Immaculate Spirit - Chapter 239

Entering the Dean’s hall, Nathaniel was surprised to see that none of the two secretaries usually there were present at the moment. That’s when he started hearing people shouting in the Dean office. It was muffled by the wall but his sharp hearing could still make out a feminine voice being the loudest in the argument that was happening inside the Dean office. Starting to get an inkling of what was happening inside, Nathaniel abandoned his initial idea to just wait for the secretary to return and simply knock on the Dean’s door. It seemed the knocking stopped effectively the woman shooting and it took a second before he heard the Dean’s voice.

“Yes?”

Taking that as an invitation, Nathaniel pushed the door open and entered without being invited to, closing it behind him. Seeing him barged into the room, the Dean frowned in his direction while the couple in their mid forties looked at him with hostility. The thing weird was that Joshua was not here either.

“Nathaniel, please wait outside of my office, like you can see, I’m already in a meeting.” He said strictly but not in an overbearing tone.

“Sorry but no, I can’t do that Dean.” Nathaniel answered respectfully.

“Richard, are you not going to do something about this student and his bad attitude!?” The woman asked in outrage.

“Marta, please calm down.” The Dean asked with a hand raised in appeas.e.m.e.nt. “Nathaniel, I introduced you to Malcolm and Marta Reynard, they are the parents of Justin Reynard, the boy who assaulted you last night.” He explained.

“Thank you Dean but I already gathered that information from their hostile behavior all the way to the dimple of the father and their eyes colors. Can I ask you what’s going on here? Because, let me be completely honest, he doesn’t look good so far for anyone present.”

“What are you talking about Nathaniel?” The Dean sighed.

“Based on what I have heard, it seems to me that these two were trying to use their personal connection they have with you into pressuring you to expelled me.”

“Of course we are doing it, anyone with a brain can see in this video that you provoked our son into attacking you, you despicable shit.” The father shouted in outrage.

“They are even recognizing it in front of witnesses, It’s obvious they aren’t lawyers.” Nathaniel faked a realization, he already knew exactly who they were and what their job was.

“They are working in real estate, Nathaniel.”

“You should make them leave before they say something else that is going to bite them in the a.s.s during the trial.” Nathaniel advised the Dean.

“What’s going on here? Nobody talks about a trial yet and if anything, we should be the one who are suing you! Our son is still recovering from the surgery where you are already walking outside.” The mother exclaimed in outrage.

“Let me speak slowly so that you can understand what I’m about to say. Your son attacked me, punched me in the face two times before I managed to narrowly dodged a kick that he was sending in the direction of my groin area where I finally succeeded in defending myself. Since I was only defending myself, I’m protected from civil liability by the right to self defense inscribed in the constitution. The fact that your son got a more serious injury than me is irrelevant in that situation, even if with a good lawyer, you could argue to the court that his severe injury be treated as a learning experience and so, lessen the severity of the ruling.”

The couple look at Nathaniel before both turning to the Dean at the same time who nod imperceptibly in assent.

“About the trial.” Nathaniel continued, opening his bag to take a stack of paper from it. “I’m hereby suing your son for aggravated assault. Since your son is legally an a.d.u.l.t but not yet financially independent, it’s the responsibility of his parents, which mean you, to protect him.” Nathaniel said, finishing by giving them the files.

“Aggravated assault? Nathaniel, you are pushing it.” The Dean said with a frown.

“Do I? You watch the video so you should remember what he said just before attacking me. His exact words were ‘I’m going to break your jaw’ and then he punch me in the face multiple times.”

“But, he didn’t break your jaw, it’s you who broke his!” The mother shouted in anger.

“I know, Karma right?” Nathaniel said with a smile who seemed to anger them even more.

The Dean chooses to intervene before the situation starts to spiral out of control and explain to them.

“The fact that he wasn’t successful in his attempt is not the point. The fact that he did shout that before attacking Nathaniel meant that it was premeditated and his wish was to cause serious bodily harm to Nathaniel here. And before you said to me that Justin wasn’t serious and that it was only an expression. If it was only something that he shout without doing anything about it, we wouldn’t have that conversation right now but since he decide to act on it after that, I’m afraid this is going to be use against him in court.”

“Not mentioning the fact that Justin is a twenty one years old man and so an a.d.u.l.t in the eyes of the law and he attacked me, a seventeen yeard old minor, it’s considered an aggravating circ.u.mstance in this case.” Nathaniel add.

“That’s ridiculous! Richard, please say something.” The father shouted.

“You need to get a criminal attorney and a good one, I will send you names of some people I know. You are going to need it.” The Dean answered in a grave tone.

“What is going on?” The mother asked with anxiety.

“Assault is considered a misdemeanor offense, which means that people usually just have to pay a fine and rarely go into jail. Aggravated assault on the other end is considered a felony offense and it’s much more serious offense, the sentence usually involve more fine to pay and jail time is almost guaranteed. This could ruin Justin’s entire future.”

Hearing this, the couple turn as white as a piece of paper.

“I’m sorry but you need to leave, the both of you. You can’t be present in Nathaniel company without your lawyer’s and his lawyer presence. In the meantime, I’m going to advise you to go back home.” The Dean said.

The couple nodded and turned around, throwing a scathing stare in Nathaniel’s direction before exiting the office. Not at all put out by that, Nathaniel just approach the Dean’s desk and sit in one of the chairs in front of him.

“I can understand that you want payback for what happened last night, Nathaniel but I expected you to go a little easier on them. They are not responsible for their son’s actions.” The Dean spoke first.

“It depends on which way you decided to look at this event. You can choose to see that it was maybe inconscience or herd stupidity that fuel his bad behavior but I don’t think so. I watched him last night Dean, he liked what he was doing. He liked to be the center of attention and have that power over the other students, to be in charge. All that came from a sense of entitlement that can only be found after an extremely lax education and privileged upbringing which mean they are responsible. This is also why I asked for seven millions of dollars in damages.” Nathaniel explained.

“Holy f.u.c.k, seven millions….” The Dean swore. “They have money but they don’t have that kind of money either, you just want to ruin them, that’s cruel.”

“Yes, that’s what it seems and I’m counting on that to make it perfectly clear.” Nathaniel replied honestly.

“What do you mean?” The Dean asked, intrigued.

Nathaniel waited for a bit, thinking about something before choosing to speak.

“Allow me to answer that by asking a question of my own first. You have been a corporate lawyer for more than twenty five years for several huge firms, what did you hear about my family? I’m not talking about official things but rumors whisper on the side when nobody’s watching.” Nathaniel asked.

The Dean didn’t expect this question and for a moment he was torn between answering truthfully or being more prudent and lying about it. Seeing the way that Nathaniel was watching him, he chose to be honest.

“Your grandfather when he was ascending and going against the more established label, he had a rule. They could go against his company as much as they wanted but attacking his family directly was not allowed and in return he didn’t go after their own family as well. It was a sort of gentleman’s agreement that most people agreed to. Some people however choose to ignore that rule and rumors start to flow around, boogie man kind of stuff. People getting ruined, some disappearing, others taking their own lives after stabbing themselves four times in the back. That kind of story, why are you asking me about this?”

“To make you understand that if I don’t act and do something, my family will and they are not as nice as I am. This is why I’m not going to go through with my lawsuit. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m going to make them bleed and shit their pants to make them learn that action has consequences, that’s going to be a good learning experience for them and for him. But Justin will not go to jail and I will not ruin them. When the attention of people will drift away from the case, I will let it go.”

“Why are you telling me this? You know I know them, what’s stopping me to just tell them what you want to do?” The Dean asked, not understanding.

“Because if you do tell them and you can be sure that I will know if you do, I will go through with it and ruined their entire family. You have my word on that.” Nathaniel affirms, not leaving the Dean’s eyes until he turns his head to avoid Nathaniel’s stare.

“What do you want to do about the situation?” The Dean asked, trying to change the subject. “It’s only fair that I hear your side since Justin’s parents gave me their opinion as well.”

“About last night’s events you mean?” Nathaniel asked which the Dean nodded as an answer. “One hundred hours of community service for the pledges that were there, a thousand for the fraternity members present as well, Justin expelled and their fraternity chapter on probation for six month. I also want the fraternity chapter leader expelled.”

“Their leader expelled as well? I know that you take responsibility very seriously but he wasn’t there last night, I don’t see how it can be his fault.” The Dean answered doubtfully.

“A friend of mine came to me earlier, told me a very interesting story. Among the girls present in the women society that night, one of them came to talk about her boyfriend being violent and very controlling with her. Her boyfriend being the chapter leader. It’s entierely possible that Justin and his friend choose to come that exact night to sing a **** anthem in front of that building was just a huge coincidence. Or it’s not and the chapter leader sends them there himself to send a message to his girlfriend, telling her that wherever she is, he can get to her. All of it needs to be verified of course, I trust that you will investigate the matter carefully Dean.” Nathaniel said.

“You can bet that I will.” The Dean answered, gritting his teeth in anger even if the first time today, it didn’t seem to be directed in Nathaniel direction. “I will put Joshua on it once he finishes with Professor Miles matter, he’s still looking at the huge amount of data you send to him last night, even took my secretaries and enrolled some of our professors to help him speed up the process.”

“Good.” Nathaniel nodded in appreciation before taking three files from his bag and putting them on the Dean desk. “You have a good heart Richard, let’s hope you can keep it that way.” Nathaniel finished, nodding in his direction before walking away and exiting his office.

“It’s almost like I’m working for him at this point.” He murmured bitterly, shaking his head.