Page 63 of Promises We Meant to Keep

Snagging her phone from her pocket, Elia called Abagail before she even made it back to her office. She wasn’t going to stay there long, just enough to grab her stuff and walk straight home.

“We have bigger problems with the board.”

“Uh-oh.” Abagail clicked her tongue. “This isn’t going to be a short conversation, is it?”

“No.”

“I’ll call you back in five.” Abagail hung up.

It gave Elia enough time to grab her laptop and shove it inside her bag. She needed to get out of here. It’d be better if she lived off campus, because she really needed to distance herself from the school, but she couldn’t—not today. She still had Speech practice that night, and she couldn’t escape. Not yet.

She was just inside her front door when her phone buzzed. Staring down at it, she saw the missed messages from Kamryn. Elia immediately ignored them. She needed to talk to Abagail, someone who understood the situation. Someone she could fully trust.

Not that she couldn’t trust Kamryn, but she had no idea what Yara had told her. She may have told her absolutely everything already, and Kamryn would certainly see that as a betrayal. Wouldn’t she?

Elia answered and fell into her couch at the same time. She just wanted to cry.

“All right, tell me what happened.”

“I was going to talk to Kam, and walked into the admin building, and right into Yara.”

“Shit.”

That was the exact response that Elia had been looking for. She didn’t need to explain anything. She was so close to tears. The stress and anguish of the past years coming right back into her chest in a way that she wasn’t able to get rid of. “Someone—and I strongly suspect I know who—invited her onto the ethics team.”

“Elia…” Abagail trailed off. “Not Kam I hope.”

“No, I don’t think so. She barely even remembered Yara from when she was a student. I’m betting it was Heather.”

“Heather-Heather.”

“Yeah.ThatHeather.” Elia closed her eyes. She hadn’t told Kamryn that part of everything, not who Heather was to Elia and exactly why she knew she’d never be allowed on the ethics team,not while Heather was there. “She joined the board about a year ago but hadn’t really caused any issues until Kamryn was hired.”

“And you think she’ll cause more?” Abagail asked.

“I know she will.” Elia pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling the dampness from her unshed tears. She wasn’t ready for this. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready for it. “I can’t tell the board about Kam and me now. It’ll spell disaster for both of us. They won’t listen to a thing we have to say. It’ll ruin her career.”

“And yours,” Abagail added. “Or don’t you care about it anymore?”

“I do.” Elia frowned. Teaching was her life. She’d made it her life and she didn’t want it any other way. She wanted her world to remain exactly as it was now. Where she could teach, live here, and have some fun on the side with someone she found really, really interesting. And she definitely found Kamryn interesting—and exciting. “I do care about it. I’m not ready to quit or retire. Ineedto teach.”

“Then you’re going to have to fight whatever they throw at you.”

Elia had been afraid Abagail was going to say that. She wasn’t sure she had any fight left in her. They’d taken it all those years ago, and she’d done her best just to fly under the radar until now. And now it wasn’t even her fault. It wasn’t like she and Kamryn had talked to the board yet.

“There’s going to be so many questions,” Elia whispered. “Not just about back then or now, but about Kam and me.”

“There will be,” Abagail confirmed. “And they’ll be invasive. And they should be. Those questions are there for a reason.”

“They are, but…” Elia sighed heavily. “Will it be worth it?”

“Only you can answer that question, E.” Abagail shook her head. “But you need to come up with a game plan going forward, and you need to make sure that you have every possible outlier and base covered. You can’t be alone with a student—ever. Andyou need to make damn sure that you’re always in the view of someone.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“No, you didn’t. And unfortunately, when it comes to situations like these, it’s never innocent until proven guilty.”

Abagail was right. Elia had experienced that firsthand.

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