Emily turned back to the paper on her laptop knowing that she wouldn’t be able to get any work done now. Her mind was swirling with thoughts of Kurt and Malcolm Jennings and the whole horrible mess they’d landed in.
Once again, she knew Audrey was right. Stopping communication with Kurt even after all this started, maybe she was doing exactly what she’d accused Kurt of doing. Maybe she was trying to put off this potentially unpleasant confrontation as long as possible.
With a decisive thud, she closed her laptop and pulled out her phone. She was going to text Kurt. She was going to text him and tell him that, given what had happened, they needed to settle this once and for all.
No sooner had she pulled up his name in her contacts list then her phone vibrated in her hand. A text with Kurt’s name at the top stared back at her.
“Meet me at the Dr. Schneider’s Office. Malcolm wants to talk to both of us.”
Fear gripped her at first, almost instinctively. When she remembered Malcolm Jennings from the night at the dinner. The hardness of his small eyes had made her feel even then that he was not a man to be trifled with.
But, then she realized that, at the very least, she and Kurt would have to speak to one another. They would have to work this out. And, with Malcolm Jennings there, maybe Kurt could get him to be reasonable. Surely, he didn’t really want his daughter to be stuck in a loveless marriage. His reputation could not mean that much to him.
So, taking a deep breath and telling herself to at least attempt to see the positive in this, she quickly pushed out an affirmative reply and headed to the University.
Despite the positive spin, she’d tried to put on this meeting, her heart continued to thump all the way to the President’s office.
When she entered the lobby, Dr. Schneider himself greeted her.
Seated in one of the lobby’s cheap green chairs, anyone might have thought that he was a junior professor worried about his class attendance or, perhaps a job applicant waiting to be seen by the president.
Very few would guess that this small, nervous looking man with his balding black hair, large framed glasses and bow tie actually was the university president. And the simpering smile that could not mask his nerves as he stood to shake her hand did not improve the image at all.
“Emily! I’m so sorry you have to go through this,” he said. “I know it’s been a rough couple of days for you.”
Not able to answer, Emily gave him as good a smile as she could muster. Though, she thought it probably looked more like a grimace. The sympathetic look in Dr. Schneider’s face intensified when he saw it and he beckoned her towards the seat next to his.
The two sat in a tense filled silence for several moments. Beyond Dr. Schneider’s door, Emily could hear Malcolm and Kurt’s voices very distinctly. Try as she might, however, she could not hear what was being said.
“They’re still talking,” Dr. Schneider said unnecessarily. Emily, again not sure how to answer, nodded. Another several moments passed in tense silence.
“I got your final draft,” he said finally. “Of the book, I mean. I’ve got to say, it’s very, very good. Just a shame the University won’t be able to let you take the credit for it.”
“What do you mean?” Emily asked turning to him.
Dr. Schneider looked at her in surprise, his eyes wide behind his spectacles.
“I…I’m sorry, I thought you would know all ready by now,” he said haltingly. “Though, I suppose they’ll discuss it with you when Malcolm calls you in. See...after this scandal…Mr. Jennings won’t let your name appear anywhere on the book once it’s published. You won’t be mentioned in the acknowledgments either.”
“Oh,” Emily said. She found she didn’t have either the breath or the heart to say anything more. It wasn’t that she desperately wanted the fame or the prestige of being credited on this book. To tell the truth, in the beginning, she’d assumed that she wouldn’t be. And, she’d been fine with that.
What bothered her was Malcolm Jennings attempt to erase her from Kurt’s life all together. It was as though he was trying to make Emily’s very existence disappear entirely.
“I’m sorry,” Dr. Schneider said again. “But, it was one of Malcolm's conditions for letting Kurt stay on staff. And, with the promise of this book…what it will do for the University’s reputation…I just can’t afford to lose Kurt Schmidt as a professor.”
“One of his conditions?” Emily asked hurriedly, her stomach plummeting once again. “What were the others.”
Dr. Schneider opened his mouth to speak but after a moment, his eyes darted nervously to his own closed office door.
“I…shouldn’t say,” he answered. “I’m sure they’ll talk to you about it.”
Emily was about to nod in acceptance again. But, then she began to think about why she should. It seemed to her that between her and Kurt and Dr. Schneider, there was a whole lot of accepting going on. All of them accepting what Malcolm had to say without a word of disagreement.
In short, too much accepting and not enough fighting.
“Why should you lose Kurt?” she asked. Dr. Schneider turned to her in surprise, his eyes once again wide behind his huge spectacles.
“Well, I thought…with the scandal and everything…I mean, I hope I won’t but…”
“You’re the president of the University, aren’t you?” Emily asked putting a stop to Dr. Schneider’s stammering. “Shouldn’t you make the final decision about who stays and who goes?”
“Of course,” Dr. Schneider said somewhat defensively. “And I do have the final say. But, you have to understand. Malcolm Jennings is- “
Before Dr. Schneider could finish the thought, he jumped and let out an undignified squeak when the office door opened.
Malcolm Jennings strode out, head high and face blank as stone.
“Emily,” he said to her. “I’ll see you inside now. Dr. Schneider, I’ll call you when we’re ready for you.”
Emily stood and, as she passed Dr. Schneider, he looked as though he wanted to say something either apologetic or consoling.
In the end, however, he looked up at Malcolm and then back at the floor.
Emily knew she shouldn’t have expected much of a fight from Dr. Schneider. He wasn’t the fighting type. He was too much like Kurt. An intellectual who hid in his books and was more than a little uncomfortable with confrontation.
That was when she realized that if any of them were going to fight against Malcolm Jennings, it would have to be her.
So, as she passed through Dr. Schneider’s office door, she gave the man her darkest glare and prepared herself for battle.
Chapter Ten
“I’ve talked to Cheryl. There will be no divorce,” Malcolm Jennings said. Almost as soon as Emily entered the room, he’d positioned himself behind the President’s desk with his hands folded in front of him; peering out at Kurt and Emily as though they were errant children who had created a mess and he was now here to clean it up.
“Kurt and Cheryl will go to marriage counseling and work out any issues that they have.”
“Malcolm, I told you, we tried that before it didn’t- “
“Miss Pratchett,” Malcolm Jennings continued holding up a hand to silence his son in law. “Will continue her graduate studies at another University of her choosing.”
“Wait, why do I have to leave?” Emily asked. Fusain had been the only University she’d applied to for her graduate work. It was the only place she truly wanted to go.
“Because, both I and the president would prefer it if Kurt stayed on here,” Malcolm said. “And, obviously, we can’t have you on the same campus.”
“So, you’re just assuming that Kurt and I are over?”
Emily glared at him as hard as she could, silently taking deep breaths to calm her nerves. When he looked up at her, those hard, sharp eyes suddenly filled with repressed fury, it was more difficult than she thought it would be not to back down.
“Of course it�
�s over,” he said. “Do you honestly think you were just going to keep doing…whatever it was you were doing? While Kurt’s wife and hundreds of other people knew about it?”
“I didn’t think that it would keep going exactly like it was,” Emily said though her voice sounded much softer, more beaten down than she’d expected it to. “But-“
“Good,” Malcolm said talking over her. “Then you’ll agree that this is what’s best for everyone.”
The finality of his tone said that he didn’t expect any push back on his pronouncement. With another deep steadying breath, Emily reminded herself that she had to push back. She couldn’t give in.
“…But, we can’t pretend that nothing happened either,” she said. “Partly because, in nine months, there’s going to be very real evidence that something did happen between me and Kurt.”
The look Malcolm Jennings was giving her now, as though he would like nothing more than to strangle her where she stood, had probably felled stronger people than Emily. But, with another deep breath, Emily remembered what she’d told herself.
She had to fight. She had to fight for herself, for Kurt and for their baby. If she didn’t, no one else would.
“If you think you’re going to black mail me with some fake pregnancy-“
“I’m not,” Emily said. “I am pregnant. And, before you ask, I don’t plan on getting rid of it or giving it up for adoption. I’m going to keep my baby. I’ll raise him on my own if I have to and I’m not asking for a penny from you but, I am going to have our baby.”
Malcolm's glare turned into a sneer that spelled nothing but contempt. Though, his eyes softened slightly as though he was a bit impressed with Emily.
“And how can we be sure the baby’s Kurt’s?”
For the first time since Emily had entered the room, Malcolm's eyes glanced to his son in law. Emily looked to him too. Half hoping that, spurred on by Emily’s courage, he might show a little of his own. Hoping that he would berate his father in law for the implication that Emily had been sleeping around and, what’s more, tell him that he was divorcing Cheryl no matter what Malcolm had to say about it.
But, the longer she looked at Kurt, his eyes pressed to the floor not daring to look at either Emily or Malcolm, hands twisting nervously in his lap, the more she realized that she was going to have to keep fighting alone.
“Well?” Malcolm said impatiently. He looked between the two of them as though he too was expecting Kurt to answer.
“Believe it or not,” Emily answered instead. “I’m not some slut. No matter what those meme’s say. I haven’t been with anyone but Kurt in over a year.”
Malcolm let out a small snort of disbelief at that. Emily looked to Kurt once again, praying that that snort might cause him to stand up and defend her. Kurt glanced at his Father in Law. His lips went tight and a muscle seemed to jump in Kurt’s jaw. But, he said nothing.
“I’m willing to do a paternity test when the baby’s born if that would make you more comfortable,” Emily said sarcastically. Anger was now replacing her fear at confronting Malcolm. And she knew she wasn’t just angry at Mr. Jennings. She glanced sideways again at Kurt, the nervous twisting of his hands, his refusal to speak, filling her stomach with a bubbling rage.
“Anyway,” Emily said cuttingly, feeling as though she was speaking to both men. “The point is, I’m going to have a baby. And, no matter what, you two are going to have to deal with that.”
She ended this pronouncement with a glare at Kurt who caught it and looked up at her. His eyes were wide with surprise and confusion, as though he didn’t know why this anger was being directed at him.
“I suppose we will,” Malcolm said turning Emily and Kurt’s attention back to him. Malcolm slunk down in his chair and heaved a heavy sigh.
“Of course, it would have been a lot easier if we only had to pay you a onetime sum to take care of the problem,” he said. “But, since this is what you’ve decided, I’m sure we can discuss a monthly payment once the baby’s born.”
“I said I didn’t want your money,” Emily told him through gritted teeth.
“But, you’re getting it none the less Miss Pratchet,” Malcolm said fixing her with another glare that sent shivers down her spine and made her want to retreat.
“In the meantime, you’ll transfer out of Fusain University and to another school. I’ll make sure that your scholarship transfers over and you get a good recommendation.”
“How generous,” Emily muttered sarcastically. Malcolm ignored her.
“You won’t have to come back to campus,” he continued. “You’ll finish out your work for this semester from home. And, needless to say, this is the last you’ll see of Kurt. And now, if you could send Dr. Schneider in on your way out, I’d appreciate it.”
He looked down at the papers in front of him and began shuffling. It was a clear indication that he wanted her to leave.
She knew that she shouldn’t. She knew that she should continue to stand and fight. But, when she opened her mouth to speak, she found that she had nothing left to say. The man now pointedly looking at his papers in front of her, the man who was clearly showing her that she was not worth any more of his time, had defeated her.
Emily’s energy already felt sapped. A mixture of anger and fear and pain welled up inside her. It felt as though she was about to scream or burst into tears at any moment.
She couldn’t fight any more. She didn’t have the energy.
But, she knew she couldn’t give in either. She’d promised herself that she wouldn’t. What she needed was someone who was willing to fight with her. To take up the charge when she couldn’t do it any longer.
She looked at Kurt who, she could tell, was trying his level best not to look at her. That muscle kept jumping in his jaw and his eyes were fixed at a point on the floor directly ahead of him.
She knew this look. He’d worn it with her a few times before they’d started…whatever it was they’d been doing the past month. It meant he was repressing something. There was some feeling he desperately wanted to let explode out of him but he didn’t dare give voice to it.
When he got like that before, Emily never mentioned it. She knew it was best not to push his buttons about things he’d rather not talk about.
Now, she knew that she didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t fight alone. If they were going to be happy, he had to fight too.
So, taking a deep breath, she grabbed hold of the last emotional reserves she had. And turned to Kurt.
“Is that what you want, Kurt?” she asked. Kurt looked up at her, the pain in his eyes so palpable it almost made her gasp.
“Miss Pratchet, I told you. That’s all we need from- “
“I’m not talking to you,” Emily said turning to Malcolm. A bit of the anger she’d been holding in as best she could now fly out at him in her darkest glare yet. Even Malcolm Jennings’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. Emily didn’t care. She turned back to Kurt.
“Kurt, if you want me to disappear, if you want me to go to another school and never see you again, I will,” she said. “But, if I do, I want to know that it’s what you want. It’s not something he’s making you do.”
Kurt glanced quickly between Emily and Malcolm, a flush rising in his cheeks. It was as though someone had presented him with two doors, both unlabeled. One led to life and the other certain death. Now, he was trying to decide which one to take.
The longer his silence continued, the angrier she became with him. The truth was, she knew what he wanted. What he truly wanted. He wanted to be with her and he wanted to keep his job.
The question now was which one he wanted more.
“You’ve got to make a choice,” she pressed. “Do you want me to stay or do you want me to leave?”
The tension in the room had come to a boiling point. Even Malcolm had stopped shuffling his papers and seemed to be on the edge of his seat, waiting for Kurt’s answer as much as Emily was.
“Emily,” Kurt be
gan. Her heart sunk when she heard the defeat echoing in his voice. “Emily…I…I can’t.”
Tears welled in her eyes and it took the last of Emily’s strength not to let them run down. Blinking them away, she nodded.
“Ok then,” she said. “I…I guess this is good bye. I’ll send Dr. Schneider in.”
Without turning back to look at either of them, she walked quickly out of the room. As she opened the door, she felt hot tears sting at her cheeks and she knew it was useless to wipe them away.
Chapter Eleven
“He wants to see you now,” Emily said to Dr. Schneider. Her voice was thick with the tears which still ran down her cheeks. If it hadn’t been for those, she might have smiled at the irony of inviting the University President into his own office.
As it was, all she could really, truly focus on was trying her level best to get out of the lobby doors and off campus where she could think about what she was going to do now.
“Emily? Are you all right?”
Dr. Schneider asked moving towards her concerned.
Tears still streaming down her face, she nodded and attempted a small smile.
“Yeah,” she said. “I mean, I’m not all right now. But…I will be.”
He looked as though he wanted to say something to that but, whatever it was, Emily knew she didn’t want to hear it. She gave him another smile and turned towards the door. Apparently, that was enough for Dr. Schneider. As soon as she turned from him, she heard his quick footsteps moving towards the office door. As soon as the door opened, she heard another set of footsteps, much stronger but just as quick rush out.
Emily didn’t dare turn around.
She had a feeling she knew who was rushing after her. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say either.
“Emily!”
Without stopping at the sound of Kurt’s voice, without turning around, she opened the lobby door and marched out into the hall.
She didn’t think he would follow. And, she told herself she didn’t want him to. He’d made his decision. He’d proven that his job and his father-in-law’s wrath was more important to him than she was.
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