She was spotted walking away from the school after the assembly. A couple of mums asked if she was OK, if they could do anything to help.
‘It’s brave, I think, what he’s doing,’ one of them said. Rosie looked up at her and, even though she didn’t say anything, the woman’s words were like milk on a burn and Rosie realized that she agreed. Her husband was still a liar, still an arsehole, but at least, she thought, this time he wasn’t a coward.
It was raining, so she decided not to go to the beach and instead drove home. She’s sure she’s only been sitting at the table numbly for a few minutes, but her tea is stone cold when she hears a key in the front door lock. She sits up, stares as Seb comes down the few steps into the kitchen. He looks hollow, all the confidence he’d shown on the stage totally spent. They stare at each other for a moment before he slowly pulls up a chair, close enough to touch Rosie, but careful not to. He sits, his hands between his knobbly knees. She looks at him as he looks at her. She sees his distress, his panic and sadness, but she also sees something else in him now, something quiet but determined, a commitment to the truth. But, she can’t avoid it; the anger and humiliation are still alive in her. She moves a little away from him. He keeps his eyes down as he says, ‘I just want to say thank you for coming this morning.’
She clenches her jaw to dam any tears.
‘I also want to say that if you decide that you need to end our marriage, I would understand.’ He looks up at her as he says, ‘You don’t deserve any of this, Ro. None of this is your fault.’
She nods, but his admission doesn’t feel as good as she thought it would. Her teeth ache as she presses them together. Neither of them says anything and it’s a relief for a moment just to be with him in silence.
They both startle when Seb’s phone rings loudly in his pocket. He pulls it out to shut it up, muttering, ‘Sorry,’ but then he looks up at Rosie and says, ‘It’s Mrs Greene.’ Rosie shrugs; she doesn’t mind if Seb wants to accept the call. He stands and clears his throat before he answers, ‘Hello.’
Rosie can’t hear what Mrs Greene is saying on the other end, but she gets the gist.
‘Yes, I expected as much. I’ve just come home to see Rosie, but I’ll start replying to them all as soon as I’m back, OK? Yes, please tell everyone that I’ll be in the staff room over lunch, they can ask me anything then, that’s fine.’
He’s about to hang up when Mrs Greene says something else, making Seb pause for a moment before adding, ‘Which radio show?’
His gaze is restless as he listens to her response, before becoming still on Rosie’s face again. ‘Ah, OK. I see. OK. I’ll see you soon, then, Mrs Greene.’
He hangs up.
Seb swallows again, puts his phone in his pocket before sitting back down.
Rosie looks at him, lifts her eyebrows slightly for him to explain.
‘Apparently it’s all over the school WhatsApp groups that Anna is going to do a kind of response to my assembly, one p.m. on East Sussex Radio.’
Rosie closes her eyes. ‘Oh no.’ They’re the first words she’s spoken since he got here and they make Seb wince.
‘I know. I’m so sorry, Ro.’
She nods, taking his apology quietly. She’d been so focused on trying to understand her feelings after the assembly, she hadn’t thought about what would happen next.
‘I think this is going to get worse, much worse, before it gets better.’
Rosie nods slowly.
‘Listen, if you think it’s best to get away for a while with the kids, I would understand.’
‘I don’t want to do that.’ Her words are clear, and she adds, ‘I don’t know what I want, but I know that for now, at least, we’re staying here.’
Seb nods; a couple of tears fall from his eyes. She doesn’t want to touch him and doesn’t want to say any more so she just watches him cry until his phone starts ringing again and she says, ‘You should go. We’ll speak later.’
He nods, wipes his eyes and does as she says.
Rosie considers not listening to Anna on the radio, but she has no idea what else to do with herself. The interviewer – Lydia someone – is in the middle of explaining to the audience about the petition, describing in her low, silky voice that it now has over three hundred signatures, and outlining Seb’s decision not to step down and his subsequent address to the students and parents earlier that morning.
‘Welcome, Anna Mayhew, author of the aforementioned petition, to I Heart Sussex.’
‘Afternoon, Lydia.’ Anna sounds calm, well prepared. ‘I’m very happy to be here.’
‘I understand that you and Sebastian Kent are good friends, have been for a long time – is that right?’
Anna’s voice bounces. ‘I think probably the past tense is more applicable now.’
‘Ahh.’ Lydia clarifies, ‘You aren’t any more?’
Anna patronizes her. ‘I can’t be friends with someone so lacking in basic human decency, someone who would put children at risk.’
‘You’re referring to the “disturbing, transgressive and immoral behaviours” you allude to in the petition?’
‘That’s right, Lydia. I was hoping he’d have the courage this morning to say exactly what it was he did so parents could decide for themselves, but I’m afraid he managed to dodge the issue.
‘I’ve decided that he’s left me with little choice but to tell the truth. I didn’t want to, I wanted to protect his wife and his children whom I adore.’ Anna’s voice takes on a sorrowful edge; Rosie bites her bottom lip, mutters, ‘Bullshit.’
‘I’ve thought about it deeply, and I feel that I have a duty to the other parents and their children who attend the school. They have the right to know that the reason I wrote that petition was because twice, in the last few months, Sebastian Kent paid a woman for sex.’
There’s a pause before Lydia says, ‘Do we know if the woman was working legally and of her own volition?’
Rosie wonders if Lydia’s thinking about how many times her little radio show will be listened to, how many shares it’ll get online. If she is, Lydia does well to keep the excitement out of her voice.
‘Yes. That is what he’s been saying. But we can’t be sure that he only saw one woman.’
‘As far as you’re aware, this woman consented, so this isn’t a matter for the police?’
‘As far as I’m able to gather at this stage, it was legal, but just because she consented doesn’t mean that people in power should be able to do whatever they like to people with less power!’
‘I see your point. And how did you find out this information?’ Lydia keeps her tone neutral.
‘Seb told my husband and then, well, there were other clues. Look, the point is that he’s not fit to be headmaster. What I really want to encourage people to think about – especially parents with kids at the school – is what kind of a man treats women – and here I include both the prostitute and Sebastian Kent’s poor wife’ – Rosie bristles, swears again at the radio – ‘as playthings, either paying them for his own gratification or lying to them time and time again. As a feminist, I don’t want this kind of person anywhere near our sons and our daughters.’
‘You think he’s unsafe?’
‘Possibly. He’s a man who used a school computer to search for prostitutes. Most likely he searched for them during school hours in his office. I don’t trust him and that means I don’t think he should be anywhere near kids.’
‘Ahh.’ Lydia’s voice drops a note. ‘Do you have evidence to support these claims?’
There’s a beat; it lasts too long, making any conviction sound hollow.