That very night Josh couldn't wait until morning — the longer he let this drag on, the worse it would get.
He drove to University alone, heart hammering. Every second he stalled felt like another nail in the there family coffin. Linda had been right: Jason Carter could ruin them without lifting a finger. If Jason ever decided to press the matter, the Holts would have nowhere to hide.
Josh pulled up near the campus gate and walked straight to the spot by the right-hand entrance — the exact place where he'd once bundled Emma into his car. Hands shaking, he dropped to his knees with a thud.
That corner of campus was crowded with traffic and footfall; people came and went. Kneeling there was humiliating, exposed, loud. Josh didn't care. He needed to show contrition in public; the whole school had known about the incident with Jason and Emma, and if he wanted to prove he was truly sorry, he had to make it obvious. If anyone didn't know what he'd done before, they certainly would know now.
He had no illusions that Jason would forgive him on the spot. He had no idea what form a proper apology should take — even the Holt family offering to relinquish half their assets wouldn't necessarily be enough. One could buy goodwill with money, but some affronts required shame. He'd heard that someone handing over two hundred deposit contracts could be worth millions; he didn't have that kind of leverage. All he had was humiliation and, he hoped, sincerity.
People noticed him kneeling. A ripple of curiosity — then gossip — spread through groups streaming into class.
"Who's that kneeling by the gate?"
"Isn't that Josh? The rich kid from Information Management who dated Emma? I heard he's the son of the Holt construction family — but born to the third wife. Weird background."
"Don't they say he asked Emma to return thirty grand in 'gifts' after the breakup? He's not exactly a saint."
"So what's he kneeling for? Apologizing to Emma? To Jason? I heard he's apologizing to Jason Carter."
"Jason Carter? The same guy who flipped that waterfront tract? Word on the street is he bought a plot for $420 million and then the rezoning made it worth $1.8 billion. People are saying he must be connected to someone huge."
"Jason's got three luxury cars and a house that looks like it belongs in a magazine. Josh shouldn't have messed with him — some people are just a different class."
"Still — if Jason's close to Megan and Quinn and Holly Larson, maybe he doesn't care about Emma. But who knows? This is messy."
The campus chat blew up. Someone snapped a photo and posted it in the student forum; within minutes the image and a chorus of comments were everywhere. Students clustered, craning their necks, some filming on their phones, some whispering with a secretive kind of glee. Lots of people have a little grudge against the wealthy, and watching a spoiled rich kid kneel felt deliciously satisfying.
The rumor mill didn't stop at the university gate. The story spread fast into group chats and forums: Josh Holt, son of the Holt construction family, caught kneeling in public to beg forgiveness from Jason Carter. People argued about class and power: was money always a shield? Or could someone like Jason, with rumors of political reach and deep pockets, call every favor in and make a whole company vanish?
Bits of background filtered through the gossip: the Holt business had around a hundred million of nominal assets on paper, but Josh was the child of the third wife — his share, if any, would be limited. Compared to ordinary students he might be rich, but in the hierarchy of wealth he wasn't untouchable.
Josh felt each message, each online comment, like a blow. His shame grew with every passing minute. He pictured his father's face, Linda's cold stare, the way the contractors in town had shut down Zachary's calls. He imagined parked crews, silent trucks, unpaid bills — and realized the scale of the disaster he had risked for a moment of arrogance.
On his knees in front of the gate, Josh stayed until the sun dropped low and the campus lights flickered on. He spoke to nobody in particular — muttered apologies, promises, plans. He promised himself he would find Jason, apologize properly, beg if he had to. He didn't yet know how he'd undo the damage — only that he had to try before the Holt name was erased from every bid list in Harbor City.
Around him, the campus buzzed on. For most, it was just another campus scandal to retell at parties. For Josh, it was the night that might decide whether his family survived or collapsed — and the knowledge of that responsibility made him feel smaller than he'd ever felt in his life.
Jason Carter's name spread across campus like wildfire — and this time the rumor mill came with receipts.
Nobody had known the full scale before. A few students had guessed Jason was well-off; now the list read like a billionaire flex:
a custom trick bicycle (>$15k),
a motorboat (>$30k),
a motorcycle (>$40k),
a private sailboat (>$1M),
a Mercedes‑Benz G‑Class (>$300k),
a Lamborghini (>$800k),
a pair of ultra‑rare watches — a Rolex (>$50k), a Patek Philippe (>$200k), a Richard Mille (nearly $1M),
a restaurants (>$10M),
and a luxury villa in Harbor Ridge Estates (>$5M)…
And the kicker: that was reportedly just a month's visible consumption. The total numbers being tossed around made students' heads spin — "spend over $100 million a month" became the campus meme, and suddenly Josh family fortune looked like pocket change in comparison.
Worse for the them, students later learned Jason didn't only own flashy toys. Word circulated that he controlled stakes in Vision Media, had just acquired a Tech company, held dozens of condos at Seaside Estates and — most jaw‑dropping of all — owned the rezoned 300‑acre tract down by the river. The rezoning story — $420 million to $1.8 billion overnight — had people whispering about political connections and untouchable reach.
"No wonder Josh knelt at the gate to apologize," one student said. "This isn't class — it's leveling."
"I can't believe there's a legend on our campus," another muttered. "Josh is rich compared to us, but next to Jason he's an ant."
"Remember when that factory owner tried to bully Jason? The factory went under in a few days. People don't mess with him."
Someone who'd grown up in the same hometown as Jason posted, "He used to hide it. He let people think he was normal." The tone was equal parts awe and chill.
In the women's dorm, Lily saw the forum thread and called to Emma. "Yan, you have to see this — Josh is kneeling at the gate. It's glorious."
Emma scrolled through the photos and comments and a small, wicked pleasure warmed her. She'd hated Josh's arrogance; watching him humbled felt like justice. And seeing Jason's power laid out in cold numbers only gave her a new kind of admiration — what it would be like to be with someone who could make the world rearrange itself for a single deal.
Emma felt something like a tally mark added to her feelings for Jason: admiration +5.
Across the hall, Emma roommates exchanged looks — they'd heard whisperings that Jason was rich, but they hadn't realized the scale. The forum posts were only the tip of the iceberg; Josh's kneeling only confirmed that whatever scandal had unfolded was serious.
Then the feed went live. Someone at the gate started a stream: grainy video of Josh on his knees, head bowed, the campus crowd leaning in like vultures. Clips were clipped, reposted, and annotated a hundred different ways. The livestream drew comments laced with schadenfreude: some students snickered, others posted GIFs, a few tried to defend Josh and were drowned in sarcasm.
Watching a privileged kid being humbled felt oddly cathartic. Whether because of envy, moralizing, or plain entertainment, almost nobody on campus felt sympathy. For most, it was the satisfying end of a long rumor — the day someone who'd pretended to be bigger than his rank finally took his fall.
By nightfall the hashtag was burning across the campus feeds: #GateKneel. For Josh it was humiliation in real time. For everyone else, it was another story to tell — a cautionary tale about power, money, and what happens when you pick a fight with the wrong person.
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