Chapter 12 - Confronting the Monster
Before they took Principal Vance away, I demanded five minutes.
Agent Cole stood outside the door of the administrative conference room on the ground floor of the school district building, where Vance was being held while agents boxed up five years of hard drives and hidden financial ledgers.
When I pushed through the door, Arthur Vance was sitting at the head of the mahogany conference table, his tie undone, his face the color of wet chalk. His hands were cuffed behind his back.
He didn't look like the untouchable, haughty administrator who had dismissed my daughter’s pain as a ploy for attention. He looked small. Pathetic.
“Sarah,” he stammered, his voice hoarse. “Listen to me... you have to understand. The school was facing bankruptcy. We were going to have to lay off thirty teachers, cut the arts, cut the sports—”
“You traded my daughter’s life for a football field,” I said, walking slowly toward him.
“I didn't know it would hurt anyone!” he wept, the tears of a coward who had finally been caught. “Cytec told us it was harmless! They said the water was safe!”
“You forced Nurse Henderson to lie,” I said, leaning down until my eyes were inches from his. “You watched Chloe sit in that clinic, crying, unable to swallow, and you told the staff to let her suffer because you were afraid of losing your bonus.”
“I’m sorry...”
“You don't get to be sorry,” I said quietly. “My daughter survived because she is stronger than you will ever be. And tomorrow morning, every parent in this town is going to find out what you did.”
May you like
I turned my back on him, leaving him alone in the dark room with the echo of his own ruin.
***
