The Longer The Fall by Aviva Gat (best new books to read txt) 📗

yelled with slight paranoia in his voice. He pulled his hands from Madeline’s and ran to the door, peeking through the peephole.

“Room service,” came a voice from the other side of the door. Brandon opened it for the bellboy who came in wheeling a table covered in a white cloth and four cloches covering their lunch. Brandon tipped the man and sat down with the boys to eat.

“You coming?” He asked Madeline who was still standing in the kitchen, next to the coffee maker that had just finished brewing.

With a deep breath, she nodded and walked to the table where her Caesar Salad was waiting. She ate silently while Brandon talked to the boys about what they were missing in school that day. The conversation was a blur to Madeline. How could she make Brandon understand? There was so much at stake. More than her principles, more than family. There were things like the SAVER Bill, like the constituents she fought for. People needed her. She couldn’t let those people down. And as her trust in the FBI started to shrink, she feared she had no other options.

Chapter 13

“Mrs. Thomas, so sorry to bother you,” Mr. Kendrick said on the phone. “I tried calling Mr. Thomas, but he wasn’t answering.”

“No problem, Mr. Kendrick,” she responded politely to the principal at Highland Academy. “How can I help you?”

“There’s been another incident with Noah at school,” the principal said. “He’s sitting with me in my office.”

“What happened?”

“He pushed Jamie Albertson,” Mr. Kendrick responded. “He’s in the hospital.”

“What? Is he all right?” Madeline felt herself getting angry with Noah. What had he done? This was exactly the kind of thing that could make it into the press if Jamie’s mother Bonnie wanted to make trouble for Madeline.

“He broke his arm,” the principal explained. “When Noah pushed him, he fell on one of the concrete benches in the courtyard. He’ll be OK, but this is a serious issue. I’m going to have to suspend Noah again. Mrs. Albertson wants an expulsion, but I’d like to speak with you and her first. See if we can work something out. Are you available to meet this evening? In the meantime, I need you or Molly to come pick up Noah.”

“No problem,” Madeline responded. “I’ll come. I’m on my way.” Madeline hung up the phone and rushed out of her office. She waved goodbye to Jane, promising she’d come back soon. She had plenty to do at work, but first she needed to see Noah. Her insides wanted to scream at him, to shake him as hard as she could and slap his face until he understood that he couldn’t bully another student. He made her so angry, an anger that only a mother can understand—one so strong and full of rage that can only be borne from feelings of love and disappointment. How could Noah do this to her? With her reelection campaign launch coming up. With the blackmail threatening to topple that. With everything else going on? But of course, she reminded herself, Noah wasn’t aware of any of these things. He was just a kid, with an anger issue and two parents who didn’t know how to solve it.

In the car ride Madeline called Brandon to update him that she was picking Noah up from school. He agreed they should both attend the meeting that evening with the school’s principal and Mrs. Albertson. She then called Molly, to tell her she would be dropping Noah off at home. Then she pulled into the school parking lot and hightailed it to the principal’s office. When she entered, she saw Noah sitting quietly in a chair, rocking slightly back-and-forth as he stared at his hands. He looked up when the door opened.

“Noah!” Madeline stated, flicking her head at him. She then looked at Mr. Kendrick, who was focused on his computer screen.

“Mrs. Thomas, thank you so much for coming it,” he said too politely when he looked up at her. “Sorry again for the bother. Will I be seeing you or Mr. Thomas this evening?”

“We’ll both attend,” she responded and motioned to Noah to grab his backpack and follow her out. She glared at her son silently, portraying her anger and disappointment. He needed to understand there were consequences for his actions. Maybe taking him out for dessert during his last suspension was a mistake, Madeline thought to herself. Noah followed her to the car, trailing a few paces behind. After they were inside and buckled, Madeline turned to her son.

“What is wrong with you?” she exploded. She instantly hated herself for it, but she couldn’t help herself. She felt like a volcano, unable to stop itself from bursting out and spewing lava everywhere. Noah looked straight ahead, without even flinching. “Hello? Can you hear me? Noah! Do you want to explain?”

Noah shook his head. “Can we just go home?”

Madeline started the car, but her anger continued flowing from her mouth. “You can’t just bully other kids! There are consequences! It affects all of us, don’t you get it? You being a bully hurts me. It hurts dad, it hurts Adam! There is never any reason for it!”

Noah remained silent.

“Don’t you have anything to say?”

He shook his head. Madeline let out a huge sigh.

“I just don’t know what to do with you,” she continued. “Maybe we’ll ship you to boarding school. Would you want that?”

Noah shook his head and mumbled something under his breath.

“What? Speak up!” Madeline yelled at her son.

“It’s not my fault!” Noah screamed. “Jamie started it! He always does!”

“He started it? What? He pushed himself into a concrete bench? He broke his own arm?” Noah’s avoidance of blame made Madeline even angrier.

“You don’t understand,” Noah said, shaking his head.

“So help me understand.”

“Jamie lies. He says things.”

“That doesn’t mean you