Lauren's need for answers warred with her salivating mouth and grumbling stomach. Hunger won out. With a mouth alternatively full of mouth watering croissant slathered with butter and jam and sips of juice then coffee Lauren's eyes implored Ethan to explain.
On a deep sign Ethan offered a full explanation interspersed with heart felt requests for forgiveness.
Lauren was of course not shocked by the fact that someone else was responsible for the fraud. Ethan then went on to briefly outline her professional background glossing over the departmental enquiry and the events leading up to it. He hadn't wanted to tell her what was in the report but alas she would have remembered the few details he had hurled at her the day before. The department intended to rule on her case on Monday in absentia. He also enlightened Lauren on the reason why she hadn't been missed. She had told her friends she had needed to get away for a while to avoid the suffocating media scrutiny. She would not be answering her mobile phone. Along with her bag it had disappeared at the scene of the crane crash. Where she had been for the few days before the accident and why she was in Sydney a long way from home he didn't have an answer for.
Lauren didn't recall the reason why either, the few facts not triggering any memories. No matter how hard she tried she could not dredge up any feeling of connectedness with her true life.
'I like the fact that I'm a teacher and especially one involved in sport but I can't accept that I have seduced a student, a minor in my duty of care. There has to be another explanation, some extenuating circumstances that have been misrepresented…. There has to be.' Lauren beseeched, her eyes pleading for confirmation from Ethan.
Lauren's increasing pallor and grim look drove clearly Ethan to declare his thoughts on the matter.
'Lauren, I cannot and will not believe you are capable of the conduct you have been accused of. And anyway your past is of no consequence to me and the accusation makes no difference to the way I feel about you. And shaking your head won't change that. For as long as you want there is a place for you in my home and I will support you no matter what you decide to do with your life.'
Lauren noted rather grimly that he hadn't actually specified what those feelings were and that her place was in his home whereas she wanted to be in his heart. There was still the hurdle of her suspension. Surely the old saying about where there's smoke there's fire applied. No accusation without some transgression, no enquiry without some damming irrefutable evidence. In her imagination she could picture herself being a PE teacher. Her empathy with Chloe and her enjoyment and success in coaching her in swimming and diving, even her loud, clear voice, were testimony to that being her occupation. But to be so morally corrupt that she could seduce a student? That she couldn't contemplate without feeling sick to her core.