Teaching Willow: Session Three by Paige James Read Free Book Online Page A

up a fight.  He admitted that he was guilty and left without making a fuss.  Sounds like he’s not a complete idiot.”
    The room gets hazy right before it starts to spin.  My chest is tight and achy, and my stomach swims with nausea.  “Dad,” I plead weakly, sitting on the edge of the bed and resting my head in my hands.  “Will you please back up and explain what you’re talking about?”
    Please, please, please don’t let this be about Ebon.  Please, please, please.
    There’s a long pause before my father clears his throat to begin.  I hear my mother whimper just as the first words leave his lips.
    “Someone saw you and your…your professor doing, ahem, um, inappropriate things in his classroom last week.  Evidently this person debated turning you in, but she was concerned that your teacher was taking advantage of you and that your welfare was suffering because of it.  Although your mother and I couldn’t be more ashamed, we realize that this is likely a product of you coming off your meds, so we don’t blame you, Willow. But him?  Oh, we definitely blame him.  He should’ve known better.  To take advantage of an innocent girl like this…”
    He trails off as my world implodes.  I can’t believe any of this is happening.  I knew that there was a significant chance things between me and Ebon would end badly, but I thought it would be a result of my deceit, not something like this.  I mean, there was a risk, a small chance that he could lose his job, which is probably why he stayed away from me, but…it was so small.  I never thought…  Not really.
    I’m too stunned to cry.  Too stunned to think, almost.
    “I spoke to the Dean about making arrangements for you to get incompletes on your classes this semester so that we can take you out of school and get you the help that you need.  He was very agreeable and—”
    That gets my attention and I interrupt explosively before he can continue.  “You what?”
    I stand and face my father fully, fury bubbling through my veins. 
    “Willow, you need help. You know you can’t just stop taking your medications. We can’t let this go on.  We’ve been down this road before.  We can’t risk it again.”
    “ We haven’t been down any roads, Dad.  I have. I’ve been through hell once already in my life, all because of you and your uppity ways.  If you think you’re going to force me into getting help that I damned well don’t need, then you’re crazier than you think I am!”
    “Willow, we know firsthand how you respond to situations like this. For chrissake, it’s already beginning! The obsession, the utter lack of reason then the depression.  We know what comes next. When was the last time you left this room?”
    I hate—hate, hate, hate—that he has a point, that he caught me like this.  “Just because I’m a little upset over a relationship ending doesn’t mean that I can’t pull myself out of it.  People grieve in different ways at different speeds, Dad.  You can’t come in here, unannounced, and get half the story and make your judgments.  That’s not fair.”
    “Just because you can’t see what’s happening doesn’t mean that we can’t.  It’s the same story all over again.”
    “No, it’s not!  The only reason things got out of hand with Gray is because you two got involved! If you’d just left us alone…”
    “We couldn’t do that.  You are our daughter.  What he was doing to you  was…was… unconscionable.”
    “We were in love!  Just because he was older—”
    “You were fifteen!  He was twenty-five!  Having sex with a child, taking pictures of her, making videos…there’s a name for that in this country.  And it’s not tolerated, nor should it be.”
    Tears scald my skin as they course down my cheeks.  “But you didn’t have to turn him in, Dad.  That is what pushed me over the edge.  He went to prison!  You didn’t have to take it so far.  He would’ve listened. He