“You’re not really going to send me into the woods, are you?”
Eliza smiled. “Trust me. It’s a good thing. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll learn about yourself out there.”
“I suppose you always know what’s best.” Amber’s voice was light enough that Eliza couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not. “You know, I think maybe you’re right about my parents,” Amber continued. “Maybe they really do deserve to be forgiven.”
Eliza raised an eyebrow. There was something unsettling about Amber’s tone. She’d switched so rapidly from sullen to cheerfully compliant that Eliza couldn’t help but doubt her sincerity. It suddenly felt like she was watching a play—and Amber was the lead actress.
* * *
Later that evening, Eliza heard a quiet knock on the screen door of her apartment. She looked up from the progress reports spread out on the coffee table in front of her and smiled when she saw Henry standing on her porch.
“Hi,” he said. “You busy?”
Eliza shook her head. “Not at all. Come on in.”
He opened the squeaky screen door and let it swing shut behind him.
“How are you?” He sat on the couch beside her.
“I’m swamped. It’s all I can do to keep up with all this paperwork. What about you? Have you adjusted to a heavier load?”
“I think so,” Henry said. “It is a lot of paperwork though. That was hard to get used to when I started teaching here.”
“What was your job like before you came to Rockbridge? You taught high school, didn’t you?”
Henry nodded. “Classic American literature—eleventh grade English.”
“Did you love it?”
“You know, it’s funny,” he said. “I remember thinking it was so hard to teach high school, to deal with the kids and handle all the drama. In retrospect, what I dealt with then was nothing like what I’ve faced here at Rockbridge.”
“I’m sure,” Eliza said. “Things seem like they’re going better for you though, aren’t they? I mean, Daniel is doing better, and I’m hearing good things about your classes from other students.”
“I hope so.” He hesitated. “I do feel better about things—at work, anyway.”
Eliza longed to ask him what he meant. Instead, she bit her lip and let the moment pass.
“I got a call from my uncle.” Henry seemed happy to change the subject. “He said the funding worked out for Gina—three months free of charge.”
Eliza smiled. “I meant to tell you! I’ve just been so busy. It’s so wonderful though, isn’t it? My mom drove her over last week. She said it was a beautiful place, Henry. I hope you realize how grateful we are to you for your help.”
Henry only nodded.
“So listen,” he said. “I ran into Dr. Adler the other day, and she asked what I thought about Amber’s progress.”
“In your class? Her grades have been good, haven’t they? She just showed me the paper she wrote about The Scarlet Letter. She was really proud of the A you gave her.”
“She deserved an A. It was a good paper. But Dr. Adler didn’t want to talk about Amber’s grades.”
“Then what did she want to talk about?”
Henry sighed. “She wanted to know if I’d ever seen the two of you behave in such a way that would indicate you consider Amber more of a friend than your patient.”
Eliza shook her head. She hated the word patient. It made her think of sick people in hospital beds. The kids she worked with every day didn’t belong in hospital beds. They needed love and support and help, but they weren’t patients.
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her I had tremendous confidence in your ability as a counselor and that I thought if you trusted Amber, then Amber must deserve to be trusted.”
Eliza was gearing herself up for a rebuttal, but after hearing Henry’s comment, all she could manage was a simple, “Oh. Well, thank you.”
Henry wasn’t finished though. She could tell by how intensely he was still staring at her.
“That’s what I told Dr. Adler, Eliza, but I have to admit you do spend a lot of time with Amber, taking her to and from church. When I see you together, it seems like you are friends. And also, I overheard Amber say something in the hallway after Flip’s baptism. Now, I realize I wasn’t a part of the conversation, but if she was discussing you, and I think she was, then I have reason to believe she’s taking advantage of you. At least, she’s trying.”
“What did you hear her say?”
“She said she had you eating out of her hand.”
Eliza leaned back into the sofa cushions and folded her arms across her chest. She remembered the observations she’d made of Amber earlier that afternoon. Was it possible Amber was treating this like one giant game? Saying and doing the right thing in order to get what she wanted?
“Just because she’s trying to take advantage doesn’t mean she’s succeeding, Henry. I promise. I do like her, and I do enjoy her company, but I haven’t lost control of the situation.”
“Just be careful,” Henry said. “Dr. Adler wonders if she’s asking too much of you.”
“No,” Eliza said. “I don’t think so. Though I do have to remind myself to be objective. I appreciate her concern and yours too, but I think I’m okay.”
“And you think she’s ready for excursion?”
Eliza considered the question. “I think she has to be. I don’t know what else will humble her.”
The shrill ring of the telephone hanging on the wall in the kitchen punctuated Eliza’s words. Her heart jumped. The ring indicated an irregular phone call. It was short and sharp and repeated in fast intervals.
“It’s an emergency call,” Eliza said. She stood and hurried to the phone.
“Yes?” she answered as she picked up the receiver.
“Eliza, get to the girls’ dorm. There’s been an overdose, I think. I don’t know what’s happened. The paramedics are on their way.” Rachel’s voice was hurried and frantic.
“Rachel, who is it? Is she still breathing?”
“It’s Rebecca. She’s breathing, but I can’t get her to wake up. She’s completely limp. Get Natalie too, will you? The girls are all scared.”
“We’ll be right there,” she said.
She turned to Henry. “I’m going to the girls’ dorm. Can you go get Natalie? Tell her to come right away?” She pulled on her tennis shoes and raced out the door of her apartment, not even waiting for Henry to respond.
Rachel met her at the door of the dormitory. “She’s in here,” she said, leading Eliza down the hall and into one of the girls’ shared bedrooms. Rebecca lay on her bed, her head tilted back, her arms thrown out to either side. She was obviously drugged, but as Rachel had indicated, her breathing was still steady and regular.
Eliza’s mind raced. No one was allowed access to medication of any sort without approval and supervision. What had the girl taken, and how had she found it? She started looking around the room. The desk to the right of Rebecca’s bed was neat and tidy, with nothing noticeably out of place, and the trash can beside it was empty.
Eliza went to the closet and opened the doors. She pushed the clothes aside and moved the shoes, looking for anything out of the ordinary.
There it was.
Eliza pulled the empty pill bottle from the inside of one of Rebecca’s tennis shoes. When she turned the bottle over, her heart nearly stopped. She recognized the bottle. It was a generic brand of ibuprofen, a significant fact because it was a store brand sold at grocery stores in Tennessee. Eliza carried a bottle just like it in her purse . . . or she had carried this bottle in her purse.
Moments later, the EMTs arrived. Eliza gave them the bottle of ibuprofen, explaining where she had found it. As they worked to secure Rebecca for transport, Eliza found Rachel. “Natalie will stay here in case anyone needs to talk,” she said. “I’ll ride to the hospital with Rebecca.”
“Is she going to be all right?”
/> “An ibuprofen overdose won’t kill her,” Eliza said. “I know that much. The paramedics said her vitals were stable, so I think she’s going to be fine. Have you talked to the Adlers?”
“They aren’t home, and I can’t get either cell phone. I’ve left messages with them both.”
“We’re ready to go,” one of the paramedics said.
“I’m coming with you,” Eliza said. She turned to Rachel. “I’ll keep you posted.”
As she left the room and followed the paramedics down the hall, she heard a voice calling her name from behind. “Eliza, wait!”
She turned. Amber stood there, her eyes rimmed with red and filled with tears. Her obvious distress confirmed Eliza’s suspicions. There was only one student who would have had the opportunity to take something from Eliza’s purse. That one student was Amber.
“I didn’t think . . . I just . . . I’m so sorry, Eliza. Rebecca told me she gets headaches all the time but that no one here ever lets her take anything. I was just trying to help. I didn’t think she’d take them all at once, I swear. If I thought that, I never would have taken them from your purse.” The words tumbled out, tears streaming freely down Amber’s face.
“Rebecca is going to be fine,” Eliza said coolly. “But you stole from me, Amber. You stole from me and put someone’s life at risk. We’ll talk about this later. Until then, you are on suspension from all activities. Do you understand?”
Amber only nodded. Eliza turned and hurried outside, where the paramedics had just loaded Rebecca into the ambulance. The paramedic in the back offered Eliza a hand, helping her into the truck, then pulled the door closed.
Oh, Amber, Eliza thought to herself. What have you done?
Chapter 23
Henry stood in the parking lot of Rockbridge, his hands thrust deeply into his pockets as he watched the ambulance pull away. He turned and saw Jeff walking across the now-quiet lot to join him.
“Do you know what happened?” Henry asked.
“No details,” Jeff responded. “Only that it was Rebecca and it was some sort of overdose. Eliza’s gone to the hospital with her.”
“Overdose? What did she take?”
“Eliza found an empty bottle of ibuprofen in her closet. We can’t be sure until they get her to the hospital, but I think it’s safe to say that’s what it was. The question is, where did she get it?”
Henry knew how closely the students were monitored. It would be extremely difficult for any student to get their hands on any sort of medication unless a staff member let their guard down, creating just the right window of opportunity.
An uneasy feeling swelled in the pit of Henry’s stomach. “I’m going to drive down to the hospital.” Henry spoke more to himself than to Jeff, who still stood beside him.
“What, right now?” Jeff asked.
“Eliza left in the ambulance without even putting her jacket on. Besides, she’ll need a ride back to campus. The ambulance doesn’t exactly make round trips.”
“True,” Jeff said. “But I doubt she’ll be coming home tonight. She’ll stay with Rebecca.”
“Probably,” Henry said. “But once the Adlers get there, they may want to send her back. I’ll go just in case.”
When Henry arrived at the hospital forty-five minutes later, he found Eliza slumped in a corner chair in the waiting room, biting her fingernails with savage fury, her eyes staring emptily at the blank wall across from her. When she saw him approach, her face instantly brightened.
“Henry, what are you doing here?”
“I thought you might need your jacket and your purse. And here”—he handed her a water bottle and a pack of peanut butter M&M’s—“fortifications in case it’s a long night.”
“Thank you. That’s really kind of you.”
“How’s Rebecca doing?” Henry sat down in the chair beside her.
Eliza sighed. “She’s going to be fine. They were able to wake her up, which is a good thing, though she’s terribly groggy and disoriented. Now that she’s awake, she’s likely to experience some pretty severe gastrointestinal pain, and they need to monitor her pretty closely to make sure her liver and kidneys don’t shut down, but for now, she looks okay.”
“Jeff said it was ibuprofen?”
“Oh, right,” Eliza said. “I didn’t tell you that part, did I? I found the empty bottle in her closet. Doctors confirmed that’s what’s in her system.”
“Eliza, where did she get it?”
For a moment, she wouldn’t raise her eyes to meet his. When she did, it wasn’t hard to recognize what she was feeling. “It was mine.” She was dejected, more than Henry had ever seen her before. Considering the journey they’d taken together to retrieve an alcoholic sister and cajole her into rehab, that was really saying something.
“Amber took it from my purse while we were at church last Sunday and gave the bottle to Rebecca.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” Eliza said. “Amber told me herself before I left for the hospital. She said Rebecca was always complaining of getting headaches . . . that she was just trying to help.”
Henry was relieved. Stealing wasn’t a good thing, but when he considered the alternative—one that involved Eliza’s giving Amber or Rebecca the drugs herself—he was actually glad it had been thievery. “Do you believe her?”
Eliza looked surprised by his question. “Who, Amber? Of course I believe her. Why would she lie about something like this? She came to me and confessed. If she wanted to lie, why seek me out and tell me what happened?”
“Eliza, I don’t mean to cast shadows on her character, but you have to think about this objectively. If Amber knew you found the bottle in Rebecca’s room and realized you could have recognized it as your own, is it possible she lied to paint the prettiest picture possible on top of a much uglier truth?”
“But why else would she have taken it? Her story makes sense.”
“Have you ever heard Rebecca complain about headaches?”
Eliza crossed her arms defensively across her chest. “No, but . . .” She closed her eyes and rubbed her hand across her forehead. “Maybe I’m not being objective. But why would she lie?”
“Does she want to go on excursion? Maybe she was trying to get into trouble, hoping she’d be kept back.”
“She doesn’t want to go,” Eliza agreed. “That’s something to consider. But where does Rebecca come in? I can believe Amber’s lying, but I can’t imagine her wanting Rebecca hurt.”
“Fair point,” Henry said. “Maybe she was just trying to be a good friend to Rebecca. But whether her actions were well intentioned or not, Amber’s not afraid to bend the rules because she’s counting on your being lenient. She completely violated the relationship she has with you and took advantage of your kindness.”
“You’re probably right,” Eliza said. “Maybe I have been too trusting, too lenient. But when you’re attending church with someone, you don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about how you better not leave your purse in the chapel while you run to the bathroom.”
Henry could tell she was weary.
“I understand what you’re saying,” she continued. “I get it, all right? From now on, I’ll be more careful.” Grabbing her purse and jacket that Henry had left beside her chair, she stood and stalked off down the hall.
There was an edge to her voice that Henry had never heard before, and he wondered if he’d made a mistake in coming. Come to think of it, why had he come? He couldn’t put it into words—that tangible feeling that drew him to Eliza and made him feel as if it were his responsibility to make sure she was all right.
He couldn’t name it, but he also couldn’t ignore it.
* * *
An hour later, the Adlers arrived at the hospital. Eliza was with Rebecca when they arrived, so Henry walked them down to Rebecca’s room. He motioned for Eliza to join them in the hallway, then stood back while she gave the Adlers a rundown of everything that had happened.
When Eliza explained how Rebecca had come to have the medication in the first place, Dr. Adler did little to hide her frustration. Henry felt guilty for his scolding Eliza. He should have known she’d get it from her superiors. He was just the English teacher. What did he know? When the Adlers entered the room to see Rebecca, Henry looked at Eliza. “You okay?”
She shrugged. “It wasn’t as bad as I expected, nothing I didn’t deserve.”
“I’m still sorry you had to go through it,” Henry said. “I shouldn’t have said anything earlier. It wasn’t my place to be critical.”
“No, no, you were right. I shouldn’t have been so defensive. Let’s just call it even, okay?”
“Eliza?” Dr. Adler called from inside the room.
“Don’t go yet,” Eliza whispered to Henry before she ducked back into the hospital room. She reemerged a few minutes later, her jacket and purse in hand.
“Dr. Adler is going to stay here tonight.” She slipped on her jacket. “Frank offered to take me home, but I told him you were still here. Do you mind if I catch a ride with you?”
“Not at all,” Henry said. “That’s a large part of why I came, since I was pretty sure the ambulance wasn’t likely to bring you home.”
“Yeah, they don’t really make round trips, do they?” Eliza said with a smile.
“That’s exactly what I said.”
Once they were settled in the car and driving back up to Rockbridge, Henry asked, “So what happens to Amber now?”
“I’ll have to discuss everything with Dr. Adler tomorrow, just to make sure she agrees, but I’ve already told Amber she’s suspended from all activities. She’ll lose all her free time and have extra chore rotations. She’ll have to work hard to earn back my trust.”
“Will she still go on excursion?”
“I don’t know. At this point, I think I should defer the decision to Dr. Adler. Obviously, there could be trust issues. But with all the extra opportunities church has given her, I’m just not sure she’s been shaken up enough, you know? I still think excursion might be the only thing that can get through to her.”
It was late, nearly midnight, when Henry pulled his car into the parking lot at Rockbridge, and it felt much like the night he and Eliza had returned from Tennessee.
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