My Great Escape Led Me to You (Emily Blair) novel Chapter 403

Maxwell Perez frowned, shooting a sharp look at Emily Blair’s crossed legs. “Sit up straight, Emily. That posture’s hardly appropriate for a conversation.”

“Alright,” Emily replied with a shrug.

She uncrossed her legs, but her clunky Crocs and the white bandage wrapped around her left ankle still drew attention.

Maxwell’s gaze lingered on her foot, brows knitting tighter. “Meant to ask earlier—what happened to your ankle?”

Emily answered casually, “Oh, nothing much. Broke it a while back and it’s still healing.”

After she’d arrived in the city, she’d gone to a hospital for a check-up. The doctor said she was recovering well, so they took off the cast and replaced it with a bandage. Because of the injury, she’d been wearing slippers everywhere lately.

Maxwell nodded, satisfied, and let the subject drop.

He then placed a stack of test papers on the desk in front of her. “Take a look at these.”

Emily picked up the answer sheets, flipping through them quickly.

Language Arts: 139. Math: she’d missed one multiple-choice question and made a small calculation error on a written problem, losing two points—143 in total. English: 134. Science: she still wasn’t completely confident, but managed a 278.

All told, her score added up to 694.

Not bad, but Emily felt a twinge of disappointment with her math result.

Math was supposed to be her strongest subject—she always aimed for a perfect score. What stung wasn’t missing the hardest problem, but making a silly mistake on one of the easy early questions.

It was obvious from the lineup of teachers that something was on their minds.

Maxwell glanced at the stern-looking man beside him, who wore a faded gray shirt and thick, yellowing glasses.

The man stepped forward, picking up her math test. “The principal already filled us in about you before you arrived, so I’ll just get straight to the point.”

“Other than you, the highest math score in our school was in the one-twenties. The previous top student here was actually second in the citywide entrance exam. That should give you an idea of how bright he is—and even he couldn’t get close to your score.”

Emily could guess where this was going, but she stayed silent.

“And,” the teacher continued, “it’s not just our students. This mock exam was a joint test with several high schools from neighboring cities. Over the past few days, we’ve seen the results from other top schools as well.”