Chapter 24

I was still exhausted the next morning after our long hours in the studio the day before, but I made sure to be on the UNC campus well before the time for my meeting.

I made my way to the administration building. They must have been alerted to me coming because I was in line behind some students when the receptionist waved me over.

“Charlie Nelson? They’ve actually moved the meeting to Spangler Hall. It’s just across the quad, big brick building, you can’t miss it.”

“Uhh, thanks,” I said.

She wasn’t wrong, the building was easy to find, although I had to wonder why the meeting had been moved. I didn’t know a lot about UNC, but this was a much nicer, older style building than the newer but smaller administration building. For some reason, that made it feel like something had changed since the meeting was set up.

I wasn’t wrong. Instead of the head of admissions office, with just Dr. Kincaid and the dean of students, I was directed to a conference room where three people, two women and a man, sat.

“Charlie, welcome,” a woman said, standing up to greet me. “I’m Dr. Kincaid, head of admissions. This is Dr. Knowles, our dean of students.”

She gestured to a man with graying hair and glasses, who nodded at me.

“And this,” Dr. Kincaid continued, indicating the other woman, “is Dr. Jameson, president of the UNC system.”

I couldn’t help but be surprised. I’d imagine that the president of a university was a busy person with a full schedule. I might have started picking up some notoriety, but I hadn’t imagined that a cryptic request for a meeting would warrant bringing her into it.

“It’s an honor to meet you all,” I said, shaking each of their hands before taking a seat.

“Well, Charlie, we’re very excited about the possibility of you attending UNC,” Dr. Kincaid said, smiling warmly. “And congratulations on signing with ARC Records. We heard you have a release coming up soon?”

“Yeah. Actually, I was just in Raleigh recording an EP that’ll hopefully come out next week.”

“That’s fantastic,” Dr. Jameson said. “You know, we have a great music program here at UNC. Some of the best facilities in the country.”

While I thought that was a bit of a stretch, I imagined the president of a university had to be their biggest cheerleader, so I wasn’t going to argue with her.

Dr. Knowles chimed in. “The opportunities for someone with your talent would be incredible.”

“I appreciate that,” I said. “But I should apologize. I wasn’t completely truthful about the subject of this meeting.”

The three exchanged worried glances.

“To be clear, I am interested in attending UNC, but only under specific circumstances relating to a situation involving one of your faculty members.”

“I see. And what situation might that be?” Dr. Kincaid asked.

“My best friend Hanna Phillips is ... or rather was, a student here. Throughout most of last year she was in a relationship with Horace Cross, a professor in the business school. Her professor, in fact.”

Dr. Knowles’s face tightened in a way that suggested he knew what I was talking about, but Dr. Jameson seemed caught completely off guard.

“A professor is in a relationship with one of his students?” Jameson asked, looking at Knowles and, I think, seeing the look I caught.

“Yes,” I said. “Hanna started dating Cross partway through last year when she was nineteen. She idolized him and was very influenced when he selected her for a class she normally wouldn’t have qualified for. One that he was teaching personally. It’s not just Hanna, however. He seems to have a pattern of seducing students, then discarding them when he finds a new conquest.”

“That’s a very serious accusation, Mr. Nelson,” Jameson said.

I noticed I’d suddenly become Mr. Nelson instead of Charlie.

“I want to say I’m not here to cause UNC problems, and I know these are serious accusations. But it’s only the truth, and with how long this has been going on, I can’t imagine it will be difficult to find proof. He is, in fact, dating a student right now named Tiffany, whom he discarded Hanna for. If that was all it was, I wouldn’t say anything, because as wrong as it is with their power discrepancy, I could chalk it up to my friend making bad choices. But that’s not all it was. Cross publicly claimed that Hanna was delusional and a stalker and she was expelled because of these allegations with a letter from your office, Dr. Knowles, just a day after they were made, which makes it unlikely that any kind of investigation was done.

Dr. Jameson turned to Dr. Knowles with an expression I know I would not want to get in Knowles’s situation. “Alastair, please tell me you weren’t aware of these allegations.”