Chapter 129
After David left, Hadley let out a sigh of relief.
He said, "Professor Wilcourt, please rest assured. I’ll report everything truthfully to the school leadership and make sure you get a satisfactory answer. I’m sorry you had to go through all this today."
"It’s really nothing." Delilah waved her hand. "I’m always ready to cooperate with any investigation the school wants to conduct. I’ve got a clear conscience, after all."
She added, "But my new student, Josie, has suffered a lot. I hope you’ll take this matter seriously and not just brush it off, or you’ll break the hearts of students who are here to learn."
Hadley nodded repeatedly. "Absolutely. We’ll make sure Josie has the best learning environment and graduates without any trouble. We won’t let anyone hold her back again."
This was already the best result Josie could hope for. At least now, if she ever clashed with David’s people again, the school staff wouldn’t just blindly take David’s side.
Delilah gently pulled Josie along as she prepared to leave. She said, "I won’t be participating in the evaluation. I’ll take my student and go now. I’m leaving the rest to you. I trust you’ll handle it with fairness and integrity."
"Wait!" Edwin called out, hurrying after them. He said, "Josie, would you mind sharing your experimental data with me? Of course, I won’t just use it without giving you anything in return. If I use your data in any of my future academic reports, I’ll be sure to credit you. What do you think?"
Josie blinked, taking a moment to process what he meant. Back then, she had let Aiden and the others use her data for free, and they never once mentioned where it came from in their published papers. That meant no matter how successful their papers were, it had absolutely nothing to do with her. No one ever saw the countless hours she spent on those experiments or the painstakingly recorded data.
But now, things were different. Edwin was asking to borrow her data and was even willing to give her credit. No matter what the future held, at least right now, she finally felt what it was like to be respected.
Josie glanced at Delilah.
"This is yours, so you make the call. No matter what you decide, I’ve got your back," Delilah said, patting Josie’s head like a caring elder.
"Professor Apple, if you trust my data, then go ahead and use it," Josie said before bundling up her files and sending them to him.
Earl walked over. "Why not make it available to everyone? How about we add it to the school’s database so future students can learn from it?"
"Absolutely," Hadley chimed in, stepping forward. He added, "We’ll have some faculty review it and make sure you get paid for your work. We’ll also look at your papers and publish them in the school journal as appropriate."
Delilah was clearly annoyed. She scoffed, "Now everyone wants to act like a good guy? I bet you all have your eyes on my student’s research papers. Let alone the school journal. If Josie wants, her work could easily make it into the top medical journals."
"No way," Josie flushed, shaking her head. She said, "Professor, you really think too highly of me. My old papers weren’t anything special. I’m already grateful just to have them published in the school journal."
Delilah pursed her lips. "Alright, since Josie’s fine with it, go ahead and use her work. But Mr. Rogers, don’t forget what you just promised. Don’t think you can just use it for free."
"Relax," Hadley replied with a laugh, "I wouldn’t dare take advantage of your student."
With that, Delilah and Josie left the chapel side by side while holding hands. As soon as they left, the place buzzed with gossip.
"What do you think set Professor Lawson off? Why would he suddenly go after Professor Wilcourt like that?" someone wondered aloud.
Another person said, "Come on, everyone knows the Reedshaw family is as upright as they come. Back when Leo was around, he absolutely couldn’t stand any faculty breaking the rules. There’s no way Professor Wilcourt would ever deliberately cross the line."
"Could it really be because of Josie? Is that why Professor Lawson suddenly acted so out of the blue?" someone else guessed.
"Who knows? If my student suddenly jumped ship to another professor and started making waves, I’d probably feel a bit salty too," another chimed in.
"She didn’t just up and leave. He dropped her. Why shouldn’t she be allowed to pick a new advisor?" someone pointed out.
"Professor Wilcourt really scored big this time. Why couldn’t I get that lucky?" another person sighed.
"You had your eye on her too?" someone asked.