4: 4
At least the slot at the city crisis center had finally come through.
The counselor's name was Fox, a woman, twelve years of experience.
I let out a long breath.
The next day, though, Ms. Fox called me.
"Mr. Henson, I'm so sorry. I've just taken on an extremely difficult emergency case."
"Gwendolen's sessions may have to be pushed back a week."
I hung up and assumed a colleague had simply run into something urgent.
Three days later, Ms. Fox called again.
"Mr. Henson... I really am sorry."
"Things on my end are far more complicated than I expected. I may have to postpone a bit longer..."
"How long?"
My voice dropped.
"Maybe... two weeks. Maybe a month."
Her tone was strange.
A week later, the principal came to tell me, his face dark as thunder.
Ms. Fox had sent a formal letter declining to take Gwendolen at all, citing an impossibly full workload.
The principal stood in front of my desk, said nothing, and just stared at me.
His meaning couldn't have been clearer.
That afternoon, everything spun out of control.
Gwendolen had an incident on the field, in front of the whole school.
Christian Dickerson shoved her down onto the track and ground his foot into the back of her hand.
A dozen or so students saw it. Some even pulled out their phones.
But Gwendolen didn't cry.
She just bit down hard on her split lip and made no sound at all.
Only after Christian swore at her and walked off did she slowly pick herself up.
I was standing behind the third-floor window of the administration building, watching the whole thing with no expression on my face.
She walked to the nurse's office alone and let the nurse treat the wound.
Then she went back to class as if nothing had happened.
It was too abnormal.
The next day, a video started tearing through the grade group chats and even the local forums.
It captured the whole thing, exactly how Christian had ground Gwendolen under his foot.
But the deadly part was the caption.
【Central High psych expert watches a helpless student get beaten right in front of him!】
【What do you call that? An accomplice!】
The video had been deliberately edited. The final frame froze and zoomed in on...
my face, standing at the administration building window, watching in cold detachment.
Public opinion exploded in an instant.
【This teacher is ice-cold!】
【I heard this girl tried to jump before, and he just stood there watching!】
【Dox him! Get him kicked out of education!】
It spread fast. Five thousand shares in three hours.
Soon someone dug up my name, my workplace, the school I'd graduated from.
Even the psychology credentials I'd been so proud of in my past life.
Five minutes later, my fiancée, Michelle Chavez, called.
Her voice was full of urgency and worry.
"Otis, are those videos online real?"
"How are you right now? Has anyone come to give you trouble?"
The moment I heard her voice, a tremor ran through me.
In my past life, this was the exact point where cyberbullying had driven her to jump.
"Don't look at any of it. It's all lies."
I gripped the phone so hard my knuckles went white, and my voice shook.
"Michelle, don't go anywhere for the next few days. Just stay home!"
"Okay! But Otis, tell me, why did you..."
"Did you really stand at that window and watch that girl get beaten, and not go down?"
There was a thread of confusion in her voice.
I said nothing.
How was I supposed to explain it to her?
I took a deep breath, soothed her with a few words, and hung up.
I went back over everything that had happened since I was reborn, from start to finish, every last detail.
Then all the fragments began piecing themselves together, one by one.
I finally understood why she only ever came to me.
