Chapter 6 - Ethan’s SecretEthan Cole did not answer his phone.
He wasn’t at his apartment.
He wasn’t at practice.
He wasn’t in the library.
By ten that night, campus security had been told to locate him—not as a suspect, officially, but as a student connected to the investigation.
Brooke found him first.
She recognized his car leaving the south parking garage.
She called Leo.
Twenty minutes later, they watched from Professor Ward’s car as Ethan parked behind an expensive restaurant three miles from campus.
A black sedan waited beside the service entrance.
Professor Ward turned to Leo.
“We are not following people.”
“We already followed him.”
“We observed coincidentally.”
“From campus?”
“Very long coincidence.”
Brooke leaned forward from the back seat.
“He’s getting out.”
Ethan approached the sedan.
A man stepped from the passenger side.
Dark suit.
Silver lapel pin.
Leo recognized him from Marcus’s video.
“That’s him.”
Professor Ward lowered the window slightly.
The man looked about fifty.
Gray hair.
Athletic build.
Not Coach Voss.
Ethan handed him something.
An envelope.
The man opened it.
Checked the contents.
Then slapped Ethan across the face.
Not hard enough to knock him down, but enough to make Brooke gasp.
The man grabbed Ethan’s jacket.
Words carried faintly across the lot.
“You were told to leave.”
“I did!”
“Then why are you still answering questions?”
“I didn’t tell them anything.”
“They found the upload exception.”
The three inside the car froze.
Professor Ward lifted her phone and began recording.
Ethan said, “I didn’t know they’d find that.”
The man leaned closer.
“You weren’t supposed to be in that hallway after eleven-fifty.”
“My laptop froze.”
“You were supposed to submit from athletics.”
“I panicked.”
The man released him.
“You have one job now. Keep quiet.”
Ethan looked frightened.
“What about Trent?”
“Trent made his choice.”
“And Mercer?”
The man paused.
“Mercer is becoming a problem.”
Leo felt Professor Ward’s hand close around his sleeve.
Stay down.
The man continued.
“If the university thinks he sabotaged the system, this goes away.”
Ethan shook his head.
“They know his account was cloned.”
“Do they?”
“They’re checking everything.”
The man sighed.
“Then Voss will handle it.”
Coach Voss.
Professor Ward stopped recording only when the sedan left.
Ethan remained behind the restaurant.
He leaned against his car with both hands.
Leo opened the door.
Professor Ward grabbed him.
“Absolutely not.”
“He knows.”
“He’s terrified.”
“Exactly.”
“That is why approaching him could put all of you at risk.”
Brooke whispered, “He’s leaving.”
Ethan got into his car.
Before he could start it, another vehicle entered the lot.
Campus security.
Professor Ward had quietly sent their location while recording.
Two officers approached Ethan.
Leo watched him surrender his phone.
No resistance.
No argument.
Almost relief.
Back at campus, Ethan finally talked.
His explanation began two months earlier.
Coach Voss had introduced three senior football players to something called the Apex Leadership Access Program.
A private recommendation track.
Players were told Westbridge donors had relationships with Apex executives.
Nothing unusual.
Universities used alumni networks constantly.
Then Ethan received a guarantee.
If he followed instructions, his Apex application would receive “priority treatment.”
He assumed that meant a recommendation.
Instead, Coach Voss demanded his university login.
“Why?” Dean Bell asked.
Ethan stared at the table.
“He said athletics needed to verify eligibility.”
“You gave him the password?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know he was manipulating applications?”
“No.”
“When did you know?”
Ethan hesitated.
“The morning of the deadline.”
Leo watched through the conference-room window.
Ethan continued.
Coach Voss had told him certain students were “blocking donor candidates.”
He specifically named Leo.
“He said Leo had hacked the recruitment system.”
“Did you believe him?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You spoke with Trent.”
Ethan lowered his head.
“I told Trent Leo was causing problems.”
“Did you tell him to attack Leo?”
“No.”
“Did you know he would?”
Ethan started crying.
Quietly.
“I thought he’d scare him.”
Dean Bell remained composed.
“Who was the man behind the restaurant?”
Ethan whispered the name.
“Graham Pike.”
Leo looked at Professor Ward.
“Pike?”
She nodded slowly.
The athletic director’s older brother.
Graham Pike was vice president of the Westbridge Athletics Foundation.
A major fundraiser.
And former executive recruiter for Apex Global.
The pieces shifted into place.
Recruitment.
Athletics.
Donors.
Preferential candidates.
Fifty sabotaged applications.
Dean Bell asked Ethan one final question.
“Why did they need the other applications to fail?”
Ethan wiped his face.
“I don’t know.”
But then he remembered something.
“Wait.”
Everyone leaned forward.
“Coach Voss said Apex only interviews a fixed percentage from each university.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“He said if fewer strong candidates finished their applications…”
Ethan stopped.
Leo understood before anyone else.
“…then the people they wanted would rank higher.”
Ethan nodded.
The room went silent.
This wasn’t about one job.
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Someone had used university systems to remove competition.
And they had used Leo as both weapon and scapegoat.
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