The drive to Ethan’s school should have taken ten minutes, but it felt like ten hours. When I turned into the school parking lot, my stomach dropped all over again.
A police SUV sat out front. Lights off, but unmistakable. The sight of it made everything real in a way that scared me.
Inside, the front desk secretary gave me a nervous smile.
“They’re waiting for you, Ma’am.”
I steadied myself, took a breath, and pushed open the principal’s office door.
The scene inside made me freeze.
Ethan sat small in a chair against the wall, arms folded tight across his chest, eyes fixed on the floor. He looked so young right then, and so scared.
Across from him stood a uniformed officer, hands clasped behind his back, silent but watching everything.
And beside the principal’s desk stood another boy — clean-cut, wearing an expensive hoodie.
Principal Dawson clasped his hands together on his desk. “Thank you for coming. We need to discuss your son’s involvement in a theft.”
I looked at Ethan, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“If someone could tell me exactly what happened?” I stared at the principal.
The other boy leaned forward. “My new iPhone 14 was in my desk before lunch. When I came back, it was gone. Ethan’s the only one who sat near me.”
Ethan’s head jerked up. “That’s not true!”
Principal Dawson cleared his throat. “Ma’am, Ethan and Connor have had some disagreements lately, correct?”
Connor? I looked at the other boy again. Ethan had mentioned him before: same grade, always bragging about his dad’s car and how he “deserved” a spot in the summer scholarship camp.
“He calls me ‘budget boy,'” Ethan said angrily. “It’s not a disagreement when someone’s just being mean.”
“Is that why you took it?” Connor snapped. “To get back at me? Or so you could finally have a good phone?”
“Boys, enough,” the principal said. “We’ll get to the bottom of this soon enough.”
Heat crawled up my neck. I turned to the principal. “Why did you call the police?”
Mr. Dawson glanced at Ethan. “It’s important for children to understand the consequences of their actions.”
My hands clenched into fists. He said it like he’d already decided that Ethan was guilty.
The officer in the corner, whose nameplate read Ruiz, lifted his hand. “Let’s all stay calm. Ma’am, with your permission, we’d like to check Ethan’s belongings. It’s entirely voluntary.”
Ethan stiffened. “Mom, I didn’t take anything.”
I looked at him then, taking in the fear in his eyes and the way his hands trembled in his lap. This was my kid. He’d never stolen so much as a candy bar from a gas station.
“Let’s just do it and clear this up.” I stepped closer to Ethan and gestured to his backpack. “Open it up, please.”
Ethan slowly unzipped his backpack.
He pulled out a crumpled notebook and set it on the floor, then added a half-eaten granola bar, his markers, and his math workbook to the pile.
He roughly tugged his bag to one side, and something black slid from a side pocket and hit the floor with a dull thud.
Connor gasped. “That’s my phone! I told you he took it.”
Everything narrowed to that phone lying on the floor between us. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
“I swear I didn’t take it, Mom!” Ethan’s voice cut into my thoughts. “I don’t know how it got there. You have to believe me.”
I looked into his eyes, which were wide and pleading. I wanted to believe him, but I thought of how he’d been begging for a new phone, and doubt pricked at me.
For one horrible second, I hesitated.
Principal Dawson shifted in his chair, clearly satisfied. “Well, it seems we’ve found our culprit. Officer, how would you like to proceed?”
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