Chương 8
“You still stayed in the chat.”
“I know.”
Elena watched them turn toward each other, each reaching for a smaller portion of blame.
“Stop,” she said.
They did.
“This is not a hearing. I’m not deciding which of you is least awful.”
Connor looked at his hands.
Elena continued scrolling.
A message from Madison appeared the night before commencement.
She’ll bring the kid. Bet fifty.
Connor responded: Then give her the stage. Bell loves a redemption story.
Elena set the phone down.
“Did you submit anonymous complaints?”
Connor’s eyes lifted.
Priya turned toward him.
“What complaints?” he asked.
“Three people complained to the administration that I was getting special treatment.”
“I emailed commencement.”
“Anonymously?”
“No. From my student account.”
“What did you say?”
“That I didn’t think children should be onstage.”
“Why?”
“Because commencement has rules.”
“Rules you thought mattered after you saw my name.”
Connor did not answer.
Priya said, “You told us it was anonymous.”
“I said they wouldn’t tell her.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“You knew I was sending it.”
“I knew about one email.”
Elena held up a hand.
“Who else complained?”
Connor shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Did you send screenshots of the group chat?”
“No.”
“Did Madison?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena believed him about that. Fear had stripped away much of his performance. He no longer seemed clever enough to manage multiple lies.
“What happened with your employer?” she asked.
His face closed.
“You mentioned it in your message.”
“They suspended my start date pending review.”
“Did they say why?”
“Conduct inconsistent with the firm’s values.”
Priya stared at the table.
“My mother’s store has received hundreds of calls,” Connor said. “Someone posted our home address. She had to close yesterday.”
Elena felt no satisfaction. That irritated her. Satisfaction would have been simpler.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing.”
“You contacted me.”
“I wanted to apologize.”
“You also told me about your employer and your mother.”
His eyes reddened. “I don’t know what I want.”
That, at least, sounded true.
The employee stocking forks dropped an entire plastic sleeve. Utensils scattered across the tile. She muttered something and crouched to gather them.
Elena sipped her coffee. It had gone bitter.
“I’m going to make a statement,” she said.
Connor looked up sharply.
“I’ll say I don’t support threats, doxxing, or campaigns against your families.”
His shoulders sagged.
“I won’t say what you did was a misunderstanding. It wasn’t. I won’t ask your employer to keep you. I don’t know you well enough to tell them what kind of employee you’ll be.”
“I understand.”
“And I won’t say you apologized unless I decide the apology means something.”
His mouth tightened. “Okay.”
Priya said, “What would make it mean something?”
Elena looked at her.
Priya held the gaze this time.
“I don’t know yet,” Elena said.
She turned back to Connor.
“Send me the full chat.”
His face changed again.
“All of it?”
“All of it.”
“There are messages that have nothing to do with you.”
“Then export the relevant dates.”
“People said things. They trusted the group was private.”
Elena almost smiled.
“Now privacy matters.”
Connor looked away.
Priya took her phone. “I’ll send it.”
“You can’t send my messages without permission.”
“You sent her confidential accommodation information.”
“That doesn’t make everything fair.”
“No,” Elena said. “It doesn’t.”
She pushed the phone back toward him.
“I don’t need the chat to punish you. I need it because the university told me the complaints included screenshots, and I want to know who gave them access.”
Connor’s brow furrowed. “Why?”
“Because they opened my financial aid and employment records. Then they wrote a fundraising campaign about me.”
Priya’s head came up.
Connor stared.
“The university did what?”
Elena showed them the draft Caroline had sent.
Priya read it first. Her mouth hardened at the line about student and child appearing together.
Connor leaned over the screen.
“This is exactly what I thought they were doing,” he said.
Elena took the phone back.
“No. You thought I was helping them do it. I wasn’t.”
“I know.”
“You turned your suspicion about the institution into contempt for the easiest person to see.”
Connor’s face went pale.
Priya whispered, “That’s true.”
The café clock showed twenty-six minutes had passed.
Elena put on her coat.
“Send the messages by tonight.”
Connor nodded.
“Elena,” Priya said, “there is something else.”
Elena waited.
“At rehearsal, Dean Weller told Caroline they had ‘found the right face for the retention campaign.’ I thought she meant Dr. Bell.”
“Why would Dr. Bell be the face of a retention campaign?”
“I didn’t think about it.”
Connor let out a humorless breath. “None of us thought enough.”
Elena looked between them.
“Did anyone else hear?”
“Madison was close,” Priya said. “And the student photographer.”
“What photographer?”
“Evan something. He was taking rehearsal pictures.”
“Would he have recorded audio?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena buttoned her coat.
She had spent the past day wanting fewer recordings of her life. Now she was considering whether one more recording might matter.
Outside the grocery store, she stood beside a row of shopping carts and called Professor Shaw.
The professor answered on the second ring.
“Elena.”
“Did I get the Halpern Fellowship?”
Silence.
A car rolled slowly past the entrance.
“Elena, the committee has not made a public announcement.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No.”
The word struck with less force than she expected.
“Did Connor get it?”
“I cannot discuss another student’s application.”
“So yes.”
“I did not say that.”
“You didn’t need to.”
Professor Shaw sighed.
“Elena, your interview was excellent.”
“But.”
“There were concerns about travel.”
“What travel?”
“The position includes client visits throughout the region, sometimes with little notice.”
“I said I could arrange childcare.”
“You said you believed you could.”
“What was I supposed to say? I can’t promise a daycare will stay open during a snowstorm.”
“This was not my decision alone.”
“Did you recommend me?”
May you like
“Yes.”
“Did the committee say having a baby made me unreliable?”
