Page 37 of Promises We Meant to Keep (Love in Massachusetts #1)

thirty-seven

Kamryn was left reeling in Elia’s wake. But she’d called Mrs. Caldera there for a reason, and from the look on her face, she knew exactly what this was about. This had better work out for the benefit of everyone—at least as much as it could.

“Sit down,” Kamryn said, shutting the door behind Mrs. Caldera.

She never wanted to have a conversation like this with anyone. But it was impossible to avoid this time. Kamryn wasn’t ready for this. Then again, she was fairly certain she never would be.

“This weekend you slid a folder underneath my apartment door.” Kamryn tensed, eyeing Mrs. Caldera to study what her reaction was going to be. She wanted to know everything that she possibly could. “I know it was you, despite you not leaving a note or telling me.”

“H-how?” Mrs. Caldera stuttered.

“There’s cameras all over the school, including the hallways to the dormitories and the entryway. I had security pull the footage.” Kamryn flicked the pencil between her fingers back and forth, waiting for some kind of useful information that she could write down. “Where did you get the file?”

“I’ve had it in my desk.” She sounded so small, and she was so pale.

Kamryn hated this for her. “Why?”

“I kept it there for safety. No one ever looks in my desk.”

That was true. Kamryn had torn apart the entire office except for that one place. And the worst part was that Mrs. Caldera knew exactly what Kamryn had been looking for. And she’d flat out ignored it, lied about the fact that she didn’t know where the paperwork was.

“I took it a while ago.” Mrs. Caldera wrung her hands tightly in her lap. “Before you started working here, when Miller told me that Heather was put onto the board.”

“I’m not sure I understand.” Kamryn tapped the end of the pencil against the paper, just waiting for information. This was something she could do well, and she was going to.

“Heather and Rylann became best friends after high school.”

Kamryn jerked her head up at that. “What? How do you know that?”

“Windermere’s a small school, Kam. And because I run into a lot of the admissions and records questions, I’m aware of where most students end up post-school. It took a few years, but they’re best friends now.” Mrs. Caldera was shaking, her entire body trembling. “I suspected when Heather was elected to the board that Elia’s past might come up. It was horrible the first time. She doesn’t deserve to relive that again.”

“So you altered her personnel file?” Kamryn bit the inside of her cheek. She wanted Mrs. Caldera to give a full confession of what she’d done, but at the same time it was better to live in ignorance some days. At least ignorant, she wouldn’t have to fire Windermere’s longest standing employee.

“And a few others to not put the blame on her.”

Premeditated. It was the word that came straight to Kamryn’s mind and bounced around like a pebble stuck in a shoe.

“Do you have those records as well?”

Mrs. Caldera nodded. “In my desk.”

Kamryn pressed her lips together hard. “Just…why? Because not having these has proven to be a bigger issue than if we’d just had them.”

“I gave them back.”

“But why?”

“Because you and Elia…” Mrs. Caldera stopped speaking. “You two deserve to be together. I think you’re a good match, and Elia has never truly been happy since she and Yara broke up. You can see it in her face how happy she is with you.”

Kamryn would disagree. Especially with the way their last conversation had gone.

“I know it doesn’t seem that way now, but she’ll come around.”

Kamryn sighed heavily. Even if Elia decided to be in a relationship with her, that didn’t mean the board would approve or that it would end up with a happily ever after. They still had a lot of problems to work out in the meantime.

“I appreciate you giving me these files,” Kamryn started, pointing to the paperwork on her desk. “Especially since I’m about to walk into a board meeting. But this goes beyond what a reprimand can do.”

“I know,” Mrs. Caldera answered. Her lip quirked up, the same bright red lipstick that she’d worn twenty years ago. She laid her hands flat on the table. “I know you have to fire me. And I still believe it was well worth the intervention.”

Kamryn was speechless. No words formed on her tongue. She’d fired people before, and she’d never had an experience like this. What was she supposed to even say to that? She shook her head as Mrs. Caldera stood up.

“I wrote out a letter, explaining what I did, so you can have it for the board meeting tonight. I’ll print a copy for you, and I’ll start cleaning out my desk. I’ve also written up notes and procedure books for my replacement.”

“Is this how you wanted to leave?” Kamryn frowned. “Have you been planning this?”

“Planning for the possibility.” Mrs. Caldera nodded. “It’s time for me to retire, Kam. And it’s time for you to step up to the plate. This school needs you. Don’t let the board tell you otherwise.”

And she walked out.

Kamryn watched in utter bewilderment as she started to pull things out of her desk. What the hell had just happened?

Mrs. Caldera was gone with one small box of personal items before Kamryn had to walk into the board meeting. She held the folder that contained everything she needed to prove that Elia was innocent, and this was all a witch hunt against her. Because some people just couldn’t move on from the past.

Sitting down at the table, Kamryn waited for the ethics team to be called up to give their report. Yara started, explaining everything they’d done so far and the restrictions they’d put onto Elia. She was just about to start down the road of adding more when Kamryn jumped in.

“I’m going to stop you there.”

Yara seemed surprised, along with Susy and Heather. Kamryn slid the copies she’d made to each person sitting in the room. “This is Elia Sharpe’s personnel file, along with the records from the investigation that happened eighteen years ago. I’ll get to where I found these in a minute, because that’s an issue that’s been dealt with but needs to be on the record.”

Kamryn sat back down. Her heart was racing and in her throat, making it so hard to talk. She was nervous and breathy, and she fucking hated it.

“As you can see, all the accusations against Elia were recanted and then disproven. I want it on the record that there have been many conflicts of interest in this case.” Kamryn looked around the room. “Yara Cole and Elia Sharpe dated for two years prior to the accusations. Heather is best friends with Rylann, the initial complainant about Elia’s behavior.”

“And you…” Susy added, giving Kamryn a pointed a look.

“Yes, and me.” Kamryn tensed. “We can also talk about that in a minute.” Kamryn needed to make sure that everyone in this room understood what had happened. “It seems that when Heather was elected to the board late last school year, she came in with an agenda, which was to continue the plot against Elia Sharpe that began eighteen years ago when she and Yara had a mutual breakup.”

She hated that she was airing this all out in the open again, but most of it was knowledge they’d all have access to anyway.

“You can see the recantations in these files and read them for yourselves. All charges were dropped against Elia, and she was reinstated. It’s why she has remained a trusted member of the faculty at Windermere for the last eighteen years. I believe it’s unconscionable to have brought these accusations back up in the way they were.”

“She wanted more power,” Susy jumped in.

Kamryn shook her head and pointed at Susy. “What she wanted was respect. And the board here never gave her that. You refused her an interview for the Head of School position—one she’s most definitely qualified for—and not only did you refuse it, you ignored her entirely. You didn’t have the decency to even tell her that she wasn’t being considered. And then you forced an ethics team that would look into her because you wanted her gone from this school.”

Susy paled. Which was exactly what Kamryn wanted. She needed Susy to be on the defensive.

“I want to add in to the fact that you breached confidentiality, repeatedly, where it concerns Elia Sharpe’s personal records and the business of this school.” Kamryn was about to go in for the kill. “I’ve had repeated reports of information that came directly from you about the conversations we were having in the ethics team meetings, and about Elia’s past records—which, as I’ve proven with this, have been expunged.”

“I haven’t—”

“Kamryn isn’t the only one who’s received these reports.”

Kamryn whipped her head around, eyeing Simone. She hadn’t expected that. Simone was usually so reserved, but she was glaring at Susy with everything she had.

“And I have to say, I find it appalling,” Simone added. “I’d move for a vote of no confidence if I thought that the board would accept a motion.”

Shock rocked through Kamryn again that evening. She couldn’t have asked for something better to have happened. She looked around the room, hoping against all hope that someone else would speak up. She didn’t have a vote, she only had a voice, but that didn’t mean the others there wouldn’t listen.

“I’ve never seen these before,” Yara murmured as she flipped through the photocopied papers that Kamryn had passed over. “I always thought…” She stopped speaking. “Felicity made a report?”

How had Yara not known about that? Policy was to contact the parents, especially in a situation like this. So how had they avoided that eighteen years ago? Kamryn was about to ask when Yara shoved the papers away from her.

“I don’t know what to say right now.” Yara pressed her lips together and stared at Kamryn. “You were right.”

“And you wouldn’t listen to reason.”

Yara nodded. “I wouldn’t.” She faced Susy. “I’m resigning from the ethics team. I’m not the person you need.” She rolled her shoulders and touched the edges of the papers again. “And I need to talk to Felicity.”

Kamryn was about to speak when Yara stood up and nodded toward her.

“Thank you.”

The room settled quietly after Yara left it. Kamryn stared at Susy. “And are you going to defend yourself?”

“No.” Susy frowned. “I did make the mistake of breaking confidentiality.”

“Then I move that you step down as president.” Simone wasn’t going to back down from this one, was she? “I can’t get behind a board president who isn’t going to keep the school integrity first and foremost in her mind. Do you know how bad this could have gotten if Elia decided to sue? You’re damn lucky she didn’t.”

Did Simone know that Elia had contacted a lawyer? Kamryn wasn’t sure what the outcome of the meeting had been, but Elia had mentioned it, and it would have been the wisest thing for her to do regardless of the outcome.

“Are you stepping down, Susy? Or are we forcing you to step down?”

Kamryn watched with awe as one after the other, board members stood up to Susy, and forced her hand to resign effective immediately. As soon as she walked out, that left Heather. Kamryn held her breath, the tension tight in her chest to see what Heather would do next without Yara and Susy there to back her up.

“Heather?” Kamryn asked. “I think it would be appropriate for you to resign as well.”

Heather’s jaw dropped. “I…I thought we were coming here tonight to fire Elia.”

“No, we’re not.” Kamryn stayed right where she was, feeling so much more confident with the support of the board behind her. “We’re proving that she was right all along, and that Elia is the true victim in what I would call a witch hunt against her.”

“So you just want me to leave?” Heather screeched.

“I think it’d be a wise decision if you did.”

“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.”