Mated to the Beast of the Wasteland novel Chapter 178

Chapter 178 The Sabotage Exposed

Chapter 178 The Sabotage Exposed

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Walter chimed in to back him up. “Even if what he did was out of line, Clara lying about her seed is way worse. She practically lives in that lab, so there is no way she didn’t know the truth. She just refused to face the facts.”

An experiment was a researcher’s lifeblood, and tampering with someone else’s work was barely a hair’s breadth away from trying to take their life.

Vance’s expression turned to stone. These two had still not registered the gravity of what they had done. They had treated a serious experiment like a punchline and Clara like a joke!

Wendell picked up on Vance’s displeasure right away and immediately launched into damage control.

“Dean, this whole thing really is just a misunderstanding. The kids had good intentions that ended up backfiring on them. You wouldn’t know it, but my Walter is all bark and no bite. The minute he found ou Clara hadn’t finished her thesis experiment, he held off from going after her for more than ten days. He only asked her to vacate the lab so she could share a space with a classmate. Why don’t we let bygones be bygones? Have Clara wrap up her experiment and let everyone go on their way?”

“Clara, is that how it went down?” Vance shot a glance her way.

Clara cut a quick look in Gillian’s direction.

Could Vance really have been brought in by Wendell? Something about that didn’t add up. Vance never showed his face except at the most critical occasions, so why would Wendell be able to call him out and have him personally handle a small matter with this much attention to detail?

Gillian gave Clara a subtle wink, and just like that the answer clicked into place. Gillian was the one who had brought Vance in.

“That isn’t how it happened at all. According to Academy regulations, anyone with an unfinished experiment can apply to extend their lab access. I haven’t broken a single rule.”

Wendell wanted to push back hard, but the words he had just fed Vance had landed with a thud, since the director hadn’t taken the bait.

A flicker of uncertainty crossed Wendell’s face.

Before he could open his mouth again, Gillian in her white dress beat him to the punch.

“I’m Gillian Sterling from the medical team. I had a front-row seat to this little drama between two of the Agriculture Academy’s so-called talents today, and honestly, it makes me wonder if the 9th Legion has more money than it knows what to do with. We’re burning real coin on these programs every single day. If every student starts lying their way through and wasting Legion resources, where does that leave us? That’s why I asked Dean Holt to come see it for himself.”

“Wait, what? So Dean Holt was called in by Captain Sterling? Captain Sterling pulls that much weight around here?”

“She holds the authority to inspect every seed at the Agriculture Academy, so bringing in Dean Holt

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Chapter 178 The Sabotage Exposed

honestly isn’t all that out of pocket.”

The students gathered around felt their emotions yanked through every loop of a roller coaster.

The gossip just kept getting juicier by the second.

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Gillian turned her attention back to Hudson. “You just said you dropped the soil in with your own hands. Walk us through exactly what happened that day, in full détail.”

Hudson had no idea what Gillian was playing at, but he had no choice except to repeat the story of how he had scooped soil into the lover’s apple dish.

“You really put the soil in there?”

“Yeah, I did. I didn’t want her getting hurt.”

“And you saw it with your own eyes? The seed inside the lover’s apple was dead?”

The skepticism written all over Gillian’s face started getting under Hudson’s skin.

“Of course I saw it clearly. If I couldn’t tell something that basic, why would I even be at the Agriculture Academy? Captain Sterling, what exactly are you trying to get at with these questions? Twisting things around isn’t going to change what actually happened.”

Gillian gave a satisfied nod before finally turning to address Vance directly. “I came here today at Clara’s invitation, and I personally inspected her petri dish. There absolutely is a living seed inside. The twist is that it isn’t a lover’s apple at all. It’s a shaggy mane.”

The mention of a shaggy mane rippled through the onlookers in stunned disbelief.

If what Gillian was claiming held up, then Hudson hadn’t actually managed to sabotage Clara’s experiment at all.

The crowd’s eyes turned on Hudson like a wall of flying knives.

“Not a lover’s apple, but a shaggy mane? Then why on earth was Clara showing Hudson a lover’s apple in the first place? And a dead one at that?”

“What an idiot. Clara couldn’t turn him down outright, so she let the data do the talking. The guy was too dense to read the room and ended up putting on a one-man show fueled by his own wishful thinking.”

“Oh my god, I can’t even! What a colossal screw-up. Can you believe Hudson is actually this dim? No wonder Clara wouldn’t give him the time of day.”

“Honestly, if I had a boyfriend that clueless, I’d cry from sheer secondhand embarrassment.”

With every fresh wave of laughter, the spotlight of mockery slid clean off Clara and landed squarely on Hudson instead.

Walter grabbed Hudson by the collar with a face full of thunder. “You really let a pretty face fry your brain, didn’t you? How the hell did you manage to get this so wrong?”

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