She looked at Zoe once, the same measuring look she had given her that first morning in the dorm doorway, and nodded, apparently satisfied with what she found. They went in together. The hearing was held in the Board of Trustees formal conference room on the fourth floor. A room Zoe had never been in, and that communicated its own authority through sheer size and deliberate furnishing. A long table of dark wood, high-backed chairs, framed portraits of former university presidents arranged along one wall in chronological order.
Each one looking out at the room with the particular confidence of men who had never expected to be questioned. Seven board members were present, seated along one side of the table. The university's legal counsel sat at the far end with a closed laptop and an expression that gave nothing away. Brody Walter was already there when Zoe and Latimore entered. He sat on the opposite side of the table with two attorneys in expensive suits arranged on either side of him like parentheses.
His father was not present. That absence felt deliberate. The kind of strategic distance that lawyers recommend. Brody was in a dark blazer, too. His hair neat, his posture controlled.
He looked older than 20 somehow. Or maybe he just looked like what he actually was. Someone who had spent his whole life in rooms where his family's name was a currency that spent easily. He looked at Zoe when she came in. She looked back.
Then she sat down and opened her notebook. Latimore presented first. She was unhurried and precise, moving through the evidence in the same logical sequence she had built it. The documented timeline of donations and complaint resolutions, the parallel columns that required no interpretation, the dates that spoke for themselves. She placed printed copies in front of each board member without theatrical emphasis, letting the documents carry their own weight.
She presented Takahashi's notarized statement as exhibit A, reading two paragraphs aloud in a clear, even voice. The ones that described the pattern of targeting, the constructed invitations, the culture of consequence-free intimidation. She presented the anonymous corroborating declaration from Selena Dalton's attorney as exhibit B, explaining its legal basis and verification without identifying the source. Brody's attorneys objected three times. The first objection challenged the relevance of the financial donation records to a student conduct matter.
Overruled. The board's legal counsel noted that patterns of institutional decision-making fell squarely within the board's oversight authority. The second objection challenged the admissibility of an anonymous declaration. Overruled. The declaration had been submitted through verified legal counsel and met the evidentiary standard for the proceeding.