Her Divorce, His Downfall (Sophia and Damian) novel Chapter 82

Chapter 82

Dominic POV

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Ellie reached the stage with the professor and instead of stopping where she was supposed to, instead of waiting for the applause that never came, she reached out and took the microphone from the professor’s hand.

A ripple of confusion ran through the hall.

My pulse spiked.

“I passed,” she said clearly, her voice carrying without strain. “But I didn’t just pass.

Heads tilted. Murmurs stirred.

“I passed an exam that was deliberately altered to make me fail.”

The room exploded into gasps.

Ellie lifted a stack of papers, her test packet, holding it high enough for the front rows to see. “This was not the standard midterm. It wasn’t what the rest of my class received.”

I watched, a mix of emotion flooding me. But I couldn’t help my smile.

“She abused her authority,” Ellie continued calmly, “tampered with my exam, and used anonymous conduct reports to threaten my place in this academy.”

Her eyes shifted, just slightly.

“Karina.”

The crowd turned as one.

Karina’s face drained of color. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, eyes darting uselessly toward the faculty. She started shaking before she even tried to speak.

“I-I didn’t-” Her voice broke. Tears spilled over, ugly and panicked. “I was just—”

The professor stepped forward, fury etched into his expression as he took the test packet from Ellie’s hands, flipping through it quickly, sharply.

“This exam,” he said, voice cutting through the chaos, “was not approved. And you,” he turned on Karina, “were responsible for its distribution.”

There was no defense. No escape.

Ellie stood there, steady as stone, while Karina collapsed in on herself, sobbing openly.

The professor exhaled once, long and controlled.

“Ellie Fairwood,” he said, turning back to her, “you not only passed an unfair and unreasonably difficult exam- you excelled.”

Then he looked at Karina.

“Karina,” he said flatly, “you are expelled.”

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Ellie POV

“Karina,” he said flatly, “you are expelled.”

The hall erupted-outrage, shock, scattered cheers, angry shouting-but I barely heard it.

I barely realized I was still standing in front of the microphone until my legs shifted on their own, the adrenaline humming so loud in my veins it felt like static under my skin.

I had wanted justice. Gods, I deserved it after weeks of sabotage, humiliation, and whatever that test was. But as Karina stood there shaking, makeup streaked, dignity unraveling in front of the entire academy, the word expelled echoed too sharply in my head. That wasn’t what I’d meant. That wasn’t what I’d wanted.

I knew what that felt like.

My mouth opened ready to say something, anything, to slow the fall, when Karina suddenly snatched the mic.

She sobbed, loud and raw, pointing with a trembling hand past me and into the crowd.

“This isn’t my faut! It wasn’t me! It was all Vivian’s fault!” she cried, voice cracking. “She told me to do it! I hate her!”

The hall didn’t just go quiet.

It froze.

My brow furrowed. I didn’t know who to believe at this point. But I will say, Vivian felt right.

Every head snapped in the same direction, a hundred gazes swinging like a blade toward my sister.

For one brief, fragile heartbeat, a small hope flared in my chest that everyone would see what I see.

And then Vivian moved.

She folded into Dominic’s side as if gravity itself had betrayed her, fingers curling into his arm, shoulders shaking as tears welled instantly in her eyes-too perfect. Her face crumpled into something soft and wounded, lips trembling, lashes glittering wet as she looked out at the crowd like a frightened doe.

“Why…” she whispered, voice breaking in all the right places. “Why would you drag me into something like this?”

She shook her head slowly, hurt etched so delicately across her expression it almost looked real.

“Yes, Ellie and I fight,” she said gently, almost sadly. “We’re sisters. We argue sometimes. But sabotage her? Ruin her future?” She pressed a hand to her chest. “I would never do that. I would never hurt my sister.”

I felt my stomach squeeze. I wouldn’t expect anything less.

But it was horrifying, not because she was lying, but because she was good at it.

The room shifted instantly, sympathy flooding in like a tide, Whispers turned sharp, ugly, redirected.

“Karina’s just bitter Dominc likes the sisters more-”

“She’s trying to save herself—”

“What a jealous liar-”

Boos erupted, not at Vivian, but at Karina. Someone threw a folded paper. Then another. The sound of it hitting the stage made me flinch.

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Karina broke completely, sobbing, covering her face as she stumbled backward, then turned and ran, disappearing through the side doors as the noise followed her like a storm.

I stood there, unmoving, my victory suddenly tasting like ash.

Yikes.

I swallowed hard and leaned toward the professor, my voice low and urgent. “She shouldn’t be expelled,” I said, the words tumbling over each other. “She was wrong-yes-but this… this is too far. I’ll vouch for her. I’ll put it in writing. Please.”

He looked at me, truly looked at me this time, and nodded slowly.

“We’ll review it,” he said quietly. “Thank you for coming forward.”

Sarah barreled into me the second I stepped off the stage, arms wrapping tight around my ribs, her voice bright and fierce in my ear. “I knew it,” she said breathlessly. “I knew you could do it.”

I hugged her back, and for the first time all day, I let myself exhale.

Not relief exactly-too much had happened for that-but something close. My shoulders loosened. My hands stopped shaking. I had done. All the confusion, sleepless nights and voices in my ears were silenced. For now.

And it made it worth it. Victorious, whether my revenge felt clean or not, it was right.

When Sarah finally pulled back, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and stiffened instinctively.

Marcus and Jake.

They hovered a few steps away, clearly uncertain, clearly uncomfortable, and for a heartbeat I braced myself for another joke, another jab disguised as humor. Instead, Marcus cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Uh,” he said awkwardly, “we… wanted to say congrats. Seriously. You earned it.

Jake nodded, shifting his weight. “Yeah. And-sorry. For being jerks. We didn’t think you’d-” He stopped himself, winced. “Anyway. You proved us wrong.”

I studied them for a moment, then gave a small nod. “Thanks.”

It wasn’t forgiveness, not fully, but it was something.

Then the air changed.

I felt it before I saw him, the familiar tension sliding down my spine like a warning.

Dominic.

He and Vivian approached together, her hand still hovering near his arm, her posture soft and composed again, like she’d already decided the show was over. My jaw tightened, my patience snapping thin.

I didn’t bother hiding the glare.

But Dominic surprised me.

He stepped away from her.

Not dramatically. Not angrily. Just one deliberate step forward, putting himself directly in front of me, as if the rest of the world had quietly fallen out of focus.

3/5

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The noise around us dulled. Conversations stalled. Even Sarah seemed to sense it, drifting half a step back.

We stared at each other. Just the weight of everything that had gone unsaid pressing down between us, heavy and electric.

Finally, Dominic exhaled.

He lifted his hand.

“Congrats,” he said, voice low, steady. “But I’m not giving up. You’ll trip soon and I’ll be there when

Something sharp flared in my chest.

I slapped his hand away before I could think better of it.

“I don’t need your congratulations,” I said coolly. “I never have.”

you

A murmur rippled through the crowd, but I barely registered it, because suddenly my feet weren’t on the ground

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