Chapter 4

Valentine stared at me, blank and baffled.

"Why? Because I told you to sweep the floor? But this is your home too. What's wrong with tidying up?"

I didn't answer. I turned and picked up the bags I'd packed long ago.

I'd barely cleared the complex gates when my phone rang.

It was Joanna.

I meant to reject the call, but a second one came through fast.

I finally picked up.

For the first time, I heard Joanna crying, her voice catching.

"Stella, I'm sorry."

My steps faltered.

She sniffled.

"After you left in a huff just now, I went online and looked up everything I'd done."

"And I realized the things I did last night… none of it was right."

Her voice grew urgent.

"Stella, you know how it is."

"I have high-functioning autism."

"Sometimes I honestly don't know where the normal lines between people are supposed to be. I don't understand why certain things make all of you so upset."

"But I never meant to hurt you."

"Can you forgive me? Please?"

I closed my eyes and said quietly,

"Joanna, I don't want to be the person who has to endlessly cover for you clever people anymore."

"I'm divorcing Valentine, and I'm not being your friend either."

Joanna was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly said,

"Then can you come to my lecture today?"

She paused.

"The charm your mother left you before she passed is still with me."

I stopped dead.

"How is it with you?"

That was the keepsake my mother left me when she was dying.

It had vanished a while back, and I'd turned the whole house upside down looking for it.

Joanna said,

"Valentine gave it to me. He said I get nervous going up on stage. When the two of you got married, you only calmed down once you were holding that charm, so he brought it for me to use. It's in my office right now…"

I was shaking with rage. I hung up and rushed straight to her lab.

Joanna wasn't there. The charm sat on the desk.

I grabbed it and left.

What I never expected was that the next morning,

I was in the middle of teaching a public art class to my kids.

The classroom door slammed open, and dozens of people, men and women, young and old, came pouring in.

Before I could even react, a woman slapped me hard across the face.

"You can't have children yourself, so you have to make sure no one else can either!"

Then someone yanked my hair and shoved me down beside the podium.

"Eighteen mothers in labor!"

"Since yesterday, eighteen women were given the wrong drugs, and every one of their babies is gone!"

"Dr. Pierce's patient records were all tampered with, and the last person on the security footage who went into her lab was you!"

Blood welled at the corner of my mouth. My head spun.

"I didn't change any data!"

"All I did yesterday was go get the charm my mother left me."

"There are cameras in the lab. Go check them."

I looked at Joanna, standing behind the crowd.

"The one who did this isn't me! Don't have a medical accident on your hands and then pin it on me!"

Joanna's eyes went red in an instant.

"Stella, I know you've got the wrong idea about Valentine and me."

"But whatever grudge you have, take it out on me. Why hurt those innocent mothers?"

"If you did something wrong, you just apologize! How can you frame someone else?"

Valentine came over and pressed down on me, trying to force me to my knees to apologize.

"The camera in Joanna's office is broken. There's no footage to check at all! You knew that, and that's why you have the nerve to slander her so brazenly!"

I shoved him off hard and said, one word at a time,

"I had no idea the camera was broken! And I didn't do it!"

Valentine looked at me with disappointment.

He turned, walked up to the school administrators, and gave a deep, formal bow.

"She is my wife. For her to do something like this, I bear responsibility too."

"I ask that the school dismiss her at once and issue a public reprimand."

Now that even my own husband had said as much,

the parents and school officials, who had been uncertain until then, all turned on me with anger and doubt.

"Teacher Fox! I never imagined you could be this vicious! How is someone like you fit to teach children?"

An administrator said to me, sick at heart,

"I was about to nominate you for the state Outstanding Teacher award. How could you do something like this…"

"Given all this, I have no choice but to dismiss you and issue a statewide reprimand…"

Valentine said to me coldly,

"I know you can't accept this. Teaching children to paint has been your dream since you were young, and you worked five years for this award."

"But to get revenge on Joanna and me, you threw away the lives of all those children and mothers. Someone with a heart like yours teaching, that's nothing but harming children!"

"On top of that, you destroyed Joanna's career. As the price, you have to pay with your future too."

I clenched my fingers, bit down hard on my lip, and stared at him coldly.

Just then, several officers walked into the classroom.

"Who called the police?"

Under everyone's startled eyes,

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and said, "I did."

I raised my hand and pointed at Joanna, saying each word clearly,

"I have proof to report her. She broke protocol and caused eighteen mothers to lose their babies."

My voice began, little by little, to break.

"And my three children, they all died at her hands too."