Page 7 of Emma on Fire

“He costs fifteen hundred an hour, but he never loses,” Charlie bragged. He was right too: Blake won the case, and Charlie avoided ten years in prison.

Hastings tries not to resent Charlie for risking a decade without his wife and children all for the sake of money. Meanwhile, Hastings has declined two raises in the past five years, asking instead that the funding go to mental health support for the students.

Students that he worries about, students who—no matter how well off they are—are data points on line charts that plot the skyrocketing anxiety and depression rates among teenagers. Students like Emma Blake. Students who have parents like Byron Blake, and his own cousin Charlie … parents who’d rather throw money at a problem than actually talk to their kids.

Throwing money around is a major pastime of Byron Blake’s, and a lot of that money has landed at Ridgemont Academy.

A lot.

Hastings tries to slow his pulse as he listens to Fiona addressing Blake’s assistant—“Yes, dear, it’s important”—and then announcing, “All yours, Mr. Hastings.” When he picks up the receiver, a suave British voice asks him to hold for Mr. Blake, and then Blake tersely says, “Yes.”

The word is a simple statement letting Hastings know that he’s there.

“Good morning, Mr. Blake. This is Perry Hastings from Ridge—”

“I’m aware. What is this about?”

“It concerns your daughter, Emma,” Hastings says, maintaining his composure in the face of Blake’s obvious impatience. “I’m calling because she read a disturbing piece in her English class today. It was very upsetting to everyone.”

“What was it about?” Blake asks, but Hastings can hear typing in the background, Blake’s only surviving daughter’s disturbing behavior relegated to multitasking.

“She announced her intention to set herself on fire.” Hastings is pleased when the sound of typing comes to an abrupt halt.

There is silence on the other end of the line. Finally, Blake says, “And?”

“Well, sir,” Hastings says, “I thought you should be alerted. It strikes me as a red flag.” More like a red tapestry, one woven with blood, fire, and the spark of determination he saw in Emma’s eyes.

When Byron merely grunts, Hastings is forced to stumble on. “Though we’re confident we can keep Emma safe,” he says, “we are concerned about her current mental state. Apparently she went into great detail about what burning would be like.”

But Hastings isn’t confident, not at all. He’s seen Emma finish a soccer match with one eye swollen shut. Shewasn’t bleeding, she reasoned, refusing to be benched. The coach—probably thinking of the brand-new jerseys recently gifted from the Blake Corporation—let her continue to play, and she scored the winning goal, with only half her vision intact.

When Emma Blake makes a decision, it is irreversible.

“What was the assignment?” Blake demands.

Hastings feels a trickle of sweat slide down his neck. “It was a descriptive essay.”

“Was there an assigned topic?”

“No, but—”

“Were there forbidden topics?”

“I’m not certain about that—”

“You should’ve been clear before you called me. It’s called gathering evidence.”

“With all due respect, sir,” Hastings says, “whether or not her teacher listed forbidden topics, Emma’s essay is cause for concern—”

“But she wasn’t told that she couldn’t write about setting herself on fire.”

“I don’t believe so, but—”

“Obviously it’d make for a gripping essay. I’ll bet you could’ve heard a pin drop in that room.”

Hastings glances down at Emma’s essay, which Mr. Montgomery left on his desk.When exposed to heat, the muscles in my thighs will shrink and retract along the shafts of my femur…

He shudders, feels a cold wave move over his body, despite the sheen of sweat that a phone call with Bryon always causes. How can a man who has handled some of the biggest legal cases in the country be missing the point so entirely?

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