The Billionaire's True Heiress From Fake Jewel to Real Crown novel Chapter 992

"Go on back, then. We'll wait to hear from you."

Gavin felt a surge of gratitude.

"Just wait for my text!"

Once Gavin left, the older girl said her goodbyes to Lex and headed to the campus dining hall for dinner.

Claire had her class dinner to attend, so she excused herself as well.

However, a lively debate kicked off in their group chat. The girls all agreed it was highly likely one of Gavin's roommates was the culprit.

"Gavin probably knows who did it and just wants to save his roommate's pride," someone texted.

"If he doesn't give Lex a straight answer tonight, we'll just go after him again."

"I recorded the whole conversation just now,"

Claire messaged, dropping a pleasant surprise on the group.

"Good job, Claire!" Skye praised her.

Zara sent a thumbs-up emoji in the chat.

Claire hurried over to the class dinner. By the time she arrived, the rest of the group was already there.

Because she was running late, Ethan Monroe actually stepped out to meet her.

"What took you so long?"

It was a large gathering, with three round tables set up in a private dining room—just enough space for the entire class.

They had split the bill, coming out to about twenty dollars per person.

It wasn't exactly cheap for a student budget.

But it wasn't overly extravagant, either.

Claire had already paid her share. Honestly, if Ethan hadn't stressed in the group chat that attendance was mandatory, she wouldn't have bothered showing up.

"My roommate had an issue I needed to help with. It held me up,"

Claire replied, keeping the details vague.

"You're late. The others are probably going to give you a hard time about it,"

Ethan warned her.

In truth, Claire had been the only one missing, and people were already gossiping.

A few had whispered that since she was the top student, she probably looked down on the rest of them.

"I checked the invite. The dinner was scheduled for seven. Technically, I'm not even late."

Taking into account that some students lived off-campus, the absolute latest arrival time had been set for seven.

It just happened that everyone else had arrived by six-thirty.

And Claire was walking in at six-forty.

She was only a few minutes behind the rest.

If they really wanted to make a big deal out of it, she was more than ready to defend herself.

"Sorry, my mistake," Ethan conceded.

He had let the group's impatient energy get to his head.

Claire hadn't been late at all. The others were simply excited for their first class dinner and had shown up early.

"Right."

When Claire and Ethan stepped into the private dining room together, the loud, boisterous chatter instantly died down.

Taking in the sudden awkward silence, Claire couldn't help but joke, "Did I interrupt something? Should I leave?"

Priscilla Hastings quickly broke the tension, waving at her. "Claire! Over here! We saved you a seat!"