Page 163 of Forever Relentless

“You’re not the parent,” the dean said coolly. “While I appreciate your concern for your brother, he’s only seventeen and still a minor. This is for his parents to fix.”

I held his stare. “That won’t work for me. My dad will tell him it’s not a big deal, and my mom will probably try to talk him into coming home and moving to a school nearer them.”

“And is either of those options so bad?” The dean was calm and casual. “College far from home isn’t always a good thing for some people. Parental supervision is sometimes needed over and above the legal age of adulthood.”

We both pretended we didn’t hear Dante’s snort.

The dean was no help to me. I still didn’t know why Dante brought me here.

“Okay.” I sat back in my seat.

“What’s worse?” Dante asked. “The suspension or the mark against him?”

The dean shrugged. “The record, of course. If he goes on to do a master’s or anything else, it will be there.”

Dante nodded. “Then we would appreciate it if you told us how to ask for that to be lifted. What buzzwords do we need to make sure we include in our talk with the school?”

“There are no buzzwords, Dante. It’s an administrative decision. Tate, from what I hear, told them what happened and said he read a tutorial,” he asked, and I nodded. “Noah is right. It looks intentional, even if it wasn’t. It looks like he planned to attack his attacker and cause harm.”

“So there’s nothing?” I asked, and I fought down the bubble of frustration. “I should have gone sooner,” I muttered as I looked out the window and fumed internally.

“Then that’s just plain assault,” the dean said, his tone cold. “They haven’t involved the authorities, or else your brother would be telling you he was being charged. I think from what you’ve said, they have looked at the case as a whole, considered the history, and perhaps this academic probation will be as severe as it gets.”

I hadn’t thought of that.

“I didn’t think of the police,” I murmured.

“We handle so much on campus,” the dean said with a placid smile. “I think students forget they’re not always in a bubble of safety.”

“So there’s nothing to do?” Dante asked, and the way he said it made me look at him.

“What do you want from me, Dante? I am not the dean of Tate’s school.”

“But you could call him. Them. No?”

“And say what? A student of yours I’ve never met stood up to his bully, and now he’s getting a light punishment, and his brother isn’t happy?” The dean’s tone was slightly mocking.

“Sounds good to me.”

I stared at Dante with wide eyes. “Dante,” I murmured.

“The world doesn’t work like that, Spence. I’m sorry, Noah, there’s nothing I can do for you. I think you just need to accept that your brother got off lightly, given the severity of his actions. A broken arm is quite serious.”

I nodded and pushed myself to my feet. “Sir.”

Dante was still in his chair; his gaze locked on the dean. “Could you call?” He didn’t blink. “Is it something that deans do?”

Dean Cole gave him a hard stare. “I’m not in the practice of meddling in how other institutions run their operations.”

“But could you call them?”

“No.”

“Dean Cole, thank you for your time,” I said, speaking over whatever Dante was going to say. “I never looked at the bigger picture, you’re right, they could have done worse. Thank you for your time.” I tapped Dante’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Dante sat for a moment longer and then pushed off the chair. “Thank you for your time.”

We saw ourselves out, and when we were outside, I rounded on my friend. “What the fuck was that?”