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“Professor Dubois is not the only one in love.” The first girl leaned forward, waving her hand in the air eagerly. “She watches him too. It’s almost cute—a forbidden romance between professor and student. It’s been a few days since she’s been last seen with Finn Abernathy. She obviously made her choice.”

At this point I was choking. They couldn’t mean—

“What was her name?” the eager girl continued, crossing her arms on the table. “It was Bianca, right? I bet they’ve already gotten married in secret. You can watch them and feel their chemistry. It’s electrical. The sex must be phenomenal.”

Chemistry?

I felt like passing out. The blood left my head as this ridiculous conversation echoed through my mind. I stared at the girls, stunned, and was thankful they hadn’t noticed me yet.

Thiswas the rumor going around campus?

Were people really that idiotic? The only thingelectricalabout the way they watched each other was the visible animosity. Bianca was clearly plotting to murder him while Bryce was just… being Bryce.

Before I knew what was happening, I was standing beside the girls’ table.

Their gossip silenced and they stared at me in alarm. I could have probably done this without scaring them, but there was no time for niceties. I was onto something now.

Their stupidity was giving me an idea.

“Pardon me.” I tried to sound as friendly as possible, considering. “I couldn’t help but overhear, but what you’re saying… Are you saying there’s a rumor about Bryce Dubois and Bianca Brosnan?”

The girl who had originally made the announcement was watching me in slight terror. “Mr. Montrone! I didn’t mean to offend you. We know gossip is against the rules, we’ll never do it again—”

“I’m not upset.” I waved my hand, stopping the gaggle of apologizes before they began. “Just tell me, what else is the rumor saying?”

The third girl, a short-haired redhead who hadn’t spoken up before now, responded. “I’m Mary Graham, and I’m actually in the Biology 101 class. I’ve seen it firsthand. I’ve also seen Bianca around—though no one knew her name until recently. She keeps to herself, you see…”

“And?” I pressed.

“Well.” She seemed hesitant, but at my urging look, continued. “She’s been spotted around campus with you and Professor Abernathy. It made people curious about her. Plus, she knows Finn Abernathy. Then there’s the fact that Jiayi Chou is her roommate, and she’s weirdly protective over her. We’d been wondering how she knew all of you, since you’re all… you. Then she and Professor Dubois began to make their affection more obvious. They spend forever staring at each other in the middle of class. Rumors started, especially when they were seen together outside of class. We know it’s against the rules for a professor to date a student. But that doesn’t stop it from happening.”

I wasn’t certain what my face looked like, but a strange sound echoed in my ears. Despite my horror, the plan continued to form in my mind. It was a terrible plan, but at the same time, it might work.

The problems this could solve…

“There’s also…” Mary wavered as she glanced at the others. “The rumors state if she’s with him, it makes sense that she knows your circle. She can’t be withyou,” she said boldly. “You’re not like that. And she can’t with Professor Abernathy. She’s been seen with him too many times.”

I was desperately fighting the urge to hold my face.

“So,” I ventured, needing to make sure that I had this perfectly straight, “people are saying that Bianca and Bryce are together? What’s this part about a fight?”

“Finn got jealous.” The original girl who caught my attention spoke up. “He tried to jump Bryce when he found out, but Bryce won.”

First of all, Finn would never lose to Bryce. Why people thought this was astounding.

How in the world did people come up with this crap? Did everyone have nothing better to do than to gossip and make up stories about our lives?

But… this was helpful.

I hadn’t considered this option, but it might work. After all, when it came to medical decisions, a spouse’s rights would override a parent’s claim. Ideally, Bianca would be established as able to make her own decisions, but that would take a while. We needed to get her out of there first and deal with the legal matters later.

Bianca was going to kill me.

Or maybe she wouldn’t. Last time I saw, she didn’t seem to hate him nearly as much. Besides, if my theory was correct, it wasn’t like this would be legally binding anyway.

But nobody had to know that part yet.

“Um…” Mary’s voice broke through my thoughts, and my focus snapped back to the present. The three girls watched me warily, and I realized that I’d been glaring this entire time.