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“It was a really important call. It was about her art show.”

“Sawyer—” I wasn’t sure how to ask her what I needed to know, whether I even wanted to know. “When he hugged you, where were his hands?” She sighed, ready to be done with the conversation. We were so far from done with it. “When he hugged you, did he touch your back? Or your hips? Or lower?”

“He just squeezed me tight. That’s how I knew I came up to his belly button, because I could feel it against my nose.”

“Did he touch you anywhere else?” I managed to ask.

“I already told you. My face. And we compared hands.” Through the static that flooded my ears, I heard the faint sound of a horn blaring. “Mom, you have a green light.”

I flooded the gas and pulled out in front of opposing traffic to spin the car around.

“Mom,” Sawyer screamed, slamming her hand onto the window. She kept her hand there for the short drive back to campus.

When I pulled into the school entrance, I zipped past the line of cars for late pickup and double-parked out front. I ran out of the car, then heard Sawyer scream from the back seat. I pointed to the kids still playing in the yard.

“Go play,” I said.

“What’s going on?” Sawyer seemed more annoyed than scared. “I want to go home.”

“Go.”

She cast me a bruised expression before stomping off.

“Soy?” I called. She shot me her best teenage glare. “I love you.”

She didn’t actually roll her eyes, offering me the bodily equivalent instead before storming off.

Inside the elementary school, I raced past the art room, where Stella was cleaning up. As if she sensed me, she peered into the hall as I walked past. It happened in slow motion, her head floating up, a flash of fear before I slipped out of view.

“Mona, what’s up?” Jill said as I stormed into her office. She smiled benignly at me, betraying no surprise or unease as I immediately started in on the story Sawyer told me.

“Let’s back up.” Jill motioned with both hands for me to slow down. “I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding? Jill, my daughter was left alone with an adult man who doesn’t work for this school. I’m not sure there’s a lot to misunderstand there.”

Unflappable Jill, always so even, so measured. She pressed her lips together, her face not betraying any emotion.

“Let me get Stella before we discuss this any further.”

I waited in her office, its walls lined with degrees from the kinds of universities we wanted our children to attend, as she dashed off to find Stella. Naturally, my mind drifted to the time she summoned me at Cassie’s command, how the mere whiff of Cassie’s frustration had resulted in school-wide policy changes. I wondered if she would offer me the same courtesy.

When Jill returned with Stella, I realized how young and wide eyed our art teacher was.

“Okay.” Jill clapped her hands and smiled a little too evenly. “Stella explained to me what happened. You’re right, Sawyer was alone with Mr. Stevens. That shouldn’t have happened, and I’m not minimizing the situation here, but Stella was right outside, and it wasn’t more than a minute.”

I slumped back in the seat, knowing I’d already lost. For all their talk of community and a child-first approach, their priority wasn’t the truth or my daughter. Cassie, without even knowing what had happened, had won.

“I’m really sorry, Mrs. Watson. It’s no excuse, but I was just outside. And Travis, Mr. Stevens, he’s great with the kids. There’s no reason to think . . . I take full responsibility. I promise you, nothing happened.”

“Explain to me how you can make this promise when you weren’t even in the room?”

“Mona—” Jill interjects, but Stella says over her, bruised and defeated, like I’m just being so mean, “Travis would never do anything.” Her voice trailed off, and all I could think was, For fuck’s sake, she has a crush on him.

I should have grabbed Sawyer and never looked back. But the school was our community. Even if the administration wasn’t focused on that fact, I was. I ran the PO, for fuck’s sake. And I wasn’t about to punish my daughter for the school’s grave lapse of judgment by taking her from her friends. For Cassie’s grave lapse of judgment, too, by letting her brother into our school.

“Here’s what we’ll do.” The smile on Jill’s face was starting to make me sick. “We’ll set Sawyer up with the school counselor so they can get to the bottom of it—” And there were those cautioning hands again. “While I completely understand the concern here, there’s no reason to think that Mr. Stevens did anything inappropriate with Sawyer. He’s a relative of one of our students. He came recommended by her mother.”

That’s when it hit me.

“You didn’t do a background check on him, did you?” I laughed in disbelief as Jill pressed her lips together again and remained quiet.

“I’m very sorry, Mrs. Watson—” Stella stammered. Jill shook her head no to silence her.

I stood and smoothed my pants. “We won’t be needing the school counselor. We’ll find our own psychologist to talk to Sawyer.”

With that, I calmly waltzed out before either of them had a chance to respond.

Above me, a bolt of lightning flashes across the sky, muted by the cloud cover. I’ve been standing still, between steps, for so long that my shoe is adhered to the thick mud. My ankle screams as I break my foot free, but I keep walking, ambling along, thinking about the evidence in my backpack, how everyone will have to stop calling it Sneakergate, like it’s some sort of joke, when they learn the truth about Travis.

I don’t blame them. Cassie got to the rumor mill before I did and set the tone for the story as it made its way through the channels of our small school. A complete exaggeration. Drama queen Mona, blowing it out of proportion as usual. It was impossible for them to think anything like that could happen at the Chester School, especially not with Cassie Bent’s brother, CEO of Bent Designs. Obviously, it was me being dramatic. Now—now they will know exactly what kind of man Travis Stevens is. What kind of woman Cassie Bent is too.