Chapter 4

Vanessa clearly hadn't expected me to call her out in front of the entire class.

After receiving curious looks from the surrounding students, she stood up and met my gaze.

After a brief moment of fluster, Vanessa quickly regained her composure.

She tilted her chin, acting unfazed.

"What evidence? All the students here are my witnesses. Don't think you can fool us by quoting the law.

"Bertha, the money is in your hands. You spend it however you want. Over the past two years, our class has won plenty of competition prizes, but I've never seen where that money went.

"You say you didn't steal, but who's going to believe that?"

Her tone became more and more certain as if she had personally witnessed me spending the class funds.

Other students, who didn't know the full story, were taken aback by what she said.

Soon, whispers filled the room.

"Don't you think Vanessa might be right? Our class has a lot of money. Who knows where it all went?"

"Yeah, the whereabouts of the money haven't been revealed in two years. I didn't really pay attention. I didn't expect Bertha, of all people, to steal class funds."

"It's not necessarily true, though. Vanessa is just speculating. No one knows if the money was actually spent like that."

If this were anyone else in this situation, they might be afraid of being misunderstood by their classmates.

But not me.

I scanned the room, making eye contact with every student below me.

Finally, my eyes landed on Vanessa.

"Vanessa, I said 'show me the evidence,' not tell me your opinions.

"You're not giving an award speech. You need to provide real evidence of my embezzlement. Understand?

"If you didn't hear me clearly, I don't mind repeating it again."

Vanessa's beautiful face cracked with frustration, and she nearly lost her composure.

She raised her voice instinctively.

"If you didn't steal the class funds, then where did you get the money to buy designer shoes and bags?"

"We're all students, so we can't possibly afford that with our living allowance."

Vanessa said this with a smug look on her face, completely oblivious to the awkward expressions of some of the students around her, who found her comment strange.

Though everyone's living allowances were about the same, not everyone had the same family background.

Vanessa couldn't blame the others for living off their parents just because she couldn't do the same.

As for me, I was waiting for exactly this moment.

I lowered my head, leaning toward the microphone.

"Vanessa, did you actually see me use the class funds to buy designer bags and shoes?"

Her question caught Vanessa off guard, but she refused to let go of the opportunity to put me down.

She responded confidently, "I didn't see it, but that money definitely wasn't yours."

At that moment, I almost burst out laughing at Vanessa's stupidity.

If it weren't for being on stage, I would've applauded her.

There was no evidence, just wild assumptions. When questioned, she had no idea about anything, but she reported me without hesitation.

Such a beautiful face, yet such a foolish mind.

I held back my laughter and quickly turned on the computer.

Then, I pulled a USB drive from my pocket and plugged it into the computer.

Soon, a bunch of folders appeared on the screen.

The students below gasped in surprise.

"What the hell? What am I seeing? There are hundreds of Excel files! Even a pro wouldn't produce this many!"

"Bertha always seemed quiet. Who could have imagined that she's secretly a workaholic?"

"Aren't you curious what's in there? I'm dying to know."

I bypassed the Excel files and opened a folder labeled "Video Files," which contained the footage from the part-time jobs I had done.

When I worked part-time, I was afraid the boss might exploit me and not pay, so I always filmed videos as proof.

"Today is September 8, 2023. I'm at Star Zoo cleaning up parrot poop. The parrot is small, but it poops a lot."

"Today is November 30, 2023. I'm at New Century Amusement Park as a mascot, preparing to hug any handsome guy I see."

"Today is December 16, 2023. I'm in Movie Town playing a side role. Just stuck on a fake beard, ready to harass tourists."

And so on.

After playing several videos, I opened up the screenshots of the payments I received for those jobs, including the name of the boss, hours worked, and other details.

I ignored the class' stunned silence and directly questioned Vanessa.

"You want to know where my money came from? Well, time to take a good look."