[Song for this chapter: Breathe Me by Sia.]
"…. For I could conceive death, not betrayal."
***
Kayla Hastings looked like hell.
There was no other word for it. Her auburn hair, normally a glimmering cascade of rich copper, hung in a frizzy tangle over her sunken eyes. Her face was pale, blotched from sleepless nights and crying fits she hadn't even realized she was having anymore. Her shirt was wrinkled, mismatched with sweats she hadn't bothered changing out of, and her fingers trembled around the coffee cup she couldn't bring herself to drink from.
She stood outside the cold, sleek doors of the university boardroom, the nameplate glinting like judgment itself.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
She didn't knock.
She walked in like a ghost, like someone walking into their own execution.
There they were five of them, dressed in pressed suits and judgment. The president of the university, two deans, and two others whose names she couldn't recall, but whose glares bit into her like knives.
