Back when my career was on the rise, Caleb promised he would never hold me back and would always take his medication beforehand. I worried his domineering mother would cause a scene, but Caleb assured me he’d handle it. His plan was to say I was sick and couldn’t have children.
I warned him sharply, “I will never agree to you dropping out. I’ll approve your leave of absence and you can come back to class after you give birth.”
Michele clearly hadn’t expected me to be so forceful and was speechless.
The even more forceful mother-in-law took over the phone, “Get out! Get out! The chemicals in the lab are so harmful to the baby! You just can’t stand to see us doing well! Get out of here!”
With that, she hung up and when I tried to call back, I was blocked.
Caleb’s text message popped up, [Even if you don’t agree to Michele’s withdrawal application, we won’t be stopped by you.]
I opened the phone management page, but my finger lingered on the block button, hesitating to press it. It wasn’t out of lingering affection, but because we weren’t divorced yet and needed to contact each other to get our marriage certificate. I scratched my head, my emotions churning with nowhere to go.
Just then, a pop-up message pushed a trending topic to my head. The moment I saw the title, I suddenly felt this whole thing was utterly pointless.
[A student surnamed Jones publicly accuses university professor Patricia Connor.]
The information Michele presented was explosive. Keywords that could pique human curiosity appeared like they were free in her case. At the end of the video, Michele’s eyes were red and she pleaded with the camera with a pitiful look.
“Miss Patricia, I’m sorry for what I did, but you almost drove me to my death. We’re even now. Please let me go and let me pursue my happiness.”
As expected of my student, she was very good at downplaying the seriousness of the situation and using euphemisms. So much so that the comments section overwhelmingly believed that I was the one who was too forceful and wrong.
[What kind of teacher is she? Driving a student to jump off a building, thankfully the police arrived in time.]
[I know her husband. She’s always been a very domineering person, the kind who won’t give in a single word.]
A few students did speak up for me, but they couldn’t overcome the prevailing opinion.