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“You’ll regret this.” Heather stood up. “All of you will regret it.”

“I don’t think we will,” Kamryn responded coolly. Because she knew for a fact she wouldn’t. Heather raced off in a huff. Kamryn looked around the room and excused herself. She’d had security on call in case something like this might happen, especially when it came to Mrs. Caldera. She gave them a heads-up and then had them escort Heather and Susy off the property. She’d deal with the rest later.

When she got back to the room, the conversation was alive and energetic. They’d already solved the problem of a temporary board president. Kamryn waved them down to try and calm the conversation. She needed to get this under control because she had more that she needed to tell them, and more she needed to confess.

“You all should know that I fired Mrs. Caldera tonight.” That got everyone’s attention. Kamryn wasn’t quite ready for the next point of conversation, but it needed to be said. Secrets needed to come out, and promises needed to be kept. “And there’s one more point of discussion that I need to add into the many conversations we’re going to have tonight. Please expect this meeting to last later than you originally thought it would.”Kamryn’s stomach twisted hard. This was it. This was what she’d been working toward all night.

“You should be aware that Dr. Elia Sharpe and I have been involved in an intimate and personal relationship for the past few months now. And it’s a conflict of interest for me to remain as Head of School.”

thirty-eight

“You figured out why I didn’t get the interview.”

Elia stared at Kamryn as she cracked open the door to her apartment. Her heart raced, and her body was filled with unrestrained energy that told her she had to do something, anything, to make it dissipate. But there was no direction to it at all. So she’d ended up here. Just before midnight, standing in front of Kamryn’s apartment, and begging to be let inside.

“I did.” Kamryn stood up straight, her eyes still alight with the energy from the day. But she looked exhausted. She looked worn out and torn down. “Come on in.”

She opened the door wider, stepping to the side. Elia brushed her fingers across the top of Kamryn’s hand as she walked by, her heart skipping a beat or two briefly before she was fully ensconced in Kamryn’s world.

“What the hell happened tonight?” Elia asked, still standing in the center of Kamryn’s living room with her jacket wrapped tightly around her.

“Want a whiskey? I think I deserve a drink after this, and it’s much better to drink with someone than alone.” Kamryn strolled toward the kitchen, not answering Elia’s question. “Take your jacket off, this is going to be a while.”

Elia was stunned speechless. Kamryn seemed to have none of the energy that Elia did. She was all sorts of calm, and just that fact irked Elia. She was once again left in the dark, not knowing exactly what happened. The call from the apparent new board chair hadn’t relieved all of her concerns, and it didn’t answer all of her questions. She almost hadn’t even answered the phone since it was so late, but both Kamryn and Simone had texted and told her to answer it.

Elia pulled at the buttons on her jacket and dropped it onto the back of the dining room chair. She curled her fingers around the top of it and leaned. Kamryn was taking her sweet time finding glasses in her cabinets and then pouring them each a good dose of whatever whiskey she had in her hand. Elia couldn’t make the label out from there, not that it mattered.

She just wanted answers.

“Kam…”

“I promise you, I’ll answer everything you want to throw at me. Just give me a second. It’s been a hell of a week.” Kamryn capped the bottle and snagged the drinks, her hips swaying but more from exhaustion than intention as she walked back around and handed Elia a glass. “Can we at least cheers to the fact that this is mostly over for now?”

“But…how?” Elia held her glass dumbfounded, unmoving when Kamryn held hers out.

Shrugging, Kamryn sipped her drink and then moved toward the couch. She sat down heavily, sighing as she toed off her shoes and made herself comfortable.

“Kam…”

“Elia,” Kamryn answered, a tease in her tone. “I figured for someone as smart as you that you would have asked as many questions as possible during that phone call.”

“I was a bit stunned and blindsided.” Elia moved around and sat next to Kamryn on the couch, their knees bumping. “I didn’t exactly have the wherewithal to come up with any questions.”

Kamryn frowned and took another sip. “Mrs. Caldera is the one who altered your personnel file.”

“She… but why?”

“To protect you.” Kamryn took another sip, raising her eyebrows in Elia’s direction as if she was making a point, but Elia didn’t follow her line of thought. “You have more friends here than you may have realized.”

“She didn’t want anyone to read it?”

“She thought it was time that the past faded into the past, and she was worried with Susy as president of the board that it would come back up. She wasn’t wrong, but her methods leave a lot to be desired. I had to terminate her.”

“Oh, Kam.” Elia reached out and touched Kamryn’s arm, her fingers curling around Kamryn’s wrist. Heat seared into her skin from just the touch. Elia didn’t want to let go either, so she lingered there as long as she felt safe before retreating back into the bubble that she had created.

“Susy, Heather, and Yara are no longer on the board.”

“Jensen told me that. Did they step down?”