I raised my hand and calmly said, "That's me."

Mom and Dad's faces paled at the arrival of the staff members from the Department of Education.

The situation was escalating. They just wanted to quietly get rid of me while I was still in school and didn't expect the authorities to get involved—and that too, at the provincial level.

Meanwhile, Richard felt as if his legs had turned to jelly. Sweat drenched the back of his shirt. He convinced himself that things would be fine since my results were usually abysmal, so even if my request to examine the papers was approved, my score would be low or even zero.

As long as he insisted that I had cheated during the exam, things would still work out in his favor.

Richard pointed at me and shouted, "That's her, Mr. Peters! Not only did she cheat during the exam, but she also disrupted school order! I have proof that she hid her cheating materials in her desk!"

Ashton glanced at him and said coldly, "We will verify the evidence later, but for now, we'll have to retrieve a scanned copy of the exam papers. To ensure fairness, we'll be working with the Provincial Department of Education to project the exam papers on the spot for everyone."

A massive screen was lowered in the multimedia classroom.

The teachers and students were ushered to the square to watch the live stream that had millions of people tuning in. Everyone was waiting with bated breath to ridicule me for stooping so low as to cheat on an exam despite being from an elite family.

Layla swallowed nervously as she leaned into Mom's embrace.

"We will retrieve Ms. Layla Sanders' exam paper first," Ashton announced.

The screen lit up, showing Layla's exam paper. Her work was neat and tidy, and the paper was free of smudges. Although there were some mistakes, it was undeniable that she would score highly for her work.

"Wow! No wonder she's an ace!"

"Her handwriting is so pretty!"

"She'll probably score more than 1,360 points, huh?"

Layla breathed a sigh of relief. A reserved smile stretched across her lips as she basked in the compliments.

"See? This is the work of someone who's truly capable," Richard said smugly. "There's no way that a bad student like Talia can produce this kind of work unless she copied someone!"

Mom straightened her back before she pointed at me and berated me, "How dare you try to tear Layla down when she's such an excellent student? Do you have no conscience?"

My face remained impassive as I said, "Don't pass judgment on me just yet. We haven't even reached the climax of the show yet."

"We'll be retrieving Ms. Talia Sanders' exam paper now," Ashton said.

The screen flickered as one of the staff members typed away on the keyboard. A few seconds later, my reading exam paper was displayed on the screen.

Dead silence descended upon the room.

Five seconds passed before someone let out an explosive curse.

The paper was blank except for my name and ID number that were written neatly at the top.

I had only written a single sentence, "Talia Sanders was here."