“Miss V. What happened to Mr. Adam?” Anabelle asks in a sweet tone and for some reason it brings tears to my eyes.

“Mr. Adam is fine.”

“He hasn’t been here this year at all,” one of them says.

“Yeah, will we be able to use his 3D printer again?” another asks.

“The assignment, guys,” I say again. “Please focus.”

That’s the gift and the curse to teaching the same group of students two years in a row. Life happens behind the scenes, and since they only get a glimpse of what I show them, they don’t realize how many things change. In the beginning of their third-grade year, I was happily married. By the end of it, I was divorced and miserable. Thankfully, my sister and her husband took me all around Europe so that I could forget about things. Unfortunately, I’m back in the Heights and back to a reality I can’t quite escape. Oh, and Mr. Adam keeps calling me, of course. It doesn’t matter that I haven’t answered his phone calls for the last eight months, he just keeps them coming. I can’t imagine what he needs to talk to me about. If he wanted to know how I was doing, all he needed to do was ask his parents, whom I see every week without fail. My parents fill me in on how he’s doing without my asking, so it’s only fair. Our friends think we’re both insane, dating new people, but still keeping up with each other’s families. Maybe we are, but I can’t imagine not having his parents and sisters in my life and I guess he feels the same about mine. We have an agreement though—we never visit at the same time. It’s the only way. I don’t know how he feels, but I know I’m not ready to see him again.

“Miss V, do you think Mr. Adam will bring his Frenchie?” the question comes from Manya and it’s the one that finally makes me break down.

I try, I really do, to hold in my tears, but it’s impossible. Luna the Frenchie was my baby too, but he kept her as part of the divorce and I miss her so, so much. Thankfully, the school day is over and the kids are out of my classroom after my meltdown and I spend the rest of the time apologizing to them and then their parents, who are incredibly considerate and offer me their sympathy since they know about the divorce.

Chapter Two

Adam

My parents are traitors.