The housing meeting was held in a conference room that smelled like stale coffee and dry-erase markers.

Ethan sat at one end of the table with Naomi on his left and Lucas beside him. Miles sat across from them, his backpack on his lap. Derek arrived five minutes late with his hands in his pockets and the relaxed expression of someone certain a room would eventually belong to him.

It did not.

Naomi began by explaining that the meeting was not a disciplinary hearing. It was an evidence-gathering session. Everyone would be allowed to make a statement. Everyone would be expected to be truthful.

Derek leaned back in his chair. "Great."

Ethan had spent half the night rehearsing what he would say. None of the sentences sounded right in his head.

Then he remembered his mother's voice.

Don't let pride make you handle everything alone.

He unfolded the blue envelope from his wallet and laid it on the table.

"The money was mine," he said. "It was two hundred and eighty dollars. I earned part of it from tutoring and library shifts. The rest was emergency money my mother gave me when I went home last month."

Naomi nodded. "Do you have documentation of the work income?"

Ethan slid forward printed pay stubs from the library and screenshots of tutoring payments. He had spent the morning collecting them.

"The cash was for rent and groceries. I didn't want to put it in my account because I was afraid of overdraft fees."

Derek made a small sound of disbelief.

"You expect us to believe that?"

Ethan looked directly at him. "I expect you to stop talking about my money like you know me."

For once, Derek had no quick answer.

Naomi turned to Lucas. "There is also an allegation that you gave Ethan money or expensive gifts in exchange for an undisclosed relationship."

Lucas's face went red, but his voice did not shake.

"I sent Marigold gifts before I knew he was Ethan," he said. "A headset. A game pass. Coffee gift cards. They were voluntary. There was never any agreement, never any request for sex, money, or anything else."

Derek smiled. "You sent gifts to a stranger who called you sweetheart."

"Yes," Lucas said. "Because I cared about him."

The room went quiet.

Lucas looked at Ethan, then back to Naomi.

"That does not mean he owed me anything. He did not."

Ethan's chest tightened so suddenly that he had to look down at the table.

"And after I learned Marigold was Ethan," Lucas continued, "I made assumptions about his finances that were wrong and cruel. I apologized. But I did not take his wallet, and Ethan did not manipulate me."

Naomi made a note.

Derek's smile had disappeared.

"So you admit you were basically dating online," he said. "You were sending money."

"I admit nothing except what I said," Lucas replied. "And I am done letting you turn kindness into something dirty."

Miles spoke before Derek could answer.

"I saw Derek leave the room the morning the wallet disappeared."

Derek turned toward him. "You said you didn't see anything."

"I said I didn't see him take it." Miles's hands shook around the straps of his backpack. "But I saw him. He told me he was getting his charger, except the charger was already downstairs. And he had something in his hoodie pocket."

"Could have been my phone."

"You had your phone in your hand."

Naomi looked at Derek. "Do you have a response?"

"This is insane. He is making things up because he likes those two."

Miles flushed but did not retreat. "I don't. I just don't want to keep pretending I didn't notice things."

Naomi opened a folder.

"Housing security provided card-access records. Ethan was at work during the period in question. Lucas was in the architecture studio. Miles was in the dining hall. Derek's card was used to enter the room at 9:14 a.m. and left at 9:22 a.m."

Derek went very still.

"I told you. I forgot my charger."

"Your charger was later found in the common room," Naomi said.

"Someone moved it."

"Perhaps. We will determine that."

Naomi turned another page.

"There is also corridor footage. It shows Derek leaving the room at 9:22 with his hoodie pocket noticeably full. At 10:03, he returns alone and remains inside for nearly four minutes. No one else enters before the wallet is discovered."

Derek's chair scraped backward.

"You're acting like that proves something."

"It establishes the timeline," Naomi said.

"It proves he had the chance," Ethan said.

Derek laughed sharply. "And what about his phone calls? What about the rich boyfriend? Everybody on the floor knows Vale buys him things. Maybe Ethan hid the wallet himself so Lucas would feel guilty enough to keep paying."

The accusation struck the air like smoke.

Ethan's face burned.

But Lucas reached for his hand beneath the table.

Not a grip. A question.

Ethan turned his palm upward and let their fingers touch.

"He did not," Lucas said.

"You don't know that."

"I know him."

Derek's mouth twisted. "Since when?"

Lucas looked at Ethan once, then spoke with a steadiness that made the answer feel undeniable.

"Since before I knew his name."

Naomi held up a hand before Derek could respond.

"Derek, you submitted the anonymous report. Correct?"

His eyes flickered.

"I was concerned."

"The wording came from a campus IP address assigned to your laptop."

For the first time, Derek looked frightened.

"I didn't write that."

"We will be examining the device as part of the investigation."

"You can't just take my laptop."

"The university can request a review of relevant information when a resident makes allegations of theft, harassment, or coercion. You may refuse. But refusal will be considered along with the other evidence."

Derek stood.

"This is because he has money," he said, pointing at Lucas. "You all want to protect him."

Lucas's expression went cold. "No. This is because you keep blaming people who have less power than you think you do."

Derek looked as if he wanted to lunge across the table.

He did not.

Instead, he pulled the cracked black phone from his pocket and dropped it onto the table.

"Fine. Search whatever you want. This isn't mine anyway."

Ethan recognized it at once.

It was a loaner phone from the residence-life desk, the kind students used when their own phones were being repaired. Naomi stared at it.

"Where did you get that?"

"Found it."

"It was reported missing two weeks ago," she said.

Derek's face drained of color.

Naomi picked up the phone carefully. Its screen lit at her touch.

There was no password.

On the home screen sat a folder labeled

ROOM 318

.

Nobody spoke.

Naomi opened it.

Inside were screenshots of a fake message thread between Ethan and Lucas. In the altered conversation, Ethan asked Lucas for cash, promised to “make it worth it,” and referred to the wallet as “the plan.”

There were also photographs of Ethan's wallet on Derek's desk. A time-stamped picture of the blue envelope. A blurry image of Lucas's bedframe, taken from floor level.

And one voice memo.

Naomi pressed play.

Derek's own voice filled the conference room.

"If Cole thinks Vale doesn't trust him, he'll run. If Vale thinks Cole is using him, he'll turn cold. Nobody looks at the guy who puts the wallet under the bed."

The recording ended.

Derek did not move.

Ethan could hear his own heartbeat.

Lucas's fingers tightened around his beneath the table.

Naomi closed the folder and looked at Derek with an expression that had become very calm.

"Derek Morrow," she said, "you need to remain here while I contact campus security."

Derek's gaze went to Ethan.

For the first time, there was no smugness in it.

Only the knowledge that he had finally been seen.