Chapter 5 - A Job Offer With a Price
The principal of a nearby elementary school called Bea two days later.
She had interviewed there before graduation, and he said the teaching position was still open.
For the first time since the ceremony, she imagined a routine that belonged to her.
A classroom in the morning.
Liam safe with a trusted caregiver.
A salary paid on time.
Then the principal said the school board wanted a brief meeting with a community donor before approving her appointment.
The donor was Victor Velasco.
Bea almost hung up.
Daniel advised her to attend only if she wanted to and to keep a written record.
At the school, Victor greeted her with an easy smile.
He praised her grades and called the graduation incident an unfortunate misunderstanding.
A contract waited on the desk.
The salary was higher than anything Bea had expected.
The other pages contained a confidentiality clause and a statement that the scholarship discrepancy resulted from administrative confusion, with no wrongdoing by any member of the Velasco family.
"This is a teaching contract," Bea said.
"Why does it mention the fund?"
Victor folded his hands.
"Employers value discretion."
"You want me to sign a lie before I can teach children."
"I want you to stop allowing people to use you."
Bea looked through the window at the playground.
Three children were arguing over the rules of a game, each certain that fairness meant being heard.
She set the pen down.
"I can't teach them honesty and start my job by giving mine away."
Victor's smile hardened.
"Think of your son."
"I am."
She stood and left the papers unsigned.
By afternoon the principal called to say the vacancy had been filled.
Hannah arranged temporary tutoring work and helped Bea apply to public schools with independent hiring committees.
Bea told herself she had chosen correctly, yet the next night she counted coins beside Liam's formula tin.
At midnight her phone buzzed with a video link.
It showed the moment Carmina mocked her on the graduation steps.
But the clip had been edited to remove the insult to Elena.
A caption called Bea an ungrateful student who had disrupted a ceremony for publicity.
The video already had thousands of views.
The account that posted it used a false name.
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Its profile picture, however, was a cropped image from Victor's office lobby.
