Slowly, I pulled myself up and cleaned the mess. I picked up every scattered piece, wiped every surface, until the room looked like nothing had happened.
By the time I crawled back into bed, my phone was ringing. My brother.
"How've you been? When's the wedding? Your little niece even made you a present."
The ache in my chest was unbearable.
Herbert had been a transfer student Herman personally asked me to enroll. Each teacher only had one internal admission slot. Because of that, I'd had no choice but to turn down my brother when he asked me to get Lily Abbott into my class. I gave my only spot to Herbert instead.
Lily had to transfer to a school in the next city over. My brother and his wife had been commuting between two cities ever since.
And whenever Herbert's mother was busy, Herman would dump the boy on me. Sometimes he'd even rope my brother into helping out.
My brother and his wife had bent over backward to make things easier for Herman and me.
Now, knowing that the two of us had been unknowingly caring for an illegitimate child all this time, the pain carved deeper with every passing second.
I took a long breath.
"Hey... what if I told you I wasn't going to marry him? Would you think I was being reckless?"
My brother paused. When he spoke again, his voice was rougher than before.
"I know you don't make decisions lightly. If you're calling off the wedding, you have your reasons. Mom and Dad are gone. You and me, we're the closest family either of us has. Whatever you decide, I'm behind you. All the way."
The guilt crested. I couldn't hold it in anymore and broke down crying.
My brother sighed softly.
"It's okay. I'm here. If someone's giving you a hard time, you tell me. I'll handle it."
I smiled through the tears and shook my head.
"No, nothing like that. I just... miss you guys."
He let out a breath of relief.
He put Lily on the phone. She babbled at me for a few minutes, and then they said goodnight.
Over the days that followed, Herman didn't come home. He didn't call. He didn't send a single message.
Herbert stopped showing up to class.
The principal received a parent complaint alleging that I lacked professional conduct as a teacher. My pay was docked. On top of that, I was assigned several days of mandatory training shifts, a full notebook of class observation reports due each day, plus a handwritten copy of the entire faculty code of conduct.