Lauren frowned and said, irritated, "Teacher, what do you mean by that? How could Ella have hurt Olivia?"
The male teacher was taken aback.
Without any proof, how could he just blame Ella and Lauren for arriving earlier than Olivia?
Olivia, seething with anger, suddenly remembered the mocking look in Ella’s eyes when she had entered the locker room.
"It was her... it had to be her who set me up! Teacher, I accidentally hit her with a ball once, and ever since, Ella has been targeting me, saying horrible things!" Olivia shouted.
Rachel sat quietly, looking nervously between the two.
Ella raised an eyebrow coolly, her smile icy. "Olivia, don’t make baseless accusations without evidence!"
"You hate me! If it wasn’t you, then who was it?" Olivia retorted, refusing to back down.
The male teacher looked at Olivia with an unmistakable hint of indulgence in his eyes. "Ella, just tell the truth. How did you manage to put needles in Olivia’s shoes?"
Lauren was so furious she could barely contain herself. She let out a cold laugh. "Is this how you treat people? Teacher, you’re supposed to be a role model. How can you say something so absurd?"
"I’m simply asking Ella to state the facts," the teacher replied coldly. The students watching remained mostly silent, unwilling to get involved, but some felt sympathy for Ella.
"Teacher, are you implying that I’m the one who set up Olivia?" Ella’s gaze turned icy, her demeanor powerful. "If that’s the case, show me your proof!"
"Proof? You just don’t like me!" Olivia cried, her tears flowing freely as the pain in her feet intensified.
"Ella, apologize to Olivia immediately," the teacher finally commanded, his voice hard.
"Teacher, I won’t apologize for something I didn’t do," Ella said with a faint smile. She couldn’t help but wonder if this teacher had gotten his position through some kind of connection.
"If it wasn’t you, then who else? Ella, don’t you have any shame?" Olivia shouted, her voice rising. "My feet hurt so much! You’ve hated me ever since I accidentally hit you with the ball. That’s why you did this!" Olivia burst into tears, and the teacher suddenly looked flustered.
Well, well... Ella thought. It seemed this teacher had a soft spot for Olivia. But Egerton University strictly prohibited any romantic relationships between teachers and students, even at the college level.
"Ella, apologize to Olivia immediately, or leave this locker room at once!" The teacher finally lost his temper.
Lauren, always bold, stood up and shouted back at him, "What kind of teacher are you? Who acts without knowing the facts?"
The teacher began to tremble with anger. He really had gotten the job through connections, but being confronted made his eyes bulge with rage.
Just as the tension reached its peak, a cool voice cut through the air. "What’s going on here?"
Everyone looked up to see Henry entering with a young boy by his side.
"Henry, it’s Ella! She put needles in my shoes and stabbed my feet all over! You have to help me!" Olivia cried, her tone filled with grievance.
Henry glanced at her, then turned his gaze toward Ella, who remained composed.
She was always —calm, as though nothing could escape her notice.
"Is it true?" Henry asked coolly, his eyes landing on the male teacher with a faint smile. "What do you think, teacher?"
The teacher shot a cold glance at Ella and replied, "There’s no surveillance here, so using cameras to find the real culprit is impossible."
Ella gave a calm smile. "Yeah, no cameras. Someone really planned this out well."
"What are you laughing at? I’m talking about you! Olivia hasn’t crossed anyone else recently—it had to be you who planted the needles! Who else could it be?" the teacher retorted sharply.
All eyes turned toward Ella, filled with various emotions—scorn, suspicion, and some even with schadenfreude.
"What the teacher said is really laughable," Ella said, her voice chilly. "I’m disappointed in you."
Lauren was about to jump in to defend her, but Ella quickly held her back. This teacher was rash and unfair. His career as a teacher wouldn’t last long with such conduct.
"I’ll say it again. Apologize to Olivia, or leave this locker room..." the teacher began, but Henry interrupted him with a cold, mocking laugh.
"Teacher, you’re being ridiculous," Henry said, pulling the phone out of the little boy’s hand. "Let’s all take a look at this video."
Olivia looked up and immediately recognized the phone—it seemed very familiar.
Ella’s lips curved slightly. Henry had defended her once again, and at least he wasn’t as bad as she’d originally thought.
Rachel, seeing the phone, turned pale. "That’s... that’s my phone..."
Henry had already opened the video. "Everyone, just watch."
The video played, and it showed Olivia standing in front of locker number nine, hurriedly opening it and shoving needles into the shoes inside.
Gasps filled the room, and the male teacher turned around, staring at Olivia in disbelief.
Olivia’s face went as white as a sheet. She recognized the phone—it was Rachel’s!
Ella let out a small sound of surprise, as if she had just realized something. "Oh, now I remember! When Lauren and I were changing shoes earlier, I accidentally grabbed Olivia’s by mistake. Lauren told me, and we even teased each other about it. Looks like I mixed up the shoes... Olivia, didn’t you say I put the needles in? Well, I guess karma came back to bite you, huh?"
The video finished, and Henry handed the phone back to Rachel. "Thank you, Rachel."
Rachel shook her head quickly, clearly unsure of what to say.
Olivia, her temper flaring, shot up and slapped Rachel across the face. "You wretched traitor! You recorded the video to frame me!"
Rachel fell to the ground from the force of the slap. Olivia tried to charge at her again, but the teacher quickly restrained her.
"Olivia, it wasn’t me! I didn’t do it! I lent my phone to Henry, but I don’t know where this video came from!" Rachel cried in terror. Her darkest secrets had been exposed time and time again, and now even her closest friend had turned against her.
"I’m sorry, but I don’t know how the video was captured either," Henry said calmly. "It was the professor’s son who showed it to me, and I just happened to see it."
"Come on, kid, let’s go," Henry said as he led the little boy out. Children shouldn’t be exposed to scenes .
Olivia, seething, hurled even more insults. "You disgusting fool! How dare you betray me! You’re nothing but a vile little tramp, everyone knows it!"
Ella watched all of this unfold coldly, as Rachel broke down into sobs, looking for all the world like the most pitiful person alive.