Freak by Jennifer Hillier

Author:Jennifer Hillier [Hillier, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mystery, Thriller, Adult, Azizex666
ISBN: 9781451664560
Google: NTgg0ou2HqIC
Amazon: 1451664540
Barnesnoble: 1451664540
Goodreads: 13086970
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2012-08-07T04:00:00+00:00

chapter 22

IF THE EXECUTIVE vice president’s boardroom was designed to be intimidating, it was working. Sheila had never felt so small.

She’d had to cancel her late afternoon class to be at this meeting, and the three faces seated across from her now at the long mahogany table were infinitely scarier than the three hundred faces that would have attended her lecture.

There was the vice provost of undergraduate education (who, though married, had drunkenly hit on Sheila at a Christmas party three years earlier), the young director of human resources, whom Sheila had met with twice after she’d returned to the university following her stay in rehab the year before, and an older woman Sheila knew was high up in the chain of command, but whose specific title she couldn’t remember.

Sheila’s immediate supervisor, Dean Simmons, was seated quietly beside her, and this made her even more nervous. Normally a smiling, cheerful man, the dean hadn’t said anything to anyone once he’d entered the boardroom. He’d brought with him a thick red folder, which he’d placed on the table between them. Sheila had no idea what could be inside, and she was afraid to find out.

The preliminary discussions were over, and all she could do now was sit and listen to what they had to say. Her back ached from the tension, which was so thick in the room it was hard to breathe.

“In light of everything that happened last year with you and Ethan Wolfe, we think it’s best if you leave the university.” Louise Jardin, the woman whose job title Sheila couldn’t remember, was speaking, her thin red lips pursed in disapproval. “PSSU never really recovered from your incident last year, and now, with news of your . . . sex addiction . . .” She said the words with such distaste, Sheila wondered if the old lady would choke on them. Jardin didn’t finish her sentence.

“My incident?” Sheila repeated. “Recovered?” She sat up straighter, trying hard to keep her tone professional and even. “I’m sorry, but what kind of recovery was needed for the university? I was the one who was kidnapped, if you recall. I was held captive for three weeks by a man who turned out to be a serial killer.”

“Yes, but he was your student,” James Schneider, the vice provost, said. His raspy voice reminded Sheila of Jerry, though that was the only similarity. His steely eyes were fixed on her face. “You had an affair with your student, Dr. Tao. That’s not something the board can overlook.”

“With all due respect, sir, you overlook it all the time.” Sheila gripped the arms of her chair, needing the support, though she continued to speak politely and firmly. “I can think of four professors who’ve been involved with their students, and they’ve all received nothing more than slaps on the wrists. I think it’s wholly unfair that you would single me out for making what I fully admit was an error in judgment, and there’s no precedent for firing a professor because of a romantic involvement with a student.

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