Page 91 of His to Own

“I didn’t plagiarize this.”

“We looked into it and seems that you did. You cannot be a student here if you’re going to do things like this. You will be suspended as we look into this further. But most likely, you will be expelled from this school.”

I blink, staring down at the paper. I realize that it’s the one I wrote on Othello but as I read it over, it dawns on me that some of the words are different. I don’t remember writing the essay this way. Did… did Professor Romanov change some things? Is that what she meant when she said she’d make me regret getting her fired?

“But… but I didn’t write this,” I whisper.

“Your professor had the paper. She showed it to me.”

“Was this before or after she was fired?”

He sighs. “That doesn’t matter. We take issues of plagiarism very seriously at this school. You cannot continue at this school, I am afraid to say.”

“What about my husband?” I gasp. “My husband…”

“What about your husband?”

“He got her fired,” I whisper. “And now she’s hurting me.”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Professor Romanov was fired because she was found with illegal drugs in her office. No other reason.”

Because Maxim planted those drugs. That’s how he got her fired. I never knew the full details. One more thing Maxim has kept from me.

“You have no proof that I plagiarized this paper,” I object. Fight, Elena. Don’t let this happen to you.

“But we do. We’ve already done extensive research on it and some of the paragraphs in this essay are word for word the same as another student’s.”

“Which student? Why aren’t they getting accused and I am?”

“Because Professor Romanov was insistent that it was you. This other student turned their paper in first.”

“Which student? I deserve a name.”

“You are not allowed to know. Now, I ask that you leave this campus for the day. You will not resume any of your classes for the rest of the week as we continue to look into this.”

This will hurt my chances at the internship. If I’m expelled, I’ll never get the education I was so desperate for.

I leave the dean’s office feeling only numb. That’s when I see Polina in the administration main office, talking to the dean’s secretary. The sight of Polina hits me in the stomach. The smug smile she gives me feels like a warning.

“Was it you?” I ask, storming over to her. “Are you the other student?”

She blinks her large, innocent eyes at me. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Are you that afraid of me that you want to get me expelled?”

“What?” She takes a step back. “Elena, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You’re a liar. A liar!”

“Mrs. Morozov, you have to leave now,” the secretary commands, pointing at the door. “Go. Now.”

I can feel Polina’s eyes on me until I turn the corner.

Maxim isn’t supposed to pick me up until later in the day… because I was supposed to have class. Now that’s gone.

I find myself sinking onto a stone bench in the main quad. It’s Alexei who finds me like this.

“Elena?”