Chosen By My Mate's Father-in-law
Chapter 56: The Principal’s Office

Chapter 56: Chapter 56: The Principal’s Office

The principal’s frantic eyes flashed over to his receptionist, and he loosened his tie, his face growing flushed.

“I’m s-so sorry for my receptionist’s rudeness, sir.” Principal Thompson looked at Gareth apologetically. “She’s new. I’ll make sure to give her a stern talking to so that she understands that how she treated your wife was wrong.”

The woman turned to her boss, her face growing red with rage.

“I’ve been your secretary for five years, you liar. How dare you try to throw me under the bus?” she snapped. “If I’m going down, I’m dragging you along with me.” Then she turned back to Gareth with a vindictive glint in her eyes. “Principal Thompson was just trying to blackmail your wife into sleeping with him only a few moments ago! That’s why he had his hand wrapped around your wife’s wrist. He was leading her into his office even though she hadn’t agreed. Ask your wife! She’ll tell you.”

Gareth’s nostrils flared, and a low snarl ripped out of his mouth. He took a warning step toward the principal, taking me with him since his arm was still wrapped around my waist.

Principal Thompson’s eyes grew wide with fear. “This situation is all just a big misunderstanding,” he said, and a nervous smile that didn’t reach his eyes crossed his face. “Why don’t we step into my office so we can talk things through?”

Gareth nodded once, then turned to Beta Kevin. “Take care of her while I’m gone.” He looked at the receptionist.

“Yes, sir,” Beta Kevin answered and stepped toward the secretary.

“No! I did nothing wrong!” she said in her shrill voice.

Her words of protest were cut short when Gareth and I stepped into the principal’s office, and he closed the door behind us.

Gareth led me over to the two black chairs in front of the desk. He continued to shock me by holding my hand when we sat down, lacing our fingers together. His warm touch managed to calm me. Holding hands with Gareth seemed strangely natural, as if we were meant to be connected in this way.

He gently touched the red mark the principal had left on my wrist, then narrowed his eyes at the other man as he sat behind his desk. His expression darkened with fury as he glared at the principal and then down at my wrist.

He didn’t say anything for a long moment, which made my pulse quicken. Was he mad at the principal for his creepy behavior or at me because I’d lied about being his wife, and now he was forced to continue the ruse?

But from the way Gareth’s thumb was gently stroking the back of my hand, I didn’t think he minded holding hands with me.

“What did Michelle do to warrant a parent-teacher conference?” Gareth demanded, getting straight to the point.

The intense way he stared down the principal, with his salt-and-pepper hair slightly tousled, made my mouth go dry.

“Michelle started a fight in the cafeteria that resulted in the injury of two other girls.” Principal Thompson folded his hands before him. “Our school’s code of conduct strictly states that we have a zero tolerance policy for fighting. The only reason that Michelle wasn’t immediately expelled is because she’s your daughter.”

The principal had the audacity to raise his eyebrows at Gareth. I felt him stiffen beside me.

“I wanted to meet with you to talk about how Michelle should be punished,” Principal Thompson continued.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. I believed that Michelle wouldn’t pick a fight with those girls just for fun. I couldn’t imagine her doing that. Michelle liked to mess with people sometimes, like when she threw that knife at me when I first met her. But her behavior had improved since my first tutoring session with her. I knew Gareth had noticed this too.

“Michelle isn’t the kind of girl who would start a fight for no reason,” I said. “That doesn’t sound like her at all.”

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I blushed and glanced at Gareth. I should’ve just kept my mouth shut since Gareth had already caught me in a major lie and covered for me. Hopefully, he wouldn’t get angry at me and then transfer that anger into punishing Michelle.

Thankfully, he didn’t immediately get angry. Instead, he turned to the principal.

“Why did Michelle start the fight?” he asked.

The man cleared his throat, and his eyes shifted to the side. “Well, I don’t know exactly why there was a fight, just that Michelle started it.”

Gareth leaned back in his chair and scoffed. “Why did you even call this meeting if you aren’t going to do the bare minimum to investigate the reason the fight started? Blaming Michelle without knowing the full story is unjust. It sounds like you didn’t do your job correctly. You didn’t even try. All you’ve succeeded in doing is wasting our time.”

“Have the two other girls’ parents been called in?” I chimed in. “Why are Gareth and I the only parents here when three girls were involved in the incident?”

The principal’s face went red, and he started to stutter out a lame excuse.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gareth shoot me an impressed look.

“Why would the other parents be here?” Principal Thompson asked, finally regaining the power of speech. “Michelle was the aggressor. She started the fight and sent the other two girls to the hospital. That means the fight was her fault.”

“No, that means that she just knows how to fight better than the others,” I argued. “You can’t punish her because she’s a good fighter.”

Gareth’s lips twitched, but then he controlled his expression.

“My wife makes a very good point.” Gareth squeezed my hand.

His words and touch made my heart skip a beat. I shifted in my chair and crossed my legs. Why was I letting Gareth’s presence affect me so much today?

“Call Michelle to the office,” Gareth told the principal. “I want to hear the full story from my daughter. Since you failed to do your job the first time.”

The man’s hands clenched on his desk, but he reluctantly used his intercom to call Michelle to his office.

While we waited, Gareth squeezed my hand, and when I turned to look at him, my heart pounded against my chest.

He used his other hand to tuck my hair behind my ear.

A lump developed in my throat, and my pulse quickened even more from that display of affection.

We stared deeply into each other’s eyes, and I wished more than anything that I knew what he was thinking.

But then my heart dropped when I realized that he was only acting this way to fool the principal. I shouldn’t be surprised. I’d been the one to start this lie in the first place.

When Michelle walked into the office, her green eyes went wide with shock as she stared at me, her dad, and then at our intertwined hands.

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