Chapter 6

Evelyn's POV

She grabbed his sleeve with both hands. Her voice was trembling.

"My necklace is gone. The one you gave me at the auction. The Starfall."

Ethan's expression darkened immediately.

"You're sure you were wearing it?"

"I'm sure. I was only in the therapy room for a few minutes. I held that little boy, Sammy, for a moment, and then..."

Serena bit her lip. Her eyes were glistening as they turned to me.

"Ms. Hartley, I'm not accusing Sammy. But the necklace is worth three hundred million dollars. If it's really gone..."

Sammy again.

I put my hand on his shoulder and looked at Serena with measured calm.

"Ms. Blake. Are you suggesting that a six-year-old boy lifted a necklace off your neck while you were watching?"

"I'm not saying that! But he was the only one who came close to me!"

She burst into tears.

Ethan stepped forward. His gaze settled on me, heavy and still.

He didn't raise his voice. He didn't reach for me.

He just spoke, in that cool, logical tone of his that always managed to sound reasonable no matter what he was saying.

"Evelyn. Call the police. Let them search."

My whole body went rigid.

"Ethan, he's six years old. He can't hear, he can't speak. Children with special needs are emotionally fragile. If you bring police in here to search him, you could break something in him that never heals. The shame alone could scar him for life."

"Is his self-esteem worth three hundred million dollars?"

He looked at me. There was something in his eyes I hadn't seen quite so nakedly before, a kind of ruthlessness that didn't flinch.

"Evelyn, don't protect him at the cost of your own credibility. The more you cover for him, the more it looks like you put him up to it."

The words hit like something sharp and aimed precisely.

He was actually accusing me.

I pressed my teeth into my lower lip until I tasted blood.

I stopped pleading.

I turned around, in front of everyone who was watching, and upended my own canvas tote onto the table.

Lesson plans. A red pen. A few individually wrapped pieces of candy, scattering across the floor.

"I didn't take it. Neither did Sammy."

I looked up and met Serena's eyes directly.

"If we're searching, shouldn't yours come out too?"

Her face shifted. Her hands closed around her bag instinctively.

"What are you implying? That I stole from myself?"

"Open it."

I held her gaze and didn't move.

Serena looked to Ethan, her expression desperate.

"Ethan, she's..."

Before he could respond, I reached over and took the bag from her hands. I turned it upside down over the table.

A soft, clear sound.

The sapphire necklace slid out and came to rest beside her compact powder case. It sparkled under the fluorescent lights like nothing had ever happened.

The room went utterly still.

I turned to Ethan.

"Clear enough, Mr. Channing? Caught red-handed."

Something moved across his face, shifting, difficult to read. He looked at Serena, at the panic flickering through her expression, and then he let out a slow breath.

He walked over to her. He put his arm around her.

And then he looked at me.

"Evelyn. The medication she's on affects her memory. She wasn't doing it deliberately. You don't have to come at her like this."

Come at her like this.

I almost smiled.

I had fought with everything I had to protect my student's dignity. And that was what it looked like to him, aggression. Unreasonableness.

Of course. When someone stops loving you, even breathing becomes something you're doing wrong.

"Fine."

I nodded. Something inside me had gone very, very quiet.

"I won't push. You two should go."

That weekend, an unprecedented storm hit New York.

The wind was savage. Rain came in sideways. It felt like the city might simply be ripped from the ground.

The special needs school sat in a low-lying area. The old drainage system couldn't handle it. Within two hours, the first floor had water over the ankles.

And then the power went out.