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“I’m not sure if you knew why I had called you down here, but I—”
“I think I do, and if I need to be reassigned to another Senior Lit class, then I’m fine with that.”
I didn’t want to make things awkward, or draw things out between me and the Dean. Being honest, I just wanted to go back home where I’d been for days, and lick my wounds there in private. It was pretty ironic that I wanted my privacy now, but when I had Callum in my life, it was more like a noose around my neck than anything welcomed.
“I’m afraid that it isn’t as easy as that. I’ve received something very troubling that involves you and your professor.”
“Something troubling?” Now, he was starting to worry me. “What did you receive?”
The Dean turned his laptop around for me to face, then pointed to the play button. When I hit the key and the video started to play, I wished the floor would open up below me and swallow me whole. This was taken the night of the masquerade ball, and we were in the hallway. I remember hearing something strange, but Callum had brushed that worry aside. I remember thinking if he’d heard it that he’d be paranoid and go off to investigate the source. He hadn’t, which put me at ease. Old buildings creaked from time to time, and I’d allowed myself to believe it was the cause.
“I don’t understand. D-did Callum say this was me?” I could still possibly play this off, or at least I hoped I could. I remembered his hatred when he saw me, and I realized at that moment that he had to have seen this, too. And if so, he thought I’d been the one to turn him in. A different form of shame filled me at that assumption, especially because I’d threatened him with this very thing that day in his office.
I hadn’t been able to forget the feel of his mouth moving urgently over mine, or erase the words he said that still echoed in my head. I had been in a vulnerable state of mind at the time. I’d not believed his confession of love to be true then, and I definitely didn’t now. After I left his office, he waited a few days before sending me gifts. The masquerade mask and charity event ticket were one thing, but the book and warning had been so scary, I’d no choice but to file a complaint and have a restraining order issued.
Callum had never been so cruel as to do what he’d done, and if he brought this evidence to the Dean, it was just digging the blade deeper into my chest. I’d wanted to believe this declaration in his office, but it’d been said in desperation, and not something he’d shown me to be true, either before or after, that day in his office.
“I know the two of you were seeing each other, so that’s no longer in question. I also know the two of you were kissing in his office. He—”
“What?” I couldn’t believe Callum would be so cold as to ambush me like this. Was this because of the order of protection? I intended to find out, but first, I needed to appeal to this man and hope he didn’t throw me out of school. My father had enough to deal with when it came to his own grief, so I didn’t want or need this to get back to him.
The dean slid an envelope over to me, and I saw the two of us together. I flipped through each one, and they brought back memories I’d fervently tried my hardest to suppress. Now, it was as if all that hard work had been for nothing. Needing to maintain my composure, I forced my hands to stop shaking, and put the pictures back into the envelope. Then, I handed them back to him.
“What’s going to happen?”
“Miss Courtland, let me start off by telling you that I know your family, so I know the type of upbringing you’ve had. Sometimes, you never know with a student, but I can say with all certainty that this isn’t a reflection of the woman I know you to be. I’ve reviewed your records and transcripts from Stanford, and you were an exemplary student there. You’ve been one here, too. That’s why it’s so hard to wrap my head around you purposely breaking the rules set forth by the university.”
“I—”
“Let me finish. I know your mother passed away recently after a bout with cancer, and I’m very sympathetic to your plight. My own mother passed away a decade ago, and not a day goes by where she doesn’t cross my mind. Grief can make someone do things they normally would not, which is why I am more apt to go easier on you.”
“What about Callum?” I was truly worried for him, especially since I knew there was no way he could have taken those pictures of us in his office.
For one, he would’ve never been so reckless as to jeopardize a career he worked so hard for, and just to hurt me. In fact, he’d told me to shut the door which he wouldn’t have done if he intended to have someone in the hallway taking our pictures. I knew where the cameraman had to have been standing, and it now made me wonder if Callum had been behind any of the other stuff, either. I was so confused, and now scared for the two of us.
This is why you needed us to keep things secret. If only I could’ve been stronger for us.
“Callum has been suspended indefinitely pending an investigation.”
I wanted to rail out and tell this man that Callum was innocent, but he wasn’t. We knew the risks involved, and still took them anyway. If I’d only stayed in bed with him that night, and stayed in his life afterward, then none of this would be happening. The wheels put into motion had been started by me, and now I understood the hatred reflected in his eyes when he looked at me a few minutes ago. He’d never forgive me, and if I was wrong about him being the one harassing me, I’d never forgive myself.
“It isn’t his fault.” I wanted to go into more detail, but I’d only make matters worse.
“I’ve known Callum Meyers since he was a boy. He’s a good man. I hate that this happened, but rules are rules. No one, including a Titan, is above them on this campus. That also includes the daughters and nieces of a Titan. I’d like for you to finish the remainder of your classes this week remotely, then we’ll revisit the next steps when students return for classes in January.”
I stood up, then nodded mutely. I left his office and didn’t even breathe until I was outside of the building. The cold December air hit me, and I wished now that I had thought to grab a jacket. The Dean wanted me off campus, so I resisted the urge to make any pit stops and headed out to the parking lot. This time, however, I made sure to focus on my surroundings.
If Callum was indeed innocent when it came to the gifts, it meant someone else was out there watching me, but who? Goosebumps rose on my flesh, and I quickly scurried to my car and got inside. Once safe in the enclosed space, I finally allowed the first tear in days to fall, and it soon caused a flood as they leaked from my eyes and rolled down my cheeks.
I didn’t stop anywhere once I’d left campus. I made it to the parking garage and not a minute too soon because the snow was falling heavily down and as a Southern California girl, I had not the faintest idea of how to drive in that kind of precipitation. I parked my uncle’s car, and as soon as I got out of the vehicle, and started toward the entrance, someone came up behind me. I knew it was a man by the cologne, and not the kind I’d come to associate with Callum. At first I thought it was him, but the touch wasn’t the one I’d been unable to forget, and I had no time to figure out who it was, either. As I opened my mouth to scream, a chemical soaked cloth covered my mouth and within seconds, everything went black.
CALLUM
Four boxes and a couple of plaques were all I had to show for my career. There was no one to blame but myself because I’d known better than to get involved with one of my own students. I would’ve said that ‘you live, you learn’ but the bitterness was still so potent right now. While what I did wasn’t illegal in the criminal sense, it was unethical and would result in my ouster from this university. It’d forever be on my disciplinary record, which up to this point was non-existent, and follow me around to the next job if I was lucky enough to find one.
“Your womanizing ways will always catch up with you,” Jonas had once told me, Gabriel, Romeo, and Daxon back at Mason and Rhyann’s wedding a year or so ago. Little did he know how true those words would hit, and with his niece of all people.
I’d known Jonas Courtland since I was young. He was best friends with Mason, and their family had a mountain retreat next to my grandparents. I briefly remembered Logan, but he was older by the time our families started to get together regularly. I suppose that I’d never asked about him, or his family, not that it would’ve made a difference. I still would’ve met Nicole and been just as attracted to her. She’d become more than a fascination. Being with her had become an obsession, and now it would be my destruction.
