Miss Brown's office at 9:49 in the evening looked exactly like what it was. A room belonging to a woman who had stayed too long and was now sitting with the consequences of a decision she had made three days ago and hadn't stopped turning over since.
She reached for her communication watch.
Sophia Vale's name sat at the top of her contacts like an accusation. The person she would call if everything went wrong. She set the watch back down.
What was I thinking, she said to herself, to the empty office, to the framed certificates on the wall that had been there longer than most of her students. Essential for the safety of the school.
She said it until it sounded like a reason rather than a justification. It took three tries.
Sending students on a job for Mr Kim had been a risk she had taken with her eyes open, which was the only honest thing she could say about it. She hadn't wanted to leave Hogsby. That was the truth at the bottom of all the other truths.
