Big Bad Professor(18)

Then darkness.

I woke up in the hospital eight days later with a broken body and a dead daughter.

“My life ended that day,” I said quietly, wiping the tears from my eyes. “I stopped caring about everyone and everything. Emily tried to be patient, but I started drinking and eventually drove her away, too.” I glanced into Audrey’s eyes. She was crying. She rested her head on my shoulder and put a hand over my heart.

“It wasn’t your fault,” she whispered. “Kiley would not want you to punish yourself like this.”

I snorted at her. “How would you know what Kiley would want?” I asked, pulling away from her. “How could you possibly know what my little girl would want?”

Rather than run away, Audrey took a deep breath and looked me square in the eyes. “Because my dad died three years ago of liver disease,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “He drank himself to death, just like you’re trying to do. And I can tell you with all my heart, the only thing I ever wanted was for him to be happy. Because when he was happy, he didn’t drink.”

Audrey got off the couch and knelt in front of me. She held out her hands. I rested my hands in hers and gazed into her eyes.

“Kiley wants you to be happy, Chase,” she said. “She wouldn’t want you to live like this. I think that’s why you and I have been brought together. Kiley told you to give me an F because she knew that I could help you get your life back. I couldn’t do it for my own father, but maybe I can do it for hers.”

I smiled at her. “Kiley told me to give you an F?”

“You never know,” she said, climbing onto my lap and wrapping her arms around my neck. “Angels work in mysterious ways.”





CHAPTER TWENTY: Chase

Nancy Dorfmann glanced at me from across her immaculate desk with a look of disgust on her face. She had a pair of reading glasses perched on the tip of her pudgy nose and was scanning a printout of the posts from FaceSpace, which the dean had ordered taken down, but not before Nancy could print them out.

“This is disgusting,” Nancy said, alternately reading a comment and then looking at me as if I had written it. “I can’t believe our students would post such filth.”

“I agree,” I said, frowning along with her and giving her a nod. “Most of these kids are shitheads, Nancy. But I’m not sure what that has to do with me. I didn’t post a comment to the thread.”

“Your actions prompted these shitheads to do this,” Nancy said, setting the pages aside and glaring at me over the top of the glasses. “You are becoming an embarrassment to this institution, Professor Hollander.”

“I know.”

“Neglecting to follow procedures, showing up to class inebriated, failing to administer the required tests, failing to submit status reports. And god only knows what other rules you’ve broken that we don’t know about.”

“I think you covered most of them,” I said.

She took off her glasses and shook them at me. “Do you find this funny?”

“Probably no funnier than you do,” I said with a shrug.

“I don’t find it funny at all.”

“Then neither do I.”

She glared at me for a moment. “I don’t understand you,” she said in her most disappointed tone. “You had such a bright career. For years you were the star of this department. Your students loved you. Your work was published in the top academic journals. The administrators and your peers respected you. And most importantly, you respected yourself. And now…”

“And now I don’t,” I said with a shrug.

The high I’d been on when I walked into Nancy’s office was gone. Now all I could think about was getting the fuck out of there and getting home so I could get shit-faced drunk.

Funny, the difference a few minutes can make. I’d spent the entire weekend with Audrey, and while my life outside of this office seemed to be looking up, I had pretty much fucked my career and left it to die on the side of the highway where I’d lost Kiley.

“The dean has asked for my recommendation regarding your future here at Trent State,” she said. “As you know, we can terminate your tenure with just cause.”

“I understand.”

“I think we have just cause.”

“I think you do,” I said, shrugging with my eyebrows.

I was a disappointing fuckup, tried and true, but I wasn’t going to give Nancy Dorfmann the pleasure of firing me.

Before she could say another word, I got out of the chair and left her office.

There was a fifth of whiskey in the glove box of my car that was calling my name.