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“Come on in.”
I was shocked she didn’t blink at my surprise attendance.
“Mrs. Baker,” Rhys greeted. I did an awkward half smile in my own form of greeting. It just didn’t feel like the right occasion to be ecstatic. When was anyone ever happy to get called to the office?
“Rhys, how are you doing?” She started us off with small talk. Great.
“I’m doing okay. What’s this about?” Rhys cut right to the chase.
Mrs. Baker sighed and pushed some of her graying hair out of her face. She was young, much younger than the gray hair would lead someone to believe, but she exuded a kind mothering vibe. “We’ve been made aware of some very unsettling news. Your mother will most likely be talking with you when you get home. I did call her to invite her to this meeting, but she declined.”
Shocker. Rhys had a soft spot for his mom, much the way Beck did, but I just couldn’t see why they had the attachments they did. Then again, sometimes I felt broken in comparison because I didn’t have those same feelings for my own wretched parents.
“What news?”
She rolled her lips together, as if she needed to figure out a way to soften the information she was about to lay in his lap. In the end, she spit out the details. “A news story broke a few hours ago. Your father’s arrest has been made public, or I should say more public. But what’s worrisome is a specific piece of news that’s trending. Someone has made a connection between Stan and Noel Warrick.” She paused.
If she was waiting for a reaction, I wasn’t going to give her one. I’d never heard the name before.
I glanced at Rhys but he looked just as confused as I was. Then his mouth pressed together, and he dropped his gaze to the desk.
“Nothing outside of a connection has been made, and we’ll do our best to stop the students from chatting about it in the hallways. But it’s inevitable they will say nasty things to you. Or about your family. We wanted you to be prepared so this doesn’t come out of left field.” She clasped her hands on the desk. “Do you have any questions?”
I wanted to ask why they’d allow people to say nasty things and get away with it, but we understood how the school worked. They couldn’t watch everything, and unless the students were being malicious in intent, I didn’t even think they’d get detention. Rhys probably wouldn’t report it anyway, so what was the point?
“No.” He shook his head casually even though his expression was one of thunder.
"All right, Mr. Bennett. Our counselor is here in case you need someone to talk to. We’re sympathetic to your situation and don’t believe poorly of you at all because of this news.” She stood.
“Why would you?” I stood too.
“Excuse me?” Her eyes widened.
“Why would you think poorly of him because of someone his dad knows? Or did? Or about anything that doesn’t have one single thing to do with Rhys? That’s ridiculous to say, but since you said it, it makes me think you do actually believe it.” Where was this fire coming from? The principal was trying to be nice, but the way she’d said it burrowed under my skin.
Rhys caught my hand in his, the rough callouses scratching against my palm. “It’s fine, Astrid,” he murmured. Then to the principal he said, “Thank you for the heads up.”
He gently tugged me out of the office and down the hallway. Instead of going to our next class, he pushed open the front doors and the bright sunlight warmed our skin.
“We’re leaving?” I asked.
“Hold on,” he said as he opened the passenger door and waited for me to get in the Rover before going around to the driver’s side.
I held the million questions burning in my gut as he sighed and gripped the leather steering wheel. His entire demeanor was off. Whatever this piece of news was, it shook him.
“I just needed to get out of there. You don’t really have many unexcused absences, right?” He glanced over at me with sad blue eyes.
“No. I’m fine to leave,” I said quietly as I reached my hand over to rest on his thigh, right above his knee.
“Good. Good.” We pulled out, and once we were a few miles from the school, he started to talk. “You know, I’ve despised everything my dad stood for, for most of my life. He’s abrasive, arrogant, entitled. Stan Bennett believes everyone will fall into his line of thinking with no qualms because of hismight is rightmentality. When he got arrested, I was shocked. But not. After I had time to think about it, knowing what I know about my dad, it made total sense he wouldn’t blink twice about committing that type of crime. He probably thought he had enough connections to never get caught.
“But this…” he let his head fall back against the headrest. “My dad is a lot of things, but I really hope he isn’t the same type of person as Noel Warrick.”
“Who is that?”
His head rolled to the side, and he shot me a quick glance before looking back at the road. “You didn’t see the news last summer?” When I shook my head, he continued. “It took me a minute to remember. I think what jogged my memory was how shaken my dad had been when he’d turned on the TV. Noel Warrick was a big influencer in society, and a real estate mogul. After her death, it came out that she was also into child trafficking.” His fingers flexed over the wheel. “I really, really hope he just had real estate dealings with her and that’s it.”
“Wow, I…” I didn’t know what to say. Then something occurred to me. “Rhys, people won’t care whether he was part of that business or not. They’ll assume the worst because of his other crimes.”
