Page 37

CHAPTER 37

Birdie

Aaron West. Just saying his name aloud after so many years sends a chill down my spine. “From the first day, he was...disruptive. Troubled in a way that went beyond the typical behavioral issues I dealt with. He’d stare at me inappropriately during class. He’d find excuses to linger after the other students left, follow me everywhere and say things no student should ever say to their teacher.

“I tried to deal with the situation as professionally as possible. I didn’t want to take it to the principal because Aaron had already been expelled from two schools before he came to mine. I wanted to give him a chance, so I talked to his therapist instead.”

Tristan gives me an understanding nod to continue. “And?”

Bile rises to my throat, and I have to pause.

“What did the therapist do about it?”

“He was very skeptical of my claims because Aaron had told him it was me who was trying to seduce my student. Aaron even showed him a very disturbing pornographic video I’d allegedly sent of the…things I’d have liked him to do to me.”

“Son of a—” Tristan bites his lip. “I’m so sorry, Birdie. You must have been furious. How did you handle it?”

“I had no choice but to take it to the principal, but I got the same response. Aaron was one step ahead of me, telling them lies to cover his tracks. I received a formal warning while Aaron was patted on the shoulder. The only reason I kept my job was that they couldn’t prove I sent that video.”

Tristan swears again. “I can’t believe this. I hate what they’ve done to you. There has to be something we can do to make them pay for it.”

“It was his word against mine, and in situations like these, even with at-risk students, theirs carries more weight. Every time I tried to defend myself, it made me look more guilty. Every time I rejected Aaron and demanded he leave me alone, he fed more of my colleagues at the school the same lies. I was stuck in a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. There was nothing I could do, so I just kept going and tried to put it behind me.”

“Why didn’t you leave, find a job somewhere else?”

“Because I needed the money and pulling out of my contract like that would have confirmed the rumors, but mainly because I was scared of Aaron. He threatened if I left the school, he would…” I trail off, the words too vile to voice.

“He would what?” he urges gently, his voice a whisper.

“He’d ruin me and make sure I never worked anywhere else.” I swallow hard, forcing the words past the lump in my throat. “He’d make everyone see me as the monster he painted me to be because he’d tell them I raped him.”

Fury flashes in Tristan’s eyes. His fists tighten, his knuckles turning white. “There has to be some kind of justice. He can’t do this to you.”

“I tried to reason with him, but he got a kick out of the power he thought he had over my life. That was when I realized I’d lost either way. If I’d left, he’d have told that horrific lie about me. If I’d stayed, what would have stopped him from flaunting the same threat down the line to force me to sleep with him. No matter how hard I fought, he’d still win. The only way to beat him was to take that power away.”

“What did you do?”

“I was done being a victim. I told him to go ahead and say what he threatened to say about me. I’d leave the school, disappear and never have to endure his harassment again.”

“What?”

“I already had plans to leave Miami because of Shane. Aaron gave me more reasons to follow through with them.”

“If all of that happened right after Shane, it meant you didn’t leave right away. You wouldn’t have taught me or met Blake if you had. You stayed for a while. Why?”

“I couldn’t believe it at first, but Aaron promised to behave and begged me to stay. What I said took him by surprise, and he realized how much damage he was causing me. I had my doubts it was another one of his games, another way to regain the power he’d lost, but he did behave. For months, he’d kept his promise, and I was convinced he’d come around and showed true remorse.

“But then I started seeing him everywhere I went again. The coffee shop, the park, the beach. He returned to corner me outside school, saying terrible things, until one day I saw him in his car outside my house.

“I decided to act before he could manipulate his way with more lies, so I took photos of him outside my house and yelled at him that I’d call the cops while I filmed the whole thing. He ran and stopped showing at my place. I was engaged to Blake then, and I believed it scared Aaron away. I thought it was over, but then I got weird messages on my socials from private profiles. There were phone calls in the middle of the night from screened numbers, and when I picked up, I only heard someone breathing. It was him. I knew it.”

Tristan lets out a frustrated sigh, running a hand through his hair. “He stalked you, and now, after all these years, he’s back.”

“No, Tristan. Aaron can’t be Butterfly Man.”

“Why not? Because you still think he’s redeemable after all the things he’s done to you?”

“Because he’s dead.”

He blinks and then shakes his head slowly. “Dead? I don’t understand. I thought…”

“You think I wouldn’t tell you about being stalked before if I thought for one second they could be the same person? I told you revealing Aaron’s story wouldn’t make any difference now. He died nine days after I’d threatened to call the cops on him.”

“What you’ve just told me isn’t the whole story, is it? There’s more.”

The memories of how Aaron ruined my life weigh down on me, so I sit. “I told Blake what happened, and he went to talk to Aaron. The next day, Aaron filed a report accusing Blake of harassment. He took that report to the school and asked to switch classes so that I’d no longer be his teacher. They granted him his wish and gave me another warning.

“One more, and I’d have been fired, perhaps even faced charges. I had to do something to stop him, so I asked Aaron to meet me away from the school and promised I’d come alone.”

Tristan grimaces. “Why would you meet that sicko alone?”

“A trap to get him to confess, to get the truth out of him, while I recorded him. That would have been evidence strong enough to clear my reputation. It’d have been leverage to make him stop harassing me.” My throat constricts with bitterness. “Except he never showed up, and the next morning he was found dead.”

“Jesus Christ. I didn’t know any of this. I don’t even remember someone at school who died.” He muses. “Wait, there was this one student who OD’d and was found dead in his car. Was that him?”

I nod once.

“I don’t get it. If he was dead, why did you leave Miami, change your name and come here? Why would you upend your life, excise it from one place and plant it in another as a different person?”

“Because even in death, he wouldn’t leave me be. Aaron had one of those apps on his phone for daily check ins, as a part of his therapy program. He set it that if he missed a day, the app would send an email to his parents and his school therapist. When he died, the email went out.”

“What did it say?”

My heart contracts, and a wave of nausea attacks me. “If I’m dead, it’s because of what she did to me.”

Tristan blanches. Even in the dark, under the moonlight, I can see the color rushing out of his face. All the time I’ve been telling him this story, he was angry and appalled but not shocked or disturbed. This part, the sick note…that’s what got to him.

I rest my forehead on my clasped hands. “You can imagine what they thought after that email. The police confirmed Aaron OD’d, and I had nothing to do with it, but his parents wanted to sue me. They said he committed suicide because I abused him. Blake pulled some strings, though. His friends at the station covered the whole thing up and convinced the parents there wasn’t evidence to back up the implied accusation in the email.

“The school covered it up as well, provided I resigned and never pursued a career in teaching again. As for Blake, he was suspended because he smashed the face of one of his colleagues after calling me a molester. Then he was forced to retire early.” I glance up at him. “There, now you know the whole thing. Why I had to leave. Why I didn’t want a former student of mine to be my bodyguard. Why I had to bury Reagan Fletcher and become Birdie Abel.”

Sweat beads his forehead. “If I could dig that maggot food out and kill him again for what he did to you, I would.”

“That’s…”

“Dark and twisted and sick? Yeah, I know, but he deserves it.”

“I was going to say sweet.” I shrug. “Not that it’d have made any difference. God, I hate drugs and what they make people do. They turn them into monsters capable of evil atrocities that ruin others’ lives and theirs. Aaron, Saldana, Blake…”

He pauses for a minute before he squints at me. “Did you say Aaron overdosed and was found dead in his car?”