We didn’t talk much on the ride home. Noah’s fingers were laced with mine on the center console, but neither of us said a word. The silence wasn’t awkward, it was heavy. Necessary like our hearts needed to catch up to everything that had just happened.
He’d walked out of the university, out of a title, out of a career for me and all I could think was, I’m not worth that kind of sacrifice but he didn’t let go of my hand not once.
That night, the news broke.
“TSU professor resigns amid student scandal.”
“Surrogate girl breaks the silence. Here’s what we know.”
“Who is Grace Carter?”
They used that one a lot.
As if they hadn’t already decided.
Online, I was trending. On campus, they whispered behind my back. At my mother’s house, the silence felt louder than anything else. She hadn’t
