Page 52 of A Forgotten Heart
Isaac put down the coffee and widened his stance, blocking Nick’s escape to the door. “Is she the reason you left school?”
The pain, the unfairness of the situation, his failure, it all still rubbed that raw place as if it’d happened yesterday.
Weariness settled over Nick’s body. Why couldn’t he feel this tired when he lay in bed?
“I guess your silence is all the yes I need.”
Nick ran a hand down his face. Isaac wasn’t going to let this go. “Elsie and I met in normal school. And I?—”
He remembered the flutter in his stomach the first time he’d made her laugh. How his pulse had skipped as they’d decorated the school Christmas tree. Their first kiss…
But none of it had mattered in the end.
“I’ve never met anyone I could connect with on such an intellectual level. I wanted to marry her. Find a post where we’d teach together.”
Isaac nudged the mug of coffee toward Nick. “What happened?”
Nick didn’t want it anymore. Not with the way his stomach was churning. He sighed. “The dean’s son was infatuated with Elsie. He warned me to back off. I told him no.”
Isaac shrugged. “Sounds fair.”
The hollowness in Nick’s gut grew. What would his brother say about what he had to reveal next? “Shortly after my last term started, I was called into the dean’s office. They claimed to have a witness who saw me stealing a test. When the dean searched my room, he found the test. I was expelled on the spot for cheating.”
He’d never forget the fire flashing through his veins at seeing the papers in Dean Sullivan’s hand. Knowing he’d been framed and was powerless to defend himself.
Pa had always said that carrying the McGraw name meant integrity. And he had brought shame to the family.
He’d thrown himself into work on the ranch, trying to forget his dream of teaching. And Elsie.
Isaac stood motionless, his face unreadable.
Nick looked at the floor. “I know it was the dean’s son who framed me. But no one believed me.”
Isaac moved to lean into the counter next to Nick. “So how does Elsie play into this? She didn’t believe your side of the story?”
Nick could barely get the words out. “The night that the witness claimed he saw me coming out of the office, I was with Elsie. Alone.”
Issac expelled a quiet “Oh.”
That was the crux of it. “Nothing improper happened. We just talked. I might’ve stolen a kiss or two. We would meet sometimes at this big oak behind the dormitories.”
Those stolen moments had been so precious.
“She was your alibi,” Isaac deduced.
Nick rubbed the back of his neck. “But if she’d admitted to it?—”
“She’d have been labeled promiscuous and expelled.”
Nick hadn’t understood until later what she would’ve risked, would have lost, by such an admission. He’d been hurt, had felt betrayed by Elsie, the dean, the system itself.
He’d wanted her to choose him. Why hadn’t he been enough?
He turned to pace, shoving his hand through his hair. “I was so angry with her. All I ever wanted was to be a teacher, and because she refused to stick up for me, I was expelled.”
But even as the words left his mouth, he heard the selfishness in them.
“You put her in a difficult spot.”
