Chapter 3 - The Secret Behind Jasmine’s NameEleanor’s face changed the moment she saw Madison outside the study.
Maya felt as though the room itself had changed.
Ten minutes earlier, she had been defending her career.
Now Eleanor Whitmore’s voice was hanging in the air like smoke after an explosion.
President Hale reached for the phone.
“Play it again.”
General counsel Thomas Reed hesitated.
Then he tapped the screen.
The recording began.
A woman’s voice—Eleanor’s—spoke first.
“I don’t care what you have to do. Offer the committee fifty thousand each if necessary. I want that scholarship taken away from Jasmine Carter before Friday.”
A man answered.
“That could expose us.”
“Only if someone talks.”
“And Bennett?”
A pause.
“Get rid of her.”
The recording ended.
Chairman Robert Langley removed his glasses.
“Where did this come from?”
Thomas looked uncomfortable.
“It was emailed anonymously to my office seventeen minutes ago.”
“From whom?”
“No name.”
“Can you trace it?”
“Our IT department is trying.”
Maya stepped closer.
“Who is the man speaking?”
Thomas shook his head.
“I don’t recognize him.”
But Chairman Langley did.
Maya saw it immediately.
The slight tension around his mouth.
The way his hand stopped moving.
“You know that voice,” she said.
Langley looked at her.
“No.”
“You hesitated.”
“I did not.”
President Hale glanced between them.
“Robert?”
Langley stood.
“This is absurd. A digitally manipulated recording arrives from an anonymous email address, and suddenly we’re treating it like evidence?”
Thomas answered carefully.
“We haven’t authenticated it.”
“Exactly.”
“But until we do,” Maya said, “Jasmine’s scholarship should be restored.”
Langley turned sharply.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because this investigation is now more serious.”
Maya almost laughed.
“The recording supports what I told you happened.”
“It also raises the possibility of a deliberate attempt to discredit one of our donors.”
“So Jasmine gets punished while Eleanor Whitmore receives protection?”
“That isn’t what I said.”
“It’s exactly what you’re doing.”
President Hale held up both hands.
“Enough.”
He looked exhausted.
“We will authenticate the recording. Until then, nobody speaks publicly. Nobody contacts the press. Nobody contacts Mrs. Whitmore.”
Maya stared at him.
“And Jasmine?”
Hale hesitated.
That hesitation answered everything.
Maya picked up her bag.
“I’ll contact her.”
“You were specifically told—”
“I was told not to contact Eleanor. Jasmine is a student whose life you just threw into chaos.”
Hale’s expression softened.
“Maya…”
“She deserves to know someone in this building still remembers she’s a human being.”
Maya left.
Across campus, Jasmine Carter was standing behind a stainless-steel cafeteria counter when her phone buzzed.
She waited until the lunch rush slowed before checking it.
The message came from Student Financial Services.
Your scholarship award has been temporarily placed under administrative review. Please contact our office for further information.
Jasmine read it twice.
Then a third time.
Her hands began trembling.
“No,” she whispered.
Her supervisor, Dolores, noticed.
“Jasmine?”
Jasmine looked up.
“What does administrative review mean?”
Dolores frowned.
“Why?”
Jasmine turned the phone around.
Dolores read the message.
Her face fell.
“Oh, honey.”
Jasmine immediately opened her banking app.
She had $412.
Tuition payment was due in eleven days.
Without the scholarship, she owed more than $24,000 for the semester.
Impossible.
Her father had already used nearly all his savings for physical therapy after his accident.
Jasmine stepped into the storage room and called Financial Services.
After twelve minutes on hold, a woman answered.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Carter. We can’t discuss details while the review is active.”
“When will it be finished?”
“I don’t have that information.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No disciplinary issue appears on your account.”
“Then why is my scholarship frozen?”
“I’m not authorized to answer that.”
Jasmine closed her eyes.
“If I don’t have this scholarship, I can’t stay here.”
Silence.
Then the employee lowered her voice.
“I’m sorry.”
That somehow made it worse.
Jasmine ended the call.
She sat on an overturned crate between boxes of napkins and canned tomatoes.
For the first time since receiving the scholarship, she allowed herself to cry.
She had not told her father the full truth about how close they had come to losing their apartment.
She had not told him she had skipped meals during her final year of high school to save money.
She had not told anyone how many nights she had studied while sitting beside his hospital bed.
The scholarship had felt like the first door that opened because she had earned it.
Now someone she had never met might close it because they had more money.
Her phone rang again.
Unknown number.
Jasmine wiped her face.
“Hello?”
“Jasmine? This is Dr. Bennett.”
Jasmine straightened.
“Dr. Bennett.”
“I heard what happened.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
“No, Jasmine. You did absolutely nothing wrong.”
“Then why—”
“There are things happening behind the scenes that I’m not legally permitted to explain yet.”
Jasmine’s voice cracked.
“Am I losing the scholarship?”
Maya looked across campus toward the enormous Whitmore Lecture Hall.
“Not if I can stop it.”
That evening, Madison Whitmore returned home to her grandmother’s estate.
She had spent the day avoiding social media.
She knew Jasmine had won the scholarship.
She also knew Eleanor had taken the news badly.
What Madison did not know was how far her grandmother had gone.
She found Eleanor in the library drinking wine.
“You went to the university.”
Eleanor did not look up.
“Who told you?”
“Dad.”
Eleanor sighed.
“Your father talks too much.”
“Grandma, I told you not to interfere.”
“And I told you not to be naive.”
“I didn’t win.”
“You deserved to.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Eleanor finally looked at her.
“I did not raise you to accept second place.”
Madison shook her head.
“You didn’t raise me.”
Eleanor’s eyes narrowed.
“My parents did.”
“Your parents gave you everything except ambition.”
Madison felt anger rise.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
“Did you threaten Dr. Bennett?”
Eleanor stood.
“I protected this family.”
“From what? A girl winning a scholarship?”
Eleanor’s face hardened.
“You think this is about the money?”
Madison stared at her.
“What else would it be about?”
For the first time, Eleanor looked almost afraid.
Then she looked away.
“Go upstairs.”
Madison did not move.
“Grandma.”
“I said go upstairs.”
Madison left.
But she did not go to her bedroom.
She waited in the hallway.
Thirty minutes later, Eleanor entered her private study and closed the door.
Madison approached quietly.
Through the wood, she heard Eleanor speaking on the phone.
“They have the recording.”
Madison froze.
A man answered, his voice muffled.
Eleanor whispered fiercely.
“I don’t know who leaked it.”
Another pause.
Then:
“No. The girl cannot find out why I wanted her disqualified.”
Madison’s heart began pounding.
Why?
She moved closer.
Eleanor continued.
“If Jasmine Carter learns the truth about her mother, the scholarship will be the least of our problems.”
Madison covered her mouth.
Then the floorboard beneath her foot creaked.
Inside the study, Eleanor stopped speaking.
May you like
The door suddenly opened.
And grandmother and granddaughter stared at each other.
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