Page 5 of Brat Baby
Xavier straightens, thumbing at the split on his lip. He doesn’t say anything as he rubs his index finger against his thumb, examining his own blood.
The hands holding on to me shove me away from him, and I land against my desk.
“What the hell is going?” Darcy demands, breathing heavily as he puts himself between the two of us.
I flick a hand toward Xavier. “He knew she was a student. The contract we all signed? It doesn’t have the Student Declaration section we all agreed on. Emery did nothing wrong.”
As the words drain the fight from me, the memory of her face as I told her we aren’t her daddies anymore smashes into me. Devastation had filled her eyes and drained away the flush of her skin. The way she flinched when Darcy moved suddenly. Heartbreak and confusion. The fear. The pain.
My chest is pierced with an ache so violent, I can barely breathe.
What did I do?
“Wait… so, hold on,” Darcy starts, but swings away from me and turns to Xavier. “You changed the contract? Why?”
I look up in time to see Xavier give Darcy a flat stare before he answers. “Because she’s perfect.”
Three fucking words that couldn’t be more true.
Hudson turns away from the three of us, pacing toward the couch before jerking to a stop and flinging his arms out as he faces us once again, face hard, eyes like ice. “So, what? You took it upon yourself to steal our choices from us? We could have had this conversation with her, we could have figured something out.But now? You’ve backed us into a fucking corner! This can’t be salvaged!”
Xavier shrugs and leans back against the wall. “I’m going to quit. This job is nothing compared to her. You should too.”
I glare at him. It’s not that fucking simple. He hasn’t given decades of his life to this career, nor does he have plans to move beyond being a lecturer. I fucking do. As does Hudson.
“You’ve known her for three days. Three days, Xav. That is nowhere near long enough to know she is who you want her to be. To toss away your career like that. That’s what the six months was supposed to be about,” Hudson argues, slashing his arm down in front of himself. “But now, that’s gone. Because of you. We can’t be caught even talking to her. She’s officially off-limits to all four of us.”
“I’m not leaving her.” Xavier’s words are calm, even, like he is commenting on the color of the carpet, not talking about breaking the code of conduct for the university. “She’s mine. I’m keeping her. The three of you can do whatever the fuck you like.”
With those final words, he straightens and exits the room, the rest of us in too much shock to stop him from leaving.
As soon as the door shuts behind him, Darcy and Hudson turn to face me.
“What the hell are we going to do?” Darcy asks, eyes cutting to the door and back to me.
There is a trill from my pocket as the alarm on my phone chimes. A second phone starts to chime as well. I close my eyes, my eyelids actually aching, and take a deep breath before fishing my phone out of my pocket and canceling the alarm I’d set to make sure I wasn’t late to my first class.
“We’ll discuss this tonight. Meet at my place at seven. But for now, we need to get on with our days. Young minds to mold and all that.”
For a whole minute, we stand silently in the room, staring at each other and at nothing, trying to process everything that happened. But then Hudson straightens and walks out in silence, Darcy trailing out a few moments later.
I drag my fingers over the sheets of paper until the very last page is displayed.
Her artwork stares back up at me, mockingly. I had everything I ever wanted in the palm of my hand, and this drawing is all I will ever have to show for it.
I’ve worked too damn hard to be where I am now. I’m tenured, head of the math department, with my aim at the dean’s office. As much as I want Emery in my life, my bedroom, and under my floggers, I can’t allow things to progress any further.
I have to save the rest of us.
I have to keep Emery safe.
And maybe, just maybe, I can find us a way out of this mess.
Chapter 3
Emery
Staring at my flushed, damp reflection in the restroom of the math building, I assess my current situation. The cool water I’ve been splashing on my face has helped reduce some of the red puffiness, but it’s clear that I have been crying. A lot.
