Page 68 of Promises We Meant to Keep

“I don’t think anything’s scheduled in there until our meeting tonight.” Kamryn stepped back and glanced at Elia, catching her gaze. The concern in her eyes was there an instant before it vanished, and she turned back to Yara. “Were there any files you needed that I can get for you?”

“All files concerning current faculty and staff,” Yara said while looking directly at Elia. “We want to protect our current students, don’t we?”

Elia stood up, folding her hands together in front of her. She hardened immediately. This was the battle that she was going tobe up against, and she was going to have to rely on the fact that the investigation eighteen years ago had been conducted well and that she was innocent. Once again, she was going to have to trust others to protect her, people who had no interest in her welfare.

“I think I’ll leave you two to it,” Elia said as she picked up the jacket she’d set on the chair when she’d come in.

“No, stay. I don’t want to disrupt your meeting…again.” Yara was looking directly at her. When had her eyes become so cold? “You two do seem to have a lot of meetings.”

Kamryn jerked her head to the side then, pinning Yara with a sharp look. “I have one-on-one meetings with all the faculty on a regular basis, but considering that Dr. Sharpe and I both run the Speech team—yes, we have a few more meetings than the others.”

Was Kamryn aware of just how dangerous defending Elia could be for her own future?

Probably not.

Elia swallowed the lump in her throat.

“I didn’t hear a conversation about the Speech team,” Yara crooned.

That answered Elia’s earlier question. And she wasn’t ready for it to come out into the open. Running was so much better than this. Sliding her arms into her jacket, Elia put it on. She was determined to get out of here. Quick and fast—that was the only way.

“What you heard was a personal conversation, and it wasn’t meant for your ears.” Kamryn squared her stance, spreading her feet out and glaring at Yara with everything that she had.

Elia had no doubt that even without hearing the words they were saying, Yara would be aware of the tension in the room, the tension between them. Elia could still feel it, she could still hear her resounding answer to Kamryn’s intuitive question.

“I’m here to protect the students, Kamryn. That’s why I was asked to be on the ethics team, and that’s exactly what I’ll do.”

Elia shivered. The use of Kamryn’s first name? That was a dressing down if she knew it. Since when had Yara become so hardened? It was amazing what eighteen years could do to someone, that was for certain. Elia just had to look at her own life for a prime example of that. She’d slowly shut down over the years, pushing people further away from her—until Kamryn. Until someone who seemed so interested in what was underneath the surface that Elia couldn’t resist coming up from her hidey-hole to see what she’d been missing all these years.

“No one would ever ask you to do anything else,” Kamryn answered. “And that’s not what I’m asking you to do now.”

Elia really wanted to leave. She didn’t need to be here for this, did she?

“Having her here is a risk.”

Shame filled Elia. This was how it was all going to come out, wasn’t it? This was how her world as she knew it was going to end, and the second wave of bullshit was going to take over her life. And she still wasn’t certain she could survive it a second time. Had she even survived the first time?

“Dr. Sharpe?” Kamryn furrowed her brow and looked from Yara to Elia and back again. “Elia has no open complaints about her. In fact, she hasn’t had any in years.”

Had Kamryn looked her up? Had she read Elia’s personnel file? Because all that information would be in there. Violation ripped through her. She was exposed here, not just in a professional sense but in a personal one. Kamryn could so easily know so much about her if she just looked. And it sounded like she had.

“But she has had some.” The sharp lines of Yara’s face were so prominent when she was angry. “You shouldn’t defend something that you know nothing about.”

Kamryn closed her mouth then.

So she hadn’t read that far into it.

Elia wasn’t sure if she was happy with that or not. But it did mean that Kamryn trusted her—even if it wasn’t warranted.

“I haven’t met a teacher who doesn’t have at least one complaint against them. I have complaints against me, not only as a teacher but also as an admin.”

“We’re not talking about minor complaints, Kamryn.” There it was again, that tone that Yara used when she thought she had all the power in the room. “We’re talking about career-ending accusations.”

“I really shouldn’t be here for this.” Elia stepped away from the chair and tried to head straight for the door, but Yara stepped between it and her. Elia wasn’t sure what to do next. She’d never been physically blocked from leaving a room before. “This is between you and the ethics team and Dr. Ogden, Yara. This isn’t between you and me.”

“It’s always been between us,” Yara said quietly, a threat in her tone. “And it alwayswillbe.”

Elia gulped. It was career-ending this time. She had no doubts of it. If Yara was going to remain on the board in any capacity, then Elia wasn’t going to have a position at Windermere. But she would hang on for as long as she could, because her kids mattered, and she wanted them to have the best they could for as long as she could.

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