Chapter 13 - The Night Before the Hearing
The independent hearing was scheduled for a rainy Thursday.
By then the dispute had grown larger than Bea's missing scholarship.
Former students had begun contacting Amina with stories about vanished awards and unexplained fees.
Some had left school without degrees.
Others had worked multiple jobs because administrators told them funding had run out.
Bea met several of them at the nonprofit school after her afternoon lesson.
She listened to a former nursing student describe selling her textbooks to pay rent.
Another graduate had borrowed money at punishing rates after losing a promised stipend.
The anger in the room was quiet and immense.
The night before the hearing, Hannah returned from visiting her aunt Lucinda, who had flown back after years abroad.
Lucinda was willing to testify.
She had brought original spreadsheets and a notebook recording her objections to the foundation's expenses.
But she also delivered a warning.
"Carmina didn't begin this alone," Lucinda told Bea.
"The university leadership knew more than they admitted."
According to Lucinda, multiple administrators had accepted reports that concealed missing money.
Some were negligent.
Others appeared to have actively approved improper transfers.
Dr. Cruz had been a junior administrator during the earliest years and had not yet explained everything he knew.
Bea asked to speak to him.
Cruz arrived after dinner, without his official jacket or university pin.
He admitted that he had once dismissed an early complaint about scholarship spending because his superior told him the matter was settled.
"I should have asked for the file," he said.
"I didn't."
Bea felt betrayed all over again.
"So when you stood beside me onstage, you weren't telling the whole truth."
"No," he said.
He told her he had come forward only after discovering that the false rejection form bore a signature that resembled an employee's handwriting.
He had recognized the employee from his old office.
"Who?" Bea asked.
Cruz hesitated.
"I believe it was my former assistant."
He took a breath.
"She worked under Victor Velasco's authorization, but she also worked for me."
Bea stared at him.
May you like
The hearing would begin in less than twelve hours.
