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Kamryn was at a loss.

They were making no progress whatsoever, and the fact that she had to sit through yet another one of these meetings was killing her slowly. How was she supposed to form an ethics committee with these two in charge of it? Or even involved in it?

Heather and Susy were chattering away so fast about plans they’d already made outside of this meeting. They expected Kamryn to either follow along with the conversation or just shut up and agree to whatever the hell they suggested.

Well, that wasn’t going to happen.

Kamryn wasn’t that kind of person and she needed more than that from the people she was working with. Even if she was forced to work with them.

“We need to do intense interviews with all faculty and staff immediately. We’ll start those with the English department.”

Kamryn froze. Which one had said that? She’d gotten lost in her own annoyances and missed part of the conversation, although she didn’t seem to miss the point of what they were trying to do. Kamryn bit her cheek and held her tongue, needing more information before they completely cut her out ofthe conversation and just did whatever they were going to do without her.

“Yes, let’s start there. I think it’s best to start with the head of each department, then they can tell everyone it’s painless.” That was Susy.

Kamryn clenched her fist under the table. She had to stop this. This wasn’t what the ethics committee was supposed to be.

Heather turned on her. “You can start with Elia Sharpe.”

“W-what?” Kamryn shook her head. “You want me to interview each staff and faculty member, and make sure they’re what? Not pedophiles?”

“Exactly.” Heather smiled at her gleefully, as if Kamryn had finally figured out the entire point of what they were discussing and was finally on board with it.

“No.”

“No?” Susy leaned in, her voice rising not in questioning but in anger.

Most likely because Kamryn even dared to tell her no to anything. How many times had Susy heard that word? Especially from the Head of School? Or did she just assume that the Head of School was her bitch and would do anything that they were told to do by the board.

“No,” Kamryn repeated. “I won’t start a witch hunt. It’s one thing to update background checks, or even make them more in-depth than the previous ones, but I’m not going to interrogate the staff and faculty looking for people who are doing things wrong.”

“But it’s for the protection of the children.”

“It’s really not.” Kamryn was going to put her foot down on this one, and if she had to, then she’d get even more people involved. And that might be the solution, honestly. And again, they were trying to oust Elia. What the hell was up with that? Neither one of them had given a good reason as to why they wereso focused on her. “This is because you’re afraid of something, and until you tell me what is so terrifying or file a formal complaint, I won’t participate in this.”

Susy’s jaw dropped. “This is your job.”

“No. It’s not. My job is to run this school, to educate its students, and to make sure that staff and faculty have a safe and healthy environment to work, and for some of them, live in. Nothing in my job description is to find out every single thing that would put each person on the naughty list. And I won’t participate in a witch hunt. Let me repeat that to make myselfveryclear. Iwill notparticipate in a witch hunt.”

Kamryn stacked up her papers and slammed her notepad on top of them. She stood up, pushing the chair out from under her as she gave Susy and Heather a hard look.

“This meeting is done.”

“There are going to be repercussions for this,” Heather said. “You’ll get in trouble.”

“Then so be it.” Kamryn shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. “But I won’t stand by and be speechless while this happens. It’s not right. Itisunethical. And it’s ironic that you chose the ethics team of all the teams to host your little witch hunt.” Kamryn put her fists on her hips and stared at them again. They really needed to leave before she lost even more of her temper.

She was tired.

It was late.

And this was beyond ridiculous.

It was outrageous.

“This meeting is adjourned,” Kamryn said, again trying to push them out of the conference room door.