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They walked in silence from Elia’s office toward her house. Everything in Elia’s head told her to stop this right here and right now, but she couldn’t. Abagail had been right. This was so hard, and she just wanted someone to believe her.

When they reached her house, Elia unlocked the door and let them in, dropping her things by the door before she nervously walked toward the kitchen. Tea would help, wouldn’t it? Anything to keep her hands busy.

She risked a glance up at Kamryn, who was so still and quiet, as she took off her jacket and tossed it onto the arm of the couch. Kamryn knew everything at this point. Elia had seen it in the haunted look in her eyes when she’d shown up at her office.

“I don’t know how you’ve kept this a secret for so long.” Kamryn’s voice was confident as she spoke, but it wasn’t loud or an accusation.

Elia clicked on the electric kettle and crossed her arms over her chest in a move of protection. She didn’t want to talk about this. She never wanted to talk about it. “It’s not a secret.”

Kamryn snorted, her lips twitching upward slightly. “Could have fooled me.”

She walked closer to Elia, staying at the edge of the open kitchen and not coming any closer. Was she afraid that Elia was going to try something? Was Kamryn afraid that it was all true?

“It’s not a secret, Kam. You weren’t here when it happened, but the entire school knew about it. The board knew about it. The local authorities knew about it. My name was in the news so many times that I lost count.” Elia leaned against the kitchen counter, still keeping her arms crossed. It took everything in her to look up into Kamryn’s eyes. “If you’d been here, you would have known just like everyone else.”

“And in eighteen years the school’s just, what…forgotten?”

Elia shrugged slightly. “It’s in my personnel file. It’s not forgotten. I’m required to have a co-leader for the Speech team. I can’t take on any new responsibilities without it being double checked by my direct supervisor. And I can’t move up into administration. No matter how many times I’ve applied for a new job, it comes up. I’m stuck here, Kam. I’ve never been able to escape it.”

“It’s not in your personnel file.”

“What?” Elia’s eyes widened. She stood up straight and put her hand out to her side. “What do you mean it’s not there?”

“Your personnel file is wiped clean. Not one single complaint since you started working at Windermere twenty-four years ago.” Kamryn crossed her arms now, the accusation in her words and her actions.

The cold rush of fear ran through Elia in an instant. Was she being accused of tampering with it?

“I walked into that ethics meeting knowing nothing, Elia. And you could have told me what I was walking into so many times over. Why wouldn’t you just tell me what happened?”

There were so many reasons. Elia took a deep breath, calming her racing heart. She needed to explain this clearly, andshe needed to tell Kamryn everything. She couldn’t hold back any longer, even if Abagail wanted her to.

“Who erased my file?”

“Hell if I know, Elia. But I plan to find out, even if it was you. And let me make it clear, if it was, I’m not going to hold back.” Kamryn’s lips drew into a thin line.

“I would expect nothing less.” Elia snagged two mugs and set them on the counter. “What did they tell you?”

“Not a whole lot, honestly. I researched what I could after the meeting, and I have to say, Elia, these are dangerous waters you were swimming in.”

“I know.” Elia put the tea bags into the mugs and poured the boiling water over it to let the tea bags steep. “But you had to have also seen that it was ultimately decided the accusations were false.”

“They were,” Kamryn agreed. “But I want your side of the story. It’s the only one that’s missing for me right now.”

Elia ran her finger in a circle around the top of the mug. She was going to hate this. Taking the cup of tea she’d made for Kamryn, Elia walked over and handed it to her. Their fingers touched as Kamryn took it, and Elia stared down at where Kamryn’s fingers had slid against hers.

“Don’t hate me after this, please.” Elia didn’t look at her as she walked around the peninsula of the kitchen and walked directly to the couch. Kamryn was going to end this tonight, Elia knew that. Kamryn was going to hear her side of the story, and she was going to walk out and not look back. Everyone always did.

Kamryn settled next to her on the couch. But there was quite a bit of distance between them. Elia felt it in her heart. It was why she’d never managed to hold onto a relationship since then. How did she even begin to explain that she’d been accused ofsexually harassing a minor when she was that minor’s teacher and that she wasn’t some monster.

Because everyone thought she was.

“Yara and I broke up. It was mutual, just the end to a slow petering out of a relationship.” Elia wrapped her hands around the mug, warming her skin from the cold walk home. “Everything was fine for a month. Heartbroken, but fine.”

She couldn’t believe she was even explaining this. It had been so long since she’d sat down with someone and run through exactly what happened. She curled her legs under her body and leaned into the corner of the couch.

“A month later, I was called into an emergency meeting with the ethics team, with the Head of School at the time—Jessup Watters—and no one else. They explained to me that there had been a formal complaint filed against me for sexual harassment by a student. They wouldn’t tell me who. Not then, anyway. I was on an immediately paid suspension while they investigated. I was forced to leave my apartment in the dormitories for the safety of the students, and then I just had to wait.” Elia sighed heavily.

“Where did you go?” Kamryn asked, her voice meeker than Elia expected it to be.