in.

Five minutes later, the door was pushed open and Luca walked in.

The atmosphere in the meeting room immediately changed.

The principal's shoulders flinched, Marcus Winston's expression froze, and several board members simultaneously adjusted their sitting positions.

I took in their reactions completely, gaining a new layer of understanding about Luca's identity.

Luca wore his usual dark suit, no tie, with the top button of his shirt undone.

He held a black folder in his hand, casually, like holding a magazine.

When Luca walked in, his gaze swept over everyone present, finally landing on Marcus Winston, and he nodded slightly.

"Mr. Winston."

"Mr. Moretti."

Luca walked to my side and pulled out the chair next to me to sit down.

The chair seemed a bit small for him; his knees almost touched the underside of the table.

Luca placed the folder on the table, unhurriedly opened the first page, then leaned back in his chair, his posture relaxed as if sitting in his own living room.

I noticed Marcus Winston's lawyer took another look at Luca, then lowered his head and wrote something in his notebook.

The principal cleared his throat. "Everyone, we've convened this emergency board meeting today to handle a serious violent incident that occurred on campus."

He opened the file in front of him and read, "Yesterday afternoon around 5:15 PM, in the area behind the academic building, our student Blair Winston was violently attacked by another student, Lina, resulting in a comminuted fracture of Blair Winston's nasal bone, requiring surgical treatment. According to witness statements from students and on-site video—"

"Video." Luca suddenly spoke.

The principal paused. "What?"

"Video." Luca repeated, his tone as flat as asking about the weather. "You said there's on-site video. I want to see it."

The principal glanced at Marcus Winston, whose lips pressed into a line and gave an almost imperceptible nod.

So the principal pulled a USB drive from the folder and handed it to the assistant beside him.

The assistant inserted the USB into the computer, the projection screen lit up, and the video began playing.

The video quality wasn't very clear, but you could see what happened.

Blair stood in the center of the frame, with me standing in front of her.

The camera focus remained on Blair the whole time; the person filming was clearly one of her two followers behind her.

"Who do you think you are? A bitch he slept with? A pet he picked up on a whim?"

Blair's arrogant voice came through the speakers, filling the entire meeting room.

Then came my voice: "Not his pet."

In the next frame, Blair raised her hand high.

Then the next second the image shook violently, and the person filming also let out a cry of alarm.

When the image stabilized again, Blair was already on the ground, her face covered in blood.

The video ended there.

Luca snorted coldly and looked at the principal. "Finished watching the video, so what's the conclusion?"

The principal blinked. "So... so this is a serious violent incident. Your student Miss Lina inflicted serious bodily harm on Miss Winston. According to school rules, this kind of behavior..."

"Hmm, according to school rules," Luca directly interrupted the principal, his voice suddenly turning cold, "how should group bullying be handled?"

While speaking, Luca picked up the black folder on the table, opened the photos inside, and placed them on the table one by one.

Those photos were of the scenes from the past few weeks when I was "taken care of" by Blair. Each one was extremely clear, especially that vicious, triumphant smile on Blair's face.

The principal's face changed, and the board members began whispering to each other.

Marcus Winston's lawyer lowered his head and said something in his ear.

"These photos," Luca put down the last one and knocked on the table with his hand, "are just part of what happened in the past few weeks. I have many more. Want to see them?"

No one spoke.

"Mr. Winston," Luca turned to Marcus, "your daughter, with more than twenty people, cornered my person in a dead end of the school. When she raised her hand to hit someone, Lina only engaged in legitimate self-defense, and you call this a 'serious violent incident'?"

Marcus Winston's face looked very ugly. He was a person who commanded wind and rain in the business world, but in front of Luca Moretti, he was like a bear with a hunter's gun pointed at it—full of strength but not daring to move at all.

"Mr. Moretti," just as the two were in a standoff, Marcus's lawyer spoke up. "Miss Blair's hand did not actually hit Miss Lina, while Miss Lina's counterattack caused serious bodily harm to Miss Blair. This is difficult to be recognized as legitimate self-defense under the law."

Luca glanced at the lawyer. The lawyer seemed like someone had grabbed his throat, and his voice clearly lowered.

"Law," Luca rolled these two words on his tongue and sneered. "You're talking to me about law?"

Luca closed the folder and set it aside, leaning forward slightly with his hands crossed on the table. This posture made his aura even more oppressive.

"Mr. Winston, let's get straight to the point." Luca's voice wasn't loud, but everyone in the meeting room heard it clearly.

"Your daughter, over the past few weeks, has engaged in continuous bullying of my student Lina, including but not limited to verbal abuse, physical confrontation, and mob attacks. Every single one violates St. Herman's school rules. And you, as a parent, not only failed to discipline your own daughter, but instead sit here today demanding that the school punish the victim."

Marcus Winston's face immediately turned from blue to white. "Mr. Moretti, please watch your wording—"

"I'm very mindful of my wording, no need for your concern." Luca leaned back in his chair, the corner of his mouth slightly raised. "Why don't we talk about what you care more about. That complex in Manhattan's West Side—is the financing in place? That golf community in Long Island—the environmental approval seems to have been stuck in the state government for almost half a year? And also—"

He paused, his smile deepening.

"And also that betting agreement you signed last week. If first quarter sales data next year doesn't meet targets, your company may face a liquidity crisis. Guess what I'll do?"

Marcus Winston's face went completely white. His lips trembled, but he couldn't say a word.

"Mr. Winston, I don't need your apology, and I don't need your compensation. I just need you to understand one thing—" Luca stood up and looked down at Marcus sitting in the chair. "Your daughter bullied my person. Apology, compensation, plus expulsion, and this matter ends here. If you or your daughter make any more moves, then you can disappear together."

Everyone in the meeting room involuntarily shuddered after hearing this sentence and immediately held their breath, trying to lower their sense of presence.

At this time, Luca turned to look at the principal.

"As for school rules, I trust the board of directors will make a fair decision. After all," he glanced at those photos on the table, "if these photos appear on the front page of the New York Post, St. Herman Noble Academy's reputation will probably shatter more thoroughly than Miss Blair's nose bridge."

The principal opened and closed his mouth, squeezing out a smile that looked worse than crying. "Of course, of course. Please rest assured, we will... we will handle this properly."

Luca nodded, then looked at me.

"Let's go."