Page 88 of Red River

Silence. Then Archer swiped forward, replaying the clip.

"Igor threw exactly one punch—a well-placed one that stopped his opponent. I don’t really see how anyone can blame him here."

A tense silence followed. Vernon and the counselor shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Finally, Vernon muttered, "I’d like to remind you that last Friday, Igor was the one who threw the first punch…"

"And he was punished for that, wasn’t he? He was punched too—one for one. Fair? May I also remind you that you were the one who said there was no need to drag it out. A quote: ‘We can just sweep that incident under the rug.’ So why not do the same here?"

Vernon pressed his lips together, avoiding Mr. Glenn’s gaze.

Archer didn’t back down. "Unless, of course, you’d like to bring that event back up—though, in that case, we should probably take a closer look at all the footage showing exactly how Igor was repeatedly bullied. A complete review. If you’re having trouble retrieving this footage, I’d be happy to help. I’m a system security specialist—I’ll make sure all the data is extracted from the… CCTV system."

An unexpected ally stepped in.

"I don’t think that’s necessary. This nonsense needs to end right here, right now," Philip's father’s firm voice carried through the room.

He turned to his son. "Is there something you’re not telling me? Any reason why you have an issue with Igor?"

Philip blinked in shock, clearly not expecting his father to ask this.

"It was just a joke, Fa!"

Mr. Glenn narrowed his eyes. "Then it ends now. I don’t want to be called down to the school again. I had to step out of a board meeting for this nonsense, and I’m not doing it again. Got it?"

Philip cleared his throat awkwardly. "Nothing big happened—"

"Not another word. Leave the boy alone. And seriously—flirting with an alpha? What’s that supposed to be? Aren’t there enough omegas?"

"I wasn’t flirting!" Philip almost screamed, panic in his eyes. "It was just a silly prank, Fa!"

"No more ‘pranks’. If I get called in again, there will be consequences. No money, no car for you."

Silence filled the room.

The principal cleared his throat. "On a formal note, this is the second fight—"

"I suggest we sweep this one under the rug too," Glenn said harshly, locking eyes with Vernon. "It’s only fair."

For a moment, they had a silent standoff.

"This meeting is over," the principal finally concluded in a clipped tone, crossing his arms and briefly glancing at the counselor, whose face was sour. Nelson surely didn’t look happy about how it had been handled…

Mr. Glenn stood up, grabbed his son’s arm, and walked out, with Josef hurrying after them.

I figured there was no point in dragging this out either, so I also leapt to my feet, giving Igor a small nod.

Together, we stepped into the hallway.

"Igor, I hope Milo will be safe. If those two get any ideas, they might figure out where the recordings came from." Archer fixed his eyes on my son.

Igor straightened up slightly. "Obviously, I’ll make sure of it."

Milo blushed slightly and shrugged. "I doubt those idiots can even put two and two together and realize I was the one who recorded it. A bunch of guys from class were filming."

Archer interjected, "I also have copies from the school’s cameras—just in case something ‘inconvenient’ happens to disappear."

"Where did you get that footage?" Igor asked, surprised.

"I’m a hacker, remember?" Archer grinned, and Igor burst out laughing.

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