Lydia, you said someone got reported for cheating. Who is it?” one of the judges asked.

“Everyone, look at the screen,” Lydia replied. Her eyes swept past Dr. David and Charlotte, full of confidence like she already knew the outcome.

Two minutes later, Charlotte and Dr. David appeared on the big screen.

“Wait… Charlotte knows Dr. David?”

The audience buzzed with whispers, remembering how the board had made a special exception just for Charlotte to join the competition, and how she had scored perfectly on all three written exams. The whole thing had seemed impossible from the start. A freshman, competing at this level and acing everything? It just didn’t add up. People had already started wondering if Charlotte had some serious connections within the International Medical Alliance. But nobody expected her backer to be the vice president himself.

The screen kept scrolling, showing photos of Charlotte and Dr. David together. The two of them looked close-way too close for comfort. It was hard not to let your imagination run wild.

So was this it? Had Dr. David leaked the questions to Charlotte, and that’s how she got those perfect scores?

If that was true, cheating meant automatic disqualification. The title would go

straight back to Letty. Suddenly, Letty’s fans looked like they’d been given a second life.

In the corner, Anthony sat back in his chair, tapping his fingers against the armrest. His expression was blank, but his dark eyes were icy cold. No wonder Charlotte hadn’t said anything about the car accident yet. She was waiting to handle everything at once.

“This is…” One of the judges trailed off. With the vice president involved, they were completely lost. They’d never seen anything like this. The rules were clear- contestants and judges couldn’t have any kind of personal relationship. If they did, it counted as cheating. And from the looks of those photos, Charlotte and Dr. David were definitely not strangers.

Dr. David stood up, his voice cold. “Are you saying I leaked the test questions to Charlotte?”

“I’m just bringing up what was reported, that’s all,” Lydia replied, her smile polite but sharp. “Charlotte’s just a freshman. It was already strange enough to let her join the competition. Then she gets a perfect score on one of the toughest exams ever… Don’t you think that’s odd?”

“Since there’s a report, we need you to explain. The contestants who got eliminated deserve a real answer.”

If people wanted to know why

Charlas even here, they’d have

to ask

He was the one who

kept bugging Dr. David to talk to the board.

“Fine. I’m making a call right now.”

Dr. David pointed at the judges, shaking his head in frustration. “You’re all clueless.”

The idea that Charlotte would cheat was ridiculous to him. Even if you put all these so-called experts- together, they couldn’t compete with Charlotte even with her injured hand.

that

But the fact that Dr. David wasn’t giving a real explanation only made everyone more suspicious. Peoplez started whispering, curious about what made Charlotte so special that she got an exception in the first

place.

Dr. David was about to call someone when a loud, angry voice echoed across the room.

“How did Charlotte get into the competition? I begged her to join!”

Everyone froze. That voice was impossible to mistake.

Lydia and the judges turned at the same time. An older man, well past fifty, stepped forward with a thunderous expression.

It was Lloyd—the president of the International Medical Alliance.

And he had just said he was the one who begged Charlotte to compete.