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I paced outside the district office of Victoria’s school, shooting my eyes at the door as if I could will her to come out. Samantha stood off to the side, leaning up against the wall, looking at her phone as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
“Calm down, Zachary,” Samantha insisted.
“How can you be so calm? She’s in there alone, dealing with all of this.” I pointed at the door.
“She needed to go on her own. This wasn’t for you to handle or fix; it was on her,”
The three of us had gathered up all the information that we had on my father and Dr. Jansen, including the emails that Samantha had found. She was even able to talk to Charles' assistant and see if he would state what he had heard about the two men working together. Samantha had offered him a new position working for her with a considerable raise if he did. We hoped that we wouldn’t need to use him, but it was good to have him in our back pocket.
Victoria had been all for going and talking to the superintendent of the school right away. I completely agreed, but I didn’t agree with her going in on her own. We had argued about it for some time, but in the end, she had won as much because her mother had sided with her as I had seen that they were right.
“I should have gone in there with her.” I ran my hand frustratingly through my hair.
“No, you shouldn’t have. We gave her all the information she needed. She’s going to prove that Dr. Jansen had reason to say what he said and that he was doing it as a favor for Charles. When she comes out, it won’t be her job that is on the line but Dr. Jansen’s.”
Victoria needed to do this on her own. It wouldn’t look good if she came barging into her boss’s boss’s office with her boyfriend in tow. Even if I was the one who helped put her in this mess. She would do great talking to the superintendent, and I only hoped that she listened to Victoria and saw that this was all a horrible mistake and should be put behind us all. I knew all that, but it didn’t make the waiting and worrying any easier.
“Thank you for doing this. For doing it this way,” I said.
“I’ll get my day with Charles. I probably wasn’t the best wife to him, but he wasn’t the best husband either. We both did things we probably shouldn’t have, but this, what he did to you and Victoria, that’s too far. I wanted to take this to the first person in the media that I saw, but I know that isn’t what you and Victoria want. As much as I want to stick it to your father, and I will, this isn’t the way to do it. It would only hurt you and Victoria more than Charles, and that isn’t worth it.”
“Samantha, I might have underestimated you.”
“No, you didn’t. I was a bitch and horrible to your father, and I wasn’t that good of a mother to Victoria. But I’m trying to change my ways. I have no idea how long that will last or if it even will. But Arturo is helping me to see who I was and who I should be.”
“Good on you,” I said with a smile.
“We’ll see. He’ll probably piss me off in a month, and I’ll be back to my old ways,” Samantha said with a laugh.
“If you do, or you think you are, come see Victoria and me. We’ll talk you off the ledge.”
“You and Victoria, huh?”
“Yes, me and Victoria.”
“You two seem good together, a unit of sorts. You make her happy, and I’m happy that you do.”
“Thanks. She makes me happy, and I just want to do the same for her.”
“You went to a lot of trouble for her.”
“She’s worth it.”
“Yes, she is,” Samantha said with a smile.
She didn’t say anything more as Victoria walked out with a tall red-headed woman. They were deep in conversation as they stood at the doorway. I held my breath and watched the two women, trying to see any sign of how it had gone inside. I couldn’t tell as they were so deep in their discussion, but when Victoria smiled and the woman shook Victoria’s hand vigorously, I knew that things had gone well.
After a few more moments, the women shook hands again and walked away from each other. I stood and waited for Victoria to come to me and Samantha. Victoria looked a little taken back that we were standing there, but she kept her smile on her face as she approached us.
“How did it go? What did she say?” I asked when Victoria stood in front of us.
“We had a really good talk. It turns out that Dr. Jansen has been under investigation for a while for possible fraud and embezzlement. Dr. Reynolds hadn’t thought he would go so far as to resort to blackmail, but it will go a long way into making sure he’s fired and never works in the schools ever again. She actually thanked me numerous times for bringing this to her attention.”
“And us, what we did in your classroom? Tenure?”
It was one thing to get a crooked principal out of a school, especially when the superintendent wanted to get rid of him. I wasn’t sure how forgiving she would be for what Victoria and I did, especially if the rumors had started to go around the school.
“Dr. Reynolds told me I was the exact type of teacher she wanted in her school district. One who cared about the students and wasn’t afraid to stand up for themselves and what was right. She offered me tenure in her office and even said they had agreed to give it to me a week ago. Which only added to how bad Dr. Jansen was and what he was doing.
