Page 2

Megan cut him off. “I need you as a support person in a meeting. Right now. Meet me at the VC’s boardroom. I’ll explain when you get there.”

“I’m on my way.”

Having a lawyer in the family had been handy when her parents had died last year. As well as dealing with the tragedy, and sorting out the family house, Megan and her sister, Kathy, had to sort out the mess of their estate. Tony, Kathy’s husband, worked part-time at his family’s law firm, but his first love was academia and now he spent most of his time at the university lecturing in his associate professorial position

Beth’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Megan, please tell me. What the hell is going on?”

Megan picked up the letter and was surprised to see the fine paper shaking in her hand. Taking a deep breath, she read the first paragraph to her friend.

“As you have not responded in writing to the allegations made against you, you are required to appear before the disciplinary committee at one pm, Thursday the seventeenth of June, 2011.”

“Disciplinary committee? And what allegations?”

Quickly skimming the rest of the letter, she looked up at Beth and shook her head. “I have no idea. It doesn’t say. And I’ve had no other communication about any allegations, either in a meeting or by email or letter.”

Megan picked up the rest of the unopened mail and discarded the letters one by one as she flicked through them. “Nothing else. That’s all there is.”

Beth grabbed her hand. “Come on, I’ll walk over with you.”

“I can’t go like this.” Megan gestured to her clothes and purple Doc Martens. “I look like a radical student, not a serious sociology lecturer.” She glanced over at her suitcase by the door, all packed and waiting for the taxi she’d booked to take her from the North Shore to Sydney International Airport at two thirty. “I’ve got decent clothes in my luggage. I’ll have to change.”

“Megs, you haven’t got time. You’ll have to come like that. Now, come on.” Beth pulled her across to the door and Megan threw her faded cardigan on the chair before they stepped into the corridor.

Nancy Robinson glared at her over the top of her thick spectacles as Megan walked into the foyer of the board room, flanked by her best friend and her brother-in-law. “You’re very late for the meeting, Miss Miller.” Her voice was cold—but her expression was filled with satisfaction at Megan’s tardiness.

Bitch.

Megan looked at the woman who had always treated her with dislike. Her eyes were protruding, and the large pouchy bags beneath them gave her a permanent hangdog expression. She looked like one of those cartoon characters with the permanent whine.

Biting back the retort hovering on her lips, Megan smiled even though her face felt as though it would crack from the effort. “My sincerest apologies, Miss Robinson. I haven’t had a chance to clear my snail mail,”— she emphasized the word snail— “and as you know this has been a marking week. An email or an internal network message would have found me much more reliably. Perhaps next time you could use that.” She kept her tone even and saccharine-sweet.

The secretary looked at her primly, her thin lips pursed before she spoke. “Some processes are too formal for email, Miss Miller. And I doubt if there will be a next time. Your case is very serious indeed.”

Tony stepped with a brisk nod. “I think you are breaching confidentiality there, Nancy. I don’t believe it is your business—or your place—to comment.”

Miss Robinson coloured brick-red as she glared at them. “I will call the disciplinary committee and advise them of your arrival.” She looked Megan up and down as she picked up the telephone on her desk. The curl of her lip said it all as she took in Megan’s attire.

After speaking into the telephone, she turned to Tony. “Professor Gaines, you and Miss Miller may go in now.”

Beth reached over and hugged Megan. “I’ll wait out here while this mess is sorted out. God knows, whatever it is, it’s the last thing you need after the last six months.”

Chapter Two

The accident that changed Megan’s life happened on a lazy Sunday afternoon in late spring, 2010. Her parents had been on their way back to Sydney from a deceased estate sale in the lower Blue Mountains.

“Your father’s found a sale with old sheet music and vinyl records going back to the fifties.” Mum had sounded less than enthusiastic when she’d called that morning, but she always kept Dad company on his jaunts to whatever sale was going. “But I think there’s a Christmas artisan market at Faulconbridge today too, so it won’t be too boring.”

“Pick me up some creamed honey if you see some, please, Mum,” Megan had asked.

“I will, love.”

Megan still carried guilt brought on by the last words her mother ever spoke to her. “Dad said there’s something there that you’ll love, that’s why we’re going so far today. Consider it an early Christmas present. We’ll call in for a drink on the way home.”

“Stay for dinner too. Tony’s promised homemade pizzas tonight in the wood fire.” Megan lived in a granny flat underneath Kathy and Tony’s house. “And you know what a gourmet cook he is.” Megan remembered laughing about Kathy’s cooking skills. “Just as well, poor Kath can’t even boil water without setting the smoke alarm off.”

“We’ll be there for sure. See you later.” Mum had said.

But there was no later.