Page 71 of My Forbidden Billionaire
“I’m part of this!” she insists.
“Part of what?” I finally manage to say. “Part of what, exactly? Did you do something that you’d like to share with Headmaster Thornton?”
Ms. Abadie exhales sharply and slams her hand on her own armrest. It makes an almost wet, slapping sound. “That’s it! That is … it! Do you see? Do you see, Headmaster, how she mocks me? How she taunts me? She did it in front of the school mascot and then in a classroom full of children! See?” She growls.
“The school mascot is a living, breathing student whom you bullied to no end in front of the entire cricket match. As for the classroom full of students, you came in, unannounced, banged the door open, scared the children, interrupted my class, and told me that you were conducting an impromptu inspection. Which I graciously allowed, until you, again, interrupted, by asking nonsensical questions. After you left, I had to apologize to the children because I was afraid of what they might tell their parents!”
“Is this true, Ms. Abadie?” the Headmaster asks her as he makes copious notes. “You never told me any of this. When did this happen? At the cricket match and...”
“Absolutely not,” Ms. Abadie replies, turning scarlet in the face. She rubs her hands together frantically and almost jumps out of her seat, trying to see what the Headmaster is writing in his personal notes.
I take a deep breath, realizing Headmaster Thornton has proven himself to be an objective and fair man, who doesn’t seem to want to be swayed by gossip and ill will.
“Miss Andrews, we do need to address this situation. The accusations that Ms. Abadie has made against you are very serious, as I trust you know. Please tell me what is your stance on all this?”
“Headmaster Thornton, I meant to talk to you about this...”
“That’s it! That’s enough! Look—I saw them, okay? I saw them cuddled up in the teacher’s lounge during the talent show on the first of December!”
The Headmaster is stunned and looks to me for answers.
“Is this ... true? Did you ... engage in physical activities with a parent on school grounds during one of the school events? While the students were here?”
“I did show a parent where the hot chocolate was but … I can assure you there was no cuddling involved.”
“Ms. Abadie, why would you even say something like this in the absence of proof?” The Headmaster turns to her.
“Well, I don’t have any proof of their canoodling, but I do have this!” She opens her purse and pulls out a stack of papers and shoves them in the Headmaster’s face.
They don’t look like much so I try not to allow panic to take over me again.
“Ms. Abadie ... really now. What is this?”
“You wanted proof? Here it is! These are emails between Miss Andrews and Mr. Jacob Carlton. In which she asks him to the cricket event, in which they flirt ... All of them on the school’s emailing system which, as you know, I manage! Now do you believe that they also are having an affair?!” She turns to me and grins, sending a chill through my bones.
The Headmaster quickly goes through the handful of emails that have, indeed, been exchanged between myself and Jacob and shakes his head in shock.
If the ground could open right now and swallow me whole, I would gladly do it myself, and never come back out.
“How could you, Miss Andrews?”
As I gather my thoughts, the door to Headmaster Thornton’s office swings open, and Jacob stumbles in, breathless, and red in the face.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jacob
I slam the door behind me. The slam is so sudden—so loud—that the room immediately falls silent.
Josephine, Headmaster Thornton, and Ms. Abadie all turn to stare at me. Behind them, I can see my reflection in the glass panes of a trophy case, which are still trembling from the reverberations of the slammed door.
I approach the desk and position myself firmly between Josephine and Ms. Abadie, then glare upon Headmaster Thornton.
Josephine looks shocked—to be fair, she’s never seen me this upset in all the time we’ve known each other. She also probably wasn’t expecting to see me here. But based on what I sense may be happening right now in the Headmaster’s office, I’m glad I made it here as soon as I did.
“I received your email, Mr. Thornton. You said I needed to come to the school immediately due to inappropriate relations with the teaching staff?”
As soon as I saw that ridiculous email from Thornton, I sprinted almost twenty blocks to make it here in time. There was no point taking a car—too much gridlock traffic. I knew that even my own chauffeur, who used to work as a stunt car driver, could not reasonably be expected to get me here as fast as I required.