Chapter 6 - The Price of a Rumor
By breakfast, strangers were debating Bea's character as if they had known her since childhood.
Some called her brave.
Others accused her of exploiting Liam for sympathy.
A photograph of her rented building circulated with comments about her unpaid debts.
The debts were invented.
The photograph was real.
Bea unplugged her phone for an hour so she could feed her son without seeing another message.
Hannah arrived carrying bread and the contact information for a media lawyer.
Daniel warned them not to respond to every accusation.
"A false story can multiply faster than evidence," he said.
"We need the original video and a verified timeline."
They contacted a student journalist named Jonah Lim, who had filmed the ceremony for the campus newspaper.
Jonah had kept the complete recording.
It captured Carmina's remarks, the stunned expressions near the stairs, and Bea's trembling reply about her son.
He refused to publish Liam's face without Bea's permission.
The kindness surprised her.
"You can use my words," she said.
"Protect him."
Jonah posted a careful article with the original audio and asked the university to release its formal statement.
The response was immediate.
Many people apologized for sharing the edited clip.
Others doubled down.
Carmina gave an interview calling the confrontation a family matter and insisted that Elena had once accepted assistance from her family.
That evening Bea watched the interview twice.
Her mother had taught her never to confuse accepting help with owing obedience.
Still, one sentence bothered her.
Carmina said she had personally rescued Elena from losing her job.
Marisol denied the claim.
"Elena lost her job because she wouldn't change the accounts," she said.
Bea searched her mother's box again.
Under the false bottom she found an unsigned resignation letter and a small numbered key.
The letter described financial irregularities at a school construction project.
The key was stamped 214.
Hannah recognized the logo on its plastic tag.
It belonged to an old locker facility behind the university library.
The business had closed years earlier, but its storage units had been purchased by the campus archives.
Bea asked whether they could look there.
Daniel checked the university's access rules.
"We can request it," he said.
"And this time we bring a witness."
Before they could leave, a campus security officer called Hannah.
Someone had filed a complaint claiming Bea stole confidential university records.
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The officer wanted to question her in the morning.
