Chapter 52: The Girl On Trial

The committee room was already packed by the time Roxanne arrived with Isla, teachers and student representatives filling the rows behind a cluster of curious onlookers who had no official reason to be there at all. The Moonstone brothers came in separately a few minutes later, spacing themselves near the back rather than clustering around Roxanne’s seat. She’d asked them to do that specifically. The last thing she needed was for the room to see four royal brothers marching in behind her like an intimidation tactic.

Joanna sat near the front already, a neat folder of evidence squared in front of her, her posture composed in a way that made Roxanne’s stomach tighten before anyone had even spoken.

The complaint, once read aloud, laid out three claims. Roxanne had received special treatment following the incident at the fall trial. She’d been placed on the Moonstone team despite an ongoing investigation into one of its members. Her personal relationship with the brothers created a conflict of interest, and she had allegedly used that influence to sway committee decisions in her favor.

That last accusation, entirely unsupported, made Roxanne’s jaw tighten.

Joanna didn’t raise her voice or rant through her presentation. She was prepared, methodical, laying out screenshots of Roxanne standing beside the brothers at the festival, photos from the Moonball roster announcement, a printed copy of the committee assignment list with Roxanne’s name highlighted. None of it proved anything outright. But whispers rippled through the room with every new image, and Roxanne understood exactly what Joanna was doing.

She wasn’t trying to prove Roxanne guilty of anything specific. She was making the room uncomfortable enough to assume guilt on its own.

"I’m not asking the academy to punish Roxanne," Joanna said, closing her folder with careful precision. "I’m asking them to protect the integrity of student leadership."

It sounded entirely reasonable. That was exactly what made it dangerous.

The committee chair turned to Roxanne next, asking whether she had ever requested that any of the Moonstone brothers influence an academy decision on her behalf.

"No," Roxanne said.

"Have you received preferential treatment as a result of your association with them?"

She could have simply repeated the same denial. Instead she paused, choosing her words carefully.

"I’ve received protection," she said. "I never asked for it."

A murmur passed through the room at that distinction, and Roxanne let it settle before continuing. "The brothers have helped me personally, more than once. That’s true. But I’ve never used their status to gain anything within this academy. My place on the team came from my own performance."

One of the student representatives leaned forward. "Do you have romantic feelings for any of the Moonstone brothers?"

The room went utterly silent.

"My feelings," Roxanne said, "aren’t academy business."

Nobody pushed further, and none of the brothers said a word from the back of the room, which she appreciated more than she could have told them.

Lucien was called next, and he explained plainly that Roxanne had earned her place on the team through performance, nothing more, citing the specific results that had led to her selection. Roshan followed with a printed breakdown of her competition scores, laying the numbers out without embellishment. Liam, called up third, gave testimony that was more casual than either of his brothers, though he managed to land a point that mattered.

"She’s beaten me twice in academy activities," Liam said, shrugging. "If she’s getting special treatment, someone forgot to tell my ego."

A ripple of quiet laughter passed through the room.

Kai was questioned last. The chair asked whether his personal relationship with Roxanne had ever influenced his judgment during team competitions.

"No," Kai said.

There was a pause before he added, "If anything, I expected more from her."

Roxanne glanced at him, and something in his answer settled the last of her nerves. It was exactly the right thing to say, honest without softening a single edge of it.

Joanna rose one final time, producing what she clearly considered her strongest piece of evidence. A screenshot of a message, allegedly sent from Roxanne to Lucien, asking him to ensure she remained on the student committee regardless of the ongoing review.

Roxanne knew immediately she hadn’t written it. But instead of raising her voice, she asked calmly to see the full conversation thread.

Joanna hesitated. "I only have the screenshot."

"Then you don’t have the original message," Roxanne said. She turned toward the committee chair. "Has anyone verified this against the academy’s message archive?"

The chair exchanged a glance with the other officials. "Not yet."

Roxanne looked back at the screenshot displayed on the projector, studying the timestamp printed in the corner. "That timestamp doesn’t match the academy’s server format. Every message on our accounts logs with a different timecode structure."

The room’s attention shifted entirely, and Joanna’s composed expression flickered for the first time all afternoon.

"Then you don’t have evidence," Roxanne said quietly. "You have a screenshot."

Nobody spoke for a long moment.

The committee ultimately couldn’t remove Roxanne from her position based on what had been presented, and her seat on the Founders’ Festival committee was restored, pending a formal verification of the disputed message. Joanna wasn’t punished either, since nothing definitively proved she’d fabricated the evidence herself. But the committee did order a full digital audit of the message in question, a decision that left the matter technically unresolved rather than closed.

As the room emptied, Joanna passed close by Roxanne without a word, offering only a look that made it clear this wasn’t over, whatever the committee’s decision said on paper.

Outside, Roxanne expected some kind of celebration from the brothers. Instead, Lucien simply said, "You handled that yourself," and there was something in his tone that told her he meant it as real praise rather than a passing comment.

She found Kai standing slightly apart from the others near the edge of the courtyard, and walked over to him.

"Thank you," she said, "for not interrupting when they were questioning me."

"You didn’t need rescuing," Kai said.

"You finally learned that."

His mouth curved, not quite a full smile, but close enough that Roxanne felt the small victory of it more than she expected to.

That evening, back in her dorm room, her phone buzzed just as she was settling in. A notification from the committee’s official channel appeared on screen.

DIGITAL AUDIT INITIATED.

She sat up, scrolling through the message with growing unease. A moment later, a second notification followed.

ONE ACCOUNT HAS BEEN ACCESSED FROM TWO DIFFERENT DEVICES.

Roxanne opened the attached record, expecting to find Joanna’s name attached to the second device. Instead, the log traced back to an account she didn’t recognize at all, one flagged under academy administration credentials.

Not Joanna’s device.

Someone inside the administration itself had accessed the account used to send the forged message.

Roxanne stared at the screen for a long moment, the implications settling slowly and uncomfortably into place.

Whatever this was, it went further than a rivalry between students competing for the same spot on a committee.