Page 24 of Promises We Meant to Keep

“There aren’t any open issues,” Susy returned.

“At least none that have been formally reported,” Heather added. “Not that there aren’t some that should be reported.” She muttered the last part under her breath, but it was loud enough for Kamryn to hear.

“So you want to go through old violations?” Kamryn frowned now, wanting to understand exactly what was happening.

“Yes.” Susy grinned. “It’ll be the best way to understand what we should be doing and how.”

Not necessarily.Kamryn didn’t respond though, because she wasn’t sure what to say to that. Susy opened up the first file and slid a binder-clipped stack of papers to each of them. One quick glance told Kamryn that everyone had copies of whatever she’d handed out.

Kamryn finally looked down at the top page.

Echoes of misconduct littered the pages, going back decades. Kamryn briefly glanced through them finding page after page. Susy had sliced open Windermere and let it bleed out on the table right in front of them.

Kamryn wasn’t an idiot. She knew there were problems. Having them in black and white in front of her hurt. Some of these cases went back to when she was a student.

“Some of these reports were handled well and some weren’t. Let’s start with the most recent one.”

The buzzing in her head was so loud that she barely heard the question she asked. “Do we need to create procedures or are there any that we can follow?”

“We’re doing an audit of the complaints at the school.” Heather eyed Kamryn carefully. “We want to be transparent with all of our faculty and staff so that when parents complain—and they will complain—we know what we’ll need to protect and what we’ll need to drop.”

Kamryn knew without a doubt thatdropmeant termination. Were they after someone in particular?

“I think we need to have a teacher on this committee, someone who can help represent the other staff and faculty and help us put these procedures in place.” Kamryn was stillskimming through the reams of paper that she’d been handed. It was information overwhelm at best. “I’d suggest Elia Sharpe.”

“No,” Susy answered sharply.

Kamryn froze at that. Her shoulders tensed, the muscles tightening to the point of pain. “No?”

“Elia wouldn’t make a good member of this team.” Susy’s voice couldn’t be more patronizing.

There was no way Kamryn was going to win this one. She wasn’t even sure what battle she was fighting. Was this a witch hunt? She’d thought they’d just been jerks by not giving Elia an interview, or that perhaps there was a reasonable explanation because they couldn’t do without a teacher and losing a head of a department when they were already down so many administrative team members.

But this…

Kamryn was floored. Susy was pushing Elia out, and Kamryn had no idea for what. Did any of them actually know? Her heart hammered. Her throat closed up. And she was at a complete loss for words. She needed more information. And she was desperate for it now.

“Is there a faculty member you would suggest?” Kamryn finally asked.

Heather blanched. “It’s your job to fill the position.”

She had pointed the comment at Kamryn. But Kamryn didn’t know the faculty well enough yet, and she certainly didn’t know who was doing what and who might have the time or the ability. The ethics team wasn’t where you wanted just anybody.

“I still think that Elia Sharpe would be the perfect person for the role. She teaches Speech and Debate, which involves an incredible amount of ethics and discussion of ethics. And she’s very good at reading documents and finding what’s missing or where the loopholes are.”

“She’s not the person for this role,” Susy said so matter-of-factly that Kamryn knew the conversation was ended.

She’d been shut down. And she hadn’t even had a chance to figure out what pile of shit she’d stepped in. Kamryn was sick to her stomach. This wasn’t a place for her to have a voice. That much was clear. But she didn’t find that an acceptable answer.

They continued down the litany of mistakes that had been made at Windermere Prep.

Reading through the information was enough to make Kamryn want to leave the room and throw up, to hand in her resignation effective immediately. Thisjobwas bigger than she’d anticipated. She’d never thought it was this bad, that there were this many complaints to sift through.

That couldn’t be real, could it?

Miller Waddy had been slacking on the job for a long time. Most of the complaints filed were in the last five years, although there were some dating back decades. Kamryn could only assume that those were for teachers still at the school because otherwise, why would they matter? Which severely limited the number of people who it could be.

Fuck, she thought.

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