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If I thought I loved my job before, I had no idea how good it could be without Nora’s toxic energy lingering behind every corner.

To put it lightly, the hearing didn’t go the way Nora thought it would. Not only did it end in her losing her job as principal at Nester Fox, somebody caught her meltdown on camera and it may have gone viral.

Like, really, really viral.

And just about every person who watched the video sought out Luke’s article on Petunia Lemon.

So thanks to her meltdown, more think pieces and follow-up articles than I could’ve ever imagined began to spring up.

So many victims of Petunia Lemon’s lies came forward that after a few months, they put the company on pause so they could restructure…

And file for bankruptcy.

“Emmy.” Isla uses the name she calls me outside of school and wraps her little hand in mine as we close my classroom door and head to the parking lot.

“Do you think we can go visit Mr. Tom tomorrow? He said he had something superspecial for Mister Bubbles and my body is too excited to wait until Sunday.”

My body also gets very excited over surprises.

“I don’t see why not,” I say. “But let’s ask your daddy first, okay?”

As if I willed him there, which is what I’m always trying to do, Luke pushes through the front door.

“Daddy!” Isla drops my hand like a hot potato and runs right into her dad’s arms. Lucky. “Can we go see Mr. Tom tomorrow? Emmy said we could.”

“No,” I correct her when I catch up to them. “Emmy said to ask Daddy first.”

“I don’t see why not.” He sets Isla on the ground, and she skips away to say goodbye to Lisa.

“Emmy said to ask Daddy, huh?” He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me into him. “What do you want to ask for?”

“From you?” I roll onto the tips of my toes and touch my mouth to his, and the butterflies I still feel whenever I’m near him take flight. “Absolutely everything.”

“For you? I can do that.”