Authors: Kelly Harper
Betrayed
BETRAYED
by Kelly Harper
BETRAYED copyright 2013 by Kelly Harper
BETRAYED is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, Kelly Harper.
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Table of Contents
DESCRIPTION
There are those who struggle to find love. They search for it their whole life. Some of them find it, and some of them don’t.
Kayla Ellis is not one of those people.
She’s young and ambitious, and is falling desperately in love with her professor, Ethan. Her whole life has been dedicated to making a better life for her and her parents. But in one single night, her whole life was thrown off course.
Ethan has a little secret of his own, and when it’s revealed, it threatens the very foundation of what they are trying to build together.
One chance encounter outside of a restaurant throws both Kayla and Ethan’s lives into disarray. Both of them scramble to pull the pieces of themselves back together before they lose each other forever.
But who’s Betrayed whom, in this finely woven tale of lost love and deceit?
(New Adult Contemporary) **Mature Content** Recommended for ages 17+ due to sexual situations and language.
For anyone who’s ever known love… or felt its loss.
“I hope you’ve all enjoyed this Intro to Accounting class,” the Professor said. He stood at the front of the classroom, looking magnificent as ever. “As you all know, the final project due today will act as your final. Which means that this will be the last time we see each other this year.” He paused a beat and took everyone in; a devilish grin creased at the corner of his mouth. “I’m sure most of you thought today would never come.”
A small rumble of laughter rolled through the auditorium. I was surprised by how many students were in attendance - I didn’t think many would care to show after they had sent in their final project. Every seat in the large lecture hall was full, and most of the students didn’t appear to be as nearly disgruntled as I had expected. Ethan’s charm held a spell over every one of his students - especially the women. It certainly held a spell over me, and I couldn’t help but notice more than a couple of the girls in the lecture hall jotting their phone numbers onto a piece of paper. But I wasn’t jealous of them - there was no need to be.
He was all mine.
The Professor’s eyes found mine again. They locked onto me for only the shortest of a second second. It was in that brief time that I felt myself pulled into him once again - just like I had been a few weeks earlier
when we sat in his office hours. I’d just bombed one of his exams and I was at serious risk of getting less than an A in his class. And that wasn’t acceptable. He had offered me some extra credit if I helped him on some of his scholarly research, and it came with the price tag of spending considerable time locked away in his office. Just the two of us.
Ethan Dewey. The Professor.
Memories of endless nights flashed through my head, leaving me flush. There had been a number of those nights over the last few weeks. For a while, I had wondered if I would even be able to finish out the semester. Pulling myself away from him was becoming more and more difficult.
A tiny speaker in the corner buzzed to life, signaling the end of class. The lecture hall buzzed with students happy to be done with one more class. A sense of accomplishment breezed throughout.
“I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Years,” Ethan said. Students began to depart through the exits. Ethan began packing his briefcase behind the small podium at the front of the class.
I wanted to run to him and take him right there. I didn’t care that hundreds of people would see us - his allure was bordering on irresistible. A small crowd of students gathered around him at the front of the class. They were all smiles, and thanked him for teaching them so much over the semester. I hung back for a bit, irritated that I couldn’t have him all to myself in that moment. Ethan had unleashed inside of me a carnal need that had been too long suppressed. I hadn’t been myself in a long time.
The seconds turned to minutes while I watched. The crowd showed no signs of disbursing anytime soon, and I knew it would begin to look suspicious if I made a point of lingering until it was just the two of us. I slung my bag over my shoulder and gave him the sexiest smile and wink I could before leaving. We had a date planned for that night, and I was going to take out every frustration I had on him.
* * * * *
After class, I sat at the student union eating a sandwich from the Daily Deli. I scrolled through my iPad, catching up on emails from the previous few days. I needed to get better about keeping myself up to speed on my emails, but I had just been so distracted by everything over the last few weeks. Most of them were trash, but one jumped out at me.
From: Charlotte Kacey
To: Kayla Ellis
Subject: Mandatory Advisor Meeting
Kayla,
I’m so sorry taking so long to get in touch with you. I’m Charlotte Kacey, your assigned advisor for the business college. Please give me a call as soon as you can so we can schedule a meeting to discuss the application process. We need to get it done by the end of the week.
Best regards,
Charlotte
(520) 555-4228
I read through the email twice, while my pulse spiked. It was sent on Monday, and now it was already Wednesday.
Shit
, I thought to myself.
My phone beeped as I punched in the phone number listed at the bottom of the email, and a small tone buzzed while it dialed.
“Charlotte Kacey’s office,” a voice answered.
“Hi,” I said. “I’m looking for Ms. Kacey.”
“This is she.”
“Oh, hi there,” I said, trying not to sound too awkward. “This is Kayla Ellis. You emailed me a few days ago about setting up an advisory meeting.”
There was a pause of silence before she came back on the line.
“Hello, Kayla,” she said, her voice softer. “I was wondering if you had received my email.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I just saw it.”
“It’s not a problem,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if you would be expecting an email from me in the first place. I’m not sure if your last advisor told you that the business school likes to handle all of our own students, so we appoint someone to handle each of the oncoming class.”
“She might have mentioned it,” I said. “I didn’t realize it was such a big deal since I wasn’t in the college yet.”
“It’s a very big deal, actually. The application process can be very competitive.”
I cringed. “I’m ready to do whatever it takes,” I said.
“Good, I’m glad to hear it,” she said. “But, it’s not me that needs convincing, I’m just here to help you along your way. Now, let me just pull up my calendar…” She was quiet while I could hear her clicking her mouse. “Can you meet me at nine tomorrow morning?”
“Tomorrow?” I asked.
“Trust me, the sooner the better - and it’s Dead Day, so you won’t have any classes or finals.”
“Of course,” I said. “Nine will be fine.”
“Great,” she said. “See you then.”
I clicked the phone off and grabbed my bags. I made a beeline for the West end of campus where my dorm room was. My thoughts swirled around the business school application. I still had another semester of my prerequisite work to finish, but Charlotte was making it sound like we were already behind schedule. Was there something I had missed, or was she just trying to get ahead of schedule?
I was halfway back to my dorm when my phone began buzzing in my pocket. The screen read “Dana”.
“You won’t believe who I just got off the phone with,” I said, answering the phone.
“Good afternoon to you, too,” the familiar voice said on the other line. “Do tell.”
“My business school advisor. She wants to meet me first thing tomorrow.”
“How exciting,” Dana said. “Now you’re making it to the big time.”
Dana Williams had been my best friend since the day we met. Coincidentally, that day had been my first day at college when I had tried to get into a class that was already booked full. She had found me in line at the administration office arguing with one of the clerks about needing to get into the class.
“You don’t understand, I have to get into this class,” I had said. “It’s only offered once every two years, and I need to get it done before business school.”
“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do,” the clerk had said. “You’ll have to wait until the next time it’s offered just like every other student.”
I had been on my last nerve when she had appeared behind me - like an angel that came to my rescue.
“Surely, there must be something we can do,” Dana had said from nowhere.
The clerk eyed her with open contempt.
“You’re the Williams girl, aren’t you?” the clerk had asked.
A smile had spread across Dana’s face as she nodded. “My reputation precedes me. So isn’t there anything we can do?”
The clerk had fished around for a form and then handed it to me. “Take this to the first class and let the professor know your situation. The final decision will be up to him.”
When I had left, she followed me out of the building.
“How did you do that?” I had asked. “I tried to change her mind for the better part of a half-hour!”
She had grinned at me. “My dad graduated from here a while back. He’s made a good name for himself.”
And that was that. We had gone on to become fast friends - the best of friends. She had taken me under her wing and showed me what college life was really all about. She had shown me that most of the learning done wasn’t in the classroom, but was on the weekends. It was because of her that I had really began to come out of the shell I built around myself through the nightmare that was high school.
“There’s nothing to be nervous about,” Dana said. “It’s just a standard meeting. I’m sure she’ll just tell you about the application process and that will be that.”
“I hope so,” I said. “She made it sound awfully important.”
“So what are you doing tonight?” Dana asked. “Tomorrow’s Dead Day - it’s your last chance to get wild and crazy before finals.”
I winced.
“I’m on duty tonight,” I said, trying to keep my tone neutral. “I get to be locked up with the freshmen making sure they don’t get too crazy.”
“You seem to have picked up a lot of duty nights lately,” she said in a flat tone. “I hope the other RA’s remember that next semester.”
“I’m sure they will,” I said.
I hated that I had to build so many lies. I hated lying. Dana was my best friend, but even she didn’t know about the affair I was having with Ethan. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her the truth just yet. She had been the reason I had gone to his office hours in the first place. She had taken his class a few semesters earlier and said that he had helped her out with some extra credit, too.
Ever since the affair had begun we had been seeing more and more of each other. Which meant I had to keep making up excuses for not spending so much time with Dana. It wasn’t difficult to find reasons not to be available to go out with her. I was a Resident Advisor at one of the residence halls on campus. It wasn’t a glamorous job, but it helped cover room and board while I was at college. The Resident Advisor Association required that at least two RA’s be on duty every night to make sure no one got into trouble. It was a glorified babysitting job, but gave me the perfect excuse for not going out at night.
Needless to say, I had been “on duty” an increasing amount since the affair with Ethan had started. I didn’t want to think about the look on Dana’s face when I told her that I was sleeping with one of my professors. Despite my real feelings for him, I knew what the relationship would look like on the surface.