Page 88 of Promises We Meant to Keep

“Friend?” Kamryn looked at Simone. She was a quiet teacher, rarely said anything during the staff meetings, kept to herself.

Simone shrugged slightly. “I always considered her a friend.”

“You should tell her that then. She could probably use one right about now.” Kamryn swallowed a gulp of the beer she had in her hand. She really shouldn’t have said that.

“I heard about the accusations stirring up again. Pity. Elia’s one of the best teachers Windermere has.” Simone ordered a glass of wine, and then took Kamryn by the arm to lead her away from the bar. “Susy has been going on about it.”

“Are you serious?” Kamryn’s jaw dropped. Of all the people who were going to slip up and talk about confidential information, Kamryn hadn’t expected it to be Susy Butkis. Yara, yes, but not Susy. She was going to have to report it with the board itself, and that was going to be its own drama for her to contend with.

“Yeah. It’s really quite tragic.”

“What is?”

“What happened.” Simone gave Kamryn a curious look. “Don’t you know?”

“I know some of it.” That was always Kamryn’s go-to answer when she wanted more information and wanted to make it seem like she was ignorant.

“There was a student who accused her of sexual harassment. And then when that one was proven false there were three others.”

Kamryn’s stomach plummeted. “What?”

“They were all proven false. All of them were from the same friend group, and once Rylann’s story was disproven it was easy to disprove the others. They weren’t as bad as what Rylann was saying anyway. But it was all because they were friends with Felicity Cole, and when she dropped her accusation, that was the end of it. Nothing else since then because it was all a bunch of bullshit.”

Kamryn shook her head. “There were four accusations.” It wasn’t a question.

“There were, but all of them false, all of them from the same clique. They were out to get Elia fired. That was their goal.”

“Were you working at Windermere?”

Simone shook her head. “I wasn’t. But I was working at John Adams, and we heard all about it over there. When Elia tried to get hired there, they wouldn’t even give her an interview.”

The shock ran through Kamryn. If Simone knew this much, how many other people at Windermere knew about what had happened and were just refusing to talk? How many people knew where the recantation was? Because that’s what Kamryn really needed to find.

“I hated what happened. It’s so easy for that to happen to any of us.” Simone touched Kamryn’s arm lightly. “I hope you can figure it out to keep Elia around. I’d hate for her to get fired over something she didn’t do.”

“Right.” Kamryn was flabbergasted as Simone walked away to join the family again.

“What was that about?” Greer asked, stepping next to Kamryn.

“I’m not entirely sure…” Kamryn still couldn’t take her eyes off Simone. “But it’s at least somewhat comforting.”

“O…kay?”

“It’s about that thing I can’t talk about but apparently everyone else on the face of the planet is.” Kamryn frowned at that. She really was going to have to report Susy for that violation. It was a massive breach of confidentiality.

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“It’s not. But it’s also a problem for future Kamryn. Tonight, I want to get drunk. I want you to crash in my room with me. And I want to wake up so hung over in the morning that we can’t pull ourselves out of bed for the stupid brunch that Andra insisted on having.”

“Deal,” Greer answered. “Because when else is a good time to get sloshed than with your best friend at a wedding!”

Kamryn chinked her beer bottle against Greer’s. “Bottoms up.”

Without hesitation, both of them tipped their bottles upward and started chugging their drinks. They might not get completely wasted, but they’d at least get a good buzz on before the end of the night. And Kamryn was no happier to do that than with her best friend. God, she’d missed Greer.

“I needed this,” Kamryn said.

“Me too,” Greer responded with a laugh. “We can do it more often now.”

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