They Rejected My Daughter novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Date on the Stamp

"Mr. President," I said, "would you tell the room when this board voted to name me superintendent?"

He cleared his throat.

"The sixth of January," he said. "In closed session. The announcement went out on the eighth."

"And before the sixth, was I told I had the job?"

"No. Three finalists were kept in the dark until the vote."

"Thank you."

I opened my bag, took out a single sheet and held it up so the cameras could find it.

"This is a transfer approval from the district enrollment office. Ruby Sharples, Ridgeline to Cedar Hill, reason: family preference."

I read the stamp aloud.

"Approved by a clerk on the eighteenth of December. That is nineteen days before the vote."

Lorna's mouth tightened.

"Anyone can file that form online," I said. "I filed it at my kitchen table on the night the roster went up, in my pajamas, as a mother. A clerk who has never met me clicked yes."

"You knew," Lorna said. "You must have known you were getting the post."

"I knew I was a finalist. So were two other people, and I would have bet on either of them."

A board member at the end of the dais, an older woman with half-moon glasses, leaned toward her microphone.

"For the record," she said, "I was in that room on the sixth, and it was not unanimous."

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