Chapter 169: A Visitor
Moana
A few more days passed by after that. By the end of our first week of school, it seemed as though Ella and I both had settled in quite well. Ella was making loads of friends and loved her teachers, and I also enjoyed teaching. It finally felt as though I was living my childhood dream of being an art teacher, although I did find it difficult to connect with the other teachers. They weren’t unkind and did exchange pleasantries with me each day, but I could tell that they didn’t want to associate with me too much since they still thought that I was human. Maybe over time they would get to know me a bit more and would get over some of their biases. However, right now I couldn’t help but wish that my wolf would just emerge already so that I would stop having to deal with this sort of attitude from people. Unfortunately, however, it didn’t seem like Mina was getting a whole lot stronger. She seemed to be stagnating a bit at her current level of strength.
“It’s probably the baby,” she said when I asked her about it one morning. “I think when you have the baby, I’ll be able to get stronger. For now, your body is focusing on keeping you both healthy for the pregnancy.”
It made sense, but it didn’t necessarily make me feel any better about the situation.
For now, because no one really wanted to talk to me too much, I spent the majority of my lunch breaks eating and drawing in my classroom. Normally it was fine and I quite enjoyed the down time, but on this particular Friday I quickly came to the realization that I should have gone to the faculty lounge when I heard a knock on my door.
I looked up, my cheeks stuffed with my sandwich, and quickly covered my mouth with my hand when I saw the headmistress standing there.
“Oh, sorry to interrupt,” she said. “But you have a visitor.”
I finished chewing and swallowed, then waved her in. “Thank you, Headmistress Hawkins,” I said with a smile. I half expected it to be Edrick stopping by, or maybe Selina.
But my smile faded when I saw who it really was: Ethan.
“Hi, Moana,” he said with a bit of a sheepish smile. He was holding a vase of flowers in his hand as he walked into my room.
Part of me wanted to yell at him to get out after the way that he kissed me. I had thought about it a lot, and I was almost entirely certain that he and Kelly had worked together that night to make Edrick kick me out. I remembered the evil look in his eye when I saw Edrick confronting him, and how his demeanor suddenly shifted theatrically when he noticed me standing there. It wasn’t just that, but seeing him so suddenly instantly reminded me of my conversation at the orphanage with “Olivia”, who I was still unsure about. If it was possible that she really was an actress after all, then Ethan would have been on my list of suspects as to who hired her to begin with.
But I didn’t yell at him or kick him out. Maybe I was too nice; or maybe I was afraid. If he worked with Kelly before, then did he work with her when she hired those Rogues to attack me?
“Hey, Ethan,” I said, standing from my desk so abruptly I almost knocked my chair over. “Um…” My voice faded away. What was I supposed to say to him? To what do I owe the pleasure? Nice to see you? What the hell are you doing in my classroom? “Long time no see.”
I almost instantly cringed at my choice of words, but Ethan didn’t seem to notice. Instead, he simply held up the flowers a bit.
“I brought you a peace offering,” he said, his cheeks turning a little red with embarrassment. “I know I hurt your feelings that night at the party. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it and I’ve realized that I overstepped a lot of boundaries, and that wasn’t right. But I’d like to make it up to you, if you’ll let me.
I still didn’t entirely trust him, but I was willing to hear him out. Maybe he would confess to working with Kelly. He did seem as though he was trying to make amends.
With a stiff smile, I walked around my desk and took the flowers from him. They came in an expensive-looking crystal vase, and the flowers were a lovely array of sunflowers, baby’s breath, and chamomile. I set the vase down on my desk, feeling Ethan’s eyes on me the entire time, and turned back to offer him another stiff smile.
“Thank you,” I said.
Ethan smiled back at me. There was a bit of an awkward silence as we stared at each other like two cautious felines, before he broke the silence by looking around at the classroom.
“So, you’re an art teacher now, huh?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. Ella is coming to school here now, and the position was open, so I just went for it.”
Ethan looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “You convinced Edrick to send Ella to school? How on earth did you do that?”
I shrugged. “He pretty much came to the conclusion himself,” I said. “I just recommended it.”
“Hm.” Ethan nodded slowly, then shoved his hands in his pockets and stared down at the floor. “Well, I’m happy for both of you,” he finally said, lifting his gaze a bit to meet mine. I had forgotten how charmingly shy he always was. It didn’t make up for what he did and what I saw in him on the night of the party, but he wasn’t acting suspicious now. Was this all an act too, or was he genuinely sorry for everything that happened and wanted to be friends again? Honestly, I was a bit lonely since the other teachers didn’t really want to associate with me, but at the same time I knew that being friends with Ethan — regardless of how sincere he was being — wouldn’t bode well for my relationship with Edrick. Things were going so smoothly between Edrick and I now that I didn’t want to throw a wrench into it by secretly becoming friends with his half-brother again behind his back.
“Anyway…” Ethan paused, chewing the inside of his cheek, and leaned back on one of the desks behind him. “I saw on the news that you two are officially engaged?”
I nodded. I didn’t know if I should have told him whether it was fake or not, although if Michael, Verona, and Kelly all knew, then he surely knew as well. Either way, I wanted to be vague, so I didn’t say anything.
Ethan looked at me for a moment, then quickly looked away. His cheeks turned a little red again as he spoke.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” he said, clearing his throat and meeting my gaze once more, “what made Edrick suddenly decide to have a public relationship and announce you as Ella’s biological mother?”
