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A group of youngsters had openly admitted that they’d been part of a sophisticated cheating ring since the eighth grade, and Claire was part of it. The ringleader of the group was a boy named Trevor. He was extremely smart and manipulative. The group had access to exams a week before they were taken, including the SAT. How it was possible, no one knew. These kids were smart cheaters.
They’d dropped a dime on Claire, explaining that she had cheated her way all through high school and managed to get herself into Harvard. She was the only one to get accepted to a prestigious school, which had been their goal.
The kids were of different races and backgrounds, but Claire was the only African-American among the nine. Seeing this, the other eight were consumed with envy. None of them could sit back and watch Claire have a good life with Harvard on her resume. They’d provided a thick folder with incriminating evidence not only to the folks at Harvard, but to the media too. Claire pleaded her innocence.
The university wanted to avoid a scandal or a lawsuit for wrongful expulsion, so they decided to give Claire a test. She failed miserably.
After their investigation was complete, Claire was expelled from Harvard, and it became the talk of the town. Claire’s fall from grace had made for a story to read in the newspapers, and somewhat became national news—an intricate group of cheaters who’d all lied their way through high school.
Claire was a smart girl. She’d started off as an A student in elementary and middle school, but in high school, she fell in with the wrong crowd of cheaters, and she’d gotten lazy and stopped studying because she already had the answers to tests and exams. She felt it was a win-win situation for her.
Claire had become a disgrace. She was ashamed to go home, but she had nowhere else to go. How could she look her family in the eye after being kicked out of a prestigious school like Harvard? How could she walk around Brooklyn without being laughed at and talked about?
Her family didn’t understand how an intelligent student like Claire could be part of such a cheating scandal. They believed that she was always studying, always learning. It certainly had to be a lie. Claire continued to deny the accusations against her, and Bacardi was ready to fight for her daughter. She even threatened Harvard with a lawsuit and slandered the school by calling them racists. She wasn’t going to take this lying down or stay quiet about it. She saw it as a payday for Claire and herself. The school had tarnished her daughter’s reputation, and she wanted some money for her pain and suffering, claiming that Claire was completely distraught by the incident.
Day after day, Bacardi called different lawyers to file a lawsuit against the school, but none of them would take it on. They all felt Claire had no case against the school. The evidence of her deceitfulness was stacked against her. Bacardi became furious, and she felt that they were all in cahoots against her family.
Claire wanted it all to go away, but the sto
ry of cheaters from high school and the one who’d swindled her way into Harvard continued to play on repeat until the next big story or scandal broke. Now she was back home, living with her family. All three sisters were once again under the same roof, and things were more strained than before.
It didn’t take long for the other project girls to talk that slick shit and taunt Claire about the cheating scandal. They called her a stuck-up bitch who thought she was better than everyone. She was a big-word-speaking fraud. Those were fighting words and, of course, Charlie went to battle for her sister and warned the bitches to keep her sister’s name out of their mouths.
Shockingly, Claire and Charlie’s biggest battle was with Chanel. Chanel had always had her doubts about Claire, and she suggested that the evidence against Claire pointed to it being true. The entire household erupted in anger and felt Chanel had betrayed their code.
“What code is that?” Chanel asked.
Bacardi replied, “We family! We stick together no matter what!”
“Since when?” That earned her a five-finger slap across her face from Bacardi.
Chapter Fifteen
Remember, no drinking,” the doctor reminded Butch before discharging him from the hospital.
Butch frowned. The doctor might as well have told him not to breathe. “Not even a damn beer?”
“This is a serious issue, Mr. Brown. I would assume that your life is more important than alcohol.”
“How can a man live?”
“Just take it one day at a time, and try to find yourself a constructive hobby,” the doctor said.
It was grim news for Butch. His hobby was drinking and having a good time. If he continued to drink, parts of his brain could shut down due to alcohol poisoning—and his long-term abuse of alcohol was manifesting as cirrhosis of the liver.
Bacardi and Charlie were there to take Butch home. His doctor had a brief conversation with the family, and he gave them the same warning. Butch ranted and cursed from the hospital room to the car, a friend’s Accord that Charlie had borrowed.
“I don’t fuckin’ need no fuckin’ doctor telling me what to do wit’ my fuckin’ life,” Butch cursed inside the car. “I’m a damn man, y’all hear me?”
“You need to listen to him, Butch. Do you wanna die?” Bacardi said.
“I’m not goin’ any-fuckin’-where!”
Bacardi and Charlie sighed. Butch was being stubborn.
“I need me a fuckin’ drink. You fuckin’ hear me?” he shouted.
“No!” Bacardi shouted back.
