Page 40 of The Banned Books Club

“Even having a boy over would do that. If a student claims they were threatened or struck—or molested, as in this case—there’s hell to pay, right? Believe me, after the years we spent in the school system, and the difficult students and even more difficult parents we encountered on occasion—not to mention the stories we read in the paper, which were even worse—we’d learned not to take chances. So I couldn’t understand why he’d set himself up like that.”

“The fact that he broke with protocol is what made you suspicious. But she was a neighbor, Mom. He claims she just walked over uninvited.”

Sharon shook her head. “No. That didn’t ring true, either. He was staying home that night for a reason, and I believe it was to see Gia.”

“Women’s intuition?”

“That and his growing obsession with her.”

Cormac felt his eyebrows shoot up. “What do you mean?”

“Leading up to that night, I’d been treated tosomany comments about this particular girl. How bright she was. How special she was. What a great student and writer and person and...you name it. He admired her for standing up to the women who forced him to ban the books he wanted to assign in class and was involved in helping with that renegade book club she started. In my opinion, it put them in too much contact.”

“Gia was beautiful, too.” Shestillwas...

“He never came right out and saidthat, but I could tell he thought it. He was making me uncomfortable where she was concerned long before the accusations came out.”

“Did you say anything to him before that night? That you could tell he was getting too caught up in Gia?”

“I once asked him if he realized how often he talked about her, and he said I was being ridiculous, that he had no interest in her other than to see her make it to college.”

“Then why’d he give her a D on her paper, knowing she had to have a B to get an A in his class?”

“He claimed it was truly subpar. You heard him at his trial. But I read that paper. I’m not saying it was the best research paper in the world, but it wasn’t a D. It was well thought-out, the right length, structured correctly, with footnotes and everything. At the worst, he could argue she deserved a B minus, but not a D. She was right about that.”

His mother had hit a nerve because Cormac had read Gia’s paper, too. Way back when, a photocopy of it had circulated around the school. But he’d been a year younger and hadn’t understood what her research paper should’ve been like, so it hadn’t been too hard to trust that it was lacking in some way, as his father claimed. He’d told himself he just didn’t see it because he wasn’t a teacher.

Since then, however, he’d realized it truly wasn’t that bad and had relied on the fact that grading English papers could be very subjective to shore up his belief in his father. Besides, his father had admittedly high expectations for her. But a D? Ds were reserved for people who didn’t put much effort into their work, didn’t follow the syllabus, didn’t turn in the assignment on time or turned in papers with huge gaps in logic, poor writing, grammar and punctuation—or a mixture of all those things. Gia’s paper had none of that. “Did he mention he was disappointed in her paper before that night?” he asked, still looking for some way to cling to his conviction that Gia was lying.

His mother carried her own cup to the counter and stood opposite him instead of sitting down. “No. After everything else I’d heard about her, I would’ve thought he’d say something. But he never said a word.” She took a sip of her coffee. “And the way he acted when we got home that night?” She grimaced. “He was so agitated. He couldn’t sleep, made several comments about how students make things up and that even the best teachers can run into trouble when there was dishonesty involved. It was as if he was preparing me for what was about to happen, hoping to inoculate me against Gia’s accusations.”

Cormac frowned. “Is there anything else?”

“Gia,” she said simply.

“Gia?”

“I hate to admit it, but she came off as more authentic to me. Could be that it was a trick of the prosecution, but the fact that she’s stood by her story ever since—”

“Dad’s stood by his story, too,” Cormac interrupted. “I feel like they’d both have to—to save face.”

“I realize that.”

“And Gia was strong-willed, a free spirit who wasn’t afraid to defy authority. I could see her trying to get away with something like...like making it all up to get a better grade.”

“Which is why Evan might’ve thought he had a chance with her,” she said softly. “Have you ever thought of it that way?”

When Cormac cursed under his breath, his mother came around to squeeze his shoulder. “Don’t let this drive you crazy, honey. It’s water under the bridge. Regardless of what your father did or didn’t do, it’s all in the past. Just...forgive him and move on.”

“Is that why you’ve never tried to persuade me or Louisa or Edith?”

“I didn’t want to persuade anyone because I wasn’t sure I was right. No one likes to accuse an innocent person. I just had enough doubt that I could no longer trust Evan. So, as much as I knew it would be difficult for you and the girls—and I still feel bad about how hard the divorce was on all three of you—I had to get out of the relationship and start over.”

He couldn’t accuse her of being selfish; she’d lived her life mostly for them for a decade or more after, when they were all well into adulthood. It wasn’t until a few years ago that she’d started to date, and even more recently that she focused on herself with the weight loss and new wardrobe. “If that was what you needed for your own sanity and happiness, you did the right thing.”

Her lips curved into a smile that was full of gratitude. “Thank you. I didn’t want to be married to someone who could—”

“Take advantage of one of his students?”

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