38 | In Hindsight

**Third Person POV**

***Past***

Father Gabriel Sullivan might have fooled the people around him when he took his vow of the priesthood to lead a life of a hermit, but he was not deceiving himself. He was acutely aware of his temper, one he managed to hide from the parish, but the simmering rage under his skin was nothing but a dormant volcano.
Give the circumstances, especially one that involved the near-death injury of Sienna Emerson, awakened that volcano of fury within him. Even still, he managed the grip the sides of the lecture firmly as he read the homily for the Morning Mass, educating the pupils of the divine words of the Christ from the Cross. He taught about sins and atonements, love and forgiveness and last of all—peace. One quality he was desperately looking for in his own life.
His eyes rarely deflected today, given his brain knew that Sienna Emerson was not sitting in the pews. In fact, his worries of her nagged at the back of his mind, inconveniently deflecting his undivided attention towards God and the church.
Once he was done, he stepped back, exhaling with relief. His eyes scanned for his target, and as soon he saw her, his firm voice called out. “Miss Hutchins, come here.”
Irene singled herself out from the crowd of girls and approached him. “Yes, Father?”
“See me in my office after your classes for the day,” he clipped.
Irene was puzzled for a moment, and she did not want another discord with the headmaster. “Is something wrong, Father?
“No, I don’t think so.”
Before she could utter another word, he turned and left, leaving her a little shaken.
Deep in her guts, she could feel the churning and for the rest of the class, Irene Hutchins, who was otherwise a very attentive student, struggled to keep her mind tethered to the books. The trend followed throughout the day, even on lunch when the other girls gossiped around her while she mindlessly waited for the day to get over.
What could she have possibly done this time? She wondered.
Irene Hutchins was one of those ambitious girls who preferred to be in an advantageous position when it came to their careers. She was well scoring, one of the top students in her class and was a stickler for rules. The reason she was given the responsibility of the dorm until she locked horns with Sienna Emerson.
Soon, Irene realised that Eva Porter was not a good company, not that she liked Sienna any better. But she vowed to maintain a distance from these two ‘troublemakers’ and badly wanted to be in the good books of Father Gabriel Sullivan.
When the bell for the last class rang, Irene, rushed out of the class for her scheduled appointment. She dumped her bag on the floor outside his office and gave a brief knock before pushing the door open and taking a peek inside.
“Good afternoon, Father Sullivan.”
Gabriel looked up and gave nothing but a brief nod of invitation and then resumed reading the materials before him. So, she walked into his office and stood uncertainly just inside the door.
“Please be seated,” he said without looking up. His voice was cold and flinty, and he gestured to the chair beside his desk.
Irene quickly moved to comply, realising the angle was just not right.
“Move the chair closer, in front of my desk. I won’t crane my neck in order to see you.”
Awkwardly, she stood and dragged the chair closer to his desk.
Gabriel abandoned his reading and rested his elbows on the table, joining his hands in a prayer position and balanced his chin atop his fingers. “So, Miss Hutchins, I wanted your opinion on something.”
Her brows shot up. “My opinion?”
“Yes. Do you think I run a circus here and not a school?”
His sarcasm stiffened her spine, and she quickly gulped.
“I expect—actually demand—an answer when I ask a question. I hope the words are getting through your head, right?” His censured eyes narrowed. “Maybe you are not as intelligent as you perceive yourself to be.”
“I…I am sorry…I mean, I don’t understand,” she stuttered hopelessly, adding fear to her despair.
“That’s what I thought.” Gabriel shook his head in mock disappointment. “You are dull-witted, perhaps. So, I will be direct with you. When I was away from school for a couple of days, an unfortunate incident took place. As a senior, do you happen to have any idea?”
The question caught Miss Hutchins off-guard, as it was the intention of the headmaster all along. “Y-yes, Father. Sienna Emerson fell down the stairs and injured herself.”
“Hmm. Strange.”
“What is so strange about it, Father? I mean, she was careless and must have been hurrying down the stairs and….”
“How do you know that she was hurrying?” He queried, cutting her in. “Were you around?”
Irene thought for a moment, contemplating her answer carefully, but she had already slipped once or twice. “No, I was in class. I…I thought—I mean, she is always late for the Mass or the class, so I inferred.”
Gabriel did not say a single word for the longest moment but studied her with an incomprehensible expression. His poker face was just too tough to decipher, one that he has mastered for years or just lack of emotions.
“What are your plans, Irene?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“I mean, your future plans. You must have shortlisted the colleges for next year, am I right?”
Once again, she was clueless. He went from chastising her intellect to collecting information about the school and then jumped on to her future plans. Father Sullivan was making her head spin like crazy.
Irene opened her mouth a couple of times to speak, but nothing came out for a moment. “Yes. I am eyeing Harvard, Wharton or Columbia. Wharton, to be specific,” she somehow managed to give an answer.
“Business administration?”
“Yes, Father.”
“Hmm. That is too bad,” he regretted. “You can’t get into Wharton or Harvard or Columbia, for that matter. Prestigious colleges such as these do not prefer candidates with a criminal background. You, Miss Irene Hutchins, has one.”
Panic gripped her by the throat as her sweaty palms gripped the sides of the chair as if her life depended on it. “What? What are you saying? I—”
“You would also need a brilliant Letter of Recommendation, which definitely I cannot issue in your favour,” he added salt to her wounds.
“Father—no, please. I did not do anything! I didn’t!”
Gabriel leaned back against the chai and pinned her with a fierce look. “Sienna did not fall down the stairs on her own. She was pushed. You thought you were smart enough to conceal your presence, but someone else had placed you there. And she was brave enough to come to me and narrate the events.”
“This is not true! I was in class.” Irene stood up in protest and leaned over with eagerness. “I was not even on the same floor when it happened. Whoever told you, she is lying!”
“*Sit. Down*.” His voice was deep and low as one could easily feel the artic tone from his rumble. “I don’t want to hear your excuses. Just because you are my student, I felt obligated to inform you beforehand. But that ends now.”
He returned his attention back to the file before him and ignored her presence.
“No, please, Father Sullivan. I didn’t do anything.” Her pleading fell on deaf ears for a long moment as Gabriel concentrated on his task at hand.
Once again, he did not bother looking up for the conversation when Irene wouldn’t just shut up. “The girl was confident that it was you. Besides, you have threatened to cause bodily harm to Miss Emerson, haven’t you?”
“No, but—”
He glanced at her, relishing the way she was slipping into the vulnerable land of desperation. “You have just kissed your bright future to any Ivy League college goodbye, Miss Hutchins. You may leave now.”
“But it wasn’t me!”
“Then who did it if it wasn’t you?” He barked out loud. “You are lying!”
“I am not! It was Eva. Okay?”
A pregnant pause reigned over.
Irene was both relieved and regretful how carelessly she slipped out the name, and Gabriel internally rejoiced that his bluff had worked.
“Eva Porter?”
Miss Hutchins sighed, almost tearful now. “I—Please, I don’t know.”
“You have tested enough of my patience, Miss Hutchins,” he warned. “I might be a man of God, but I am still a man and not without my limitations. You can either come out with the truth or choose to burden someone else’s guilt. The choice is yours.”
Irene hung her head low and swiped at her tears. She knew better than to look at the headmaster’s dagger-like eyes. Instead, she kept her gaze down and worried her lower lips between her teeth, back and forth.
“It was Eva,” she whispered finally, picking her career over her friend.
“You were there?”
“No, I swear I wasn’t,” she said, lifting her gaze. “I did not even know until she told me.”
“She confided in you, and you conveniently hid a crime. Do you know that makes you an accomplice?” He asked.
“Please, Father Sullivan, I…did not know what to do.” Her glassy eyes made little to no difference to Gabriel.
He exhaled, leaning forward in a business-like manner. “I need proof, something that incriminates Eva Porter and connects her to this offence. You can either help me or shoulder the blame all by yourself. Either way, she goes down, Miss Hutchins. The question is, do you want to ruin your future by siding with her?”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Use your brain and find out,” he instructed vaguely. “And whatever you do, do it by the end of this week. Or else I will be forced to expel you from the school.”
“You can’t do this, Father Sullivan!” Her protest was more of a plea in disguise. “It wasn’t my fault! How am I supposed to get proof against her?”
“If you are smart, you will figure it out. You can leave now, Miss Hutchins.”
Irene opened her mouth, but his finger was already pointing at the door, and his head shook in a warning. Dejected, she gathered up her sorry self and sauntered away, wondering how to save her future.
*****
**Hey guys! A big apology for missing two days update. I got so busy celebrating my dad’s 76th that writing and editing took a backseat for a couple of days. I have published two chapters (Ch. 38 & Ch. 39) back to back to compensate my lovely readers. I hope that helps. Enjoy!**