Claire knocked again, this time more firmly.
The door remained closed for another moment before it opened from the inside.
A woman in a neat business suit with perfectly styled hair nodded at her and stepped aside to make way for her to enter.
Claire braced herself and walked in.
The first thing she noticed was the size of the office, easily thrice as large as the principal’s office at school.
A wall of windows overlooked the city and expensive-looking furniture was arranged neatly.
She tried not to look around too much to avoid embarrassing herself.
Her eyes landed on Sophie who was sitting on a black cushion near the wall, staring at her with an unreadable expression.
The girl now wore a light pink floral dress, her hair unbound and falling around her shoulders.
Her school uniform was folded neatly on the seat beside her.
The woman who had opened the door walked toward Sophie and bent down in front of her.
From the position and the careful way she adjusted the dress, Claire guessed she was the one who had helped Sophie change out of her uniform.
Claire turned her head and finally saw him, the man sitting behind the desk.
His face was lowered toward his computer so mostly his dark hair was visible from her angle.
She wondered if this was Sophie’s father.
From his posture and what little she could see of his face, he didn’t look like the middle-aged wealthy man Claire had imagined Sophie’s dad to be.
Before she could decide what to do, Sophie suddenly jumped down from the cushion and turned toward the man by the desk.
“Daddy, I’m going with Miss Elena now.
Remember what I told you.”
The man replied without looking up from his computer.
“Go.”
Sophie smiled and took the hand of the woman in the suit.
As they walked past her, Sophie stopped and looked up at Claire, giving her that small wicked smile she had seen at school.
She leaned closer and whispered, “Good luck, Miss…”
Claire could only watch the little girl walk away with her lips pursed tightly.
The office went uncomfortably quiet after the assistant had walked out with Sophie.
Claire looked back at the man behind the desk, her fingers tugging at the sides of her skirt as she felt a little nervous.
When she thought the man wouldn’t look up from his work, he finally raised his head.
His gaze went through her as if he was measuring her, weighing her worth.
Meanwhile… Claire was completely caught off guard.
Though she knew Sophie was very good-looking and would have taken that from her parents, the man sitting before her was something she hadn’t expected at all.
From his cold grey eyes which clearly showed he was indeed Sophie’s father, to his neatly styled dark hair and other features she found herself noticing, topped with a face that showed no expression whatsoever.
“Sit,” he said simply before Claire’s thoughts could wander further.
It was a shame that she had come here for what she thought was a serious discussion about her job and now found herself noticing how attractive the man was.
Claire quickly controlled her expression to remain neutral and walked toward his desk, sitting down on the chair in front of his seat.
The man looked at her for another moment before lowering his eyes to the file on his desk.
He opened it and turned through several pages without saying anything.
Claire caught a glimpse of her name and her photograph among the papers before he turned another page.
“You’ve been working at Westbridge for less than two weeks,” he said at last.
Claire nodded politely.
“Yes.”
“I’ve already received a complaint about how you handled my daughter.” His voice was calm, almost too calm for someone discussing a complaint that could supposedly cost her a job.
Claire’s fingers tightened around the sides of her skirt.
Sebastian continued looking through the file.
“You disrespected my daughter, overstepped your position as her teacher, and then kept her behind after class to apologize.”
Claire’s eyebrows pulled together.
“You’ve been informed about her, yet you still chose to handle the situation this way.” Sebastian closed the file and placed it neatly on the desk.
“I don’t have a problem with teachers correcting my daughter when it’s necessary.
I have a problem with teachers who forget where the line is.”
Claire’s annoyance grew.
She had barely spoken a word since sitting down yet he had already made his judgment.
He hadn’t asked why she had disciplined Sophie or what had happened before all that.
He had simply listed everything she had done wrong as if there was nothing more to discuss.
“Did you even bother to ask me what happened?” she asked, her voice firmer than she intended.
“You just decided your daughter is the victim.”
The man slowly looked up from the file, staring at her for a few seconds.
There was no surprise on his face, only a slight change in his eyes as he studied her.
Then, in that calm, almost mocking tone, he said, “Tell me.”
It was as if Claire had finally been given an opportunity to voice out all her thoughts and frustrations about how ridiculous everything was.
“Sophie pushed a boy in her class yesterday,” she began.
“The boy only knocked over her pencil case by accident.
Sophie refused to apologize.
I wasn’t going to let her push another child and walk away from it just because she’s Sophie Valerius.”
Sebastian’s expression remained unchanged.
“I had already tried being patient with her,” Claire continued.
“I spoke to her several times before yesterday.
She doesn’t listen when she’s told no, she interrupts the class, and she takes things from other students.
I didn’t report every little thing because I knew she was still getting used to me.”
She looked directly at him.
“But pushing another child was different.
I couldn’t ignore it.”
Sebastian’s eyes remained on her.
Claire could feel that he wasn’t pleased.
“I just told her she couldn’t treat people that way,” she said in a much lowered tone.
“I told her that if someone did something by accident, she should tell me instead of pushing them.
She refused to apologize, so I made her stay until she was ready.”
Sebastian finally moved his hand across the desk and rested it beside the file.
“You knew who she was and you still corrected her.”
Claire couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Of course I did!
That doesn’t mean she should get special treatment when she does something wrong!”
The man’s eyes narrowed coldly.
“Enough.”
Claire went silent and looked up at him.
His face remained unchanged as he continued.
“You said my daughter was spoiled,” he said, his voice dropping lower.
“You said her parents failed to teach her properly.”
Claire’s lips pressed together.
“I said her behavior was unacceptable.”
“You mentioned her mother.”
Claire went quiet.
She hadn’t meant anything by it.
“I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful… I was angry because she had pushed another child.
I shouldn’t have mentioned her mother.
If I knew it would upset her, I wouldn’t have said it.” She paused before adding, “And I’m sorry for that.
If I need to apologize to her mother, I will.
Or you can give her my apology.”
The man said nothing for a moment.
Claire looked down briefly before meeting his eyes again.
“I can accept that I shouldn’t have said that part.
But I won’t apologize for correcting Sophie when she hurt another student.”
Claire suddenly realized that she was probably making things worse for herself but she couldn’t bring herself to take back her words.
She had worked too hard for her position at Westbridge.
She needed the job and she didn’t want to lose it because of a child who had been allowed to behave however she wanted.
At the same time, she couldn’t pretend she had done something wrong when she knew she hadn’t.
Sebastian reached for the file again.
He opened it and looked down at the information.
“Claire Anderson.”
Claire’s eyes flickered at the sound of her full name.
He turned one page.
“Twenty-three.
Elementary education.
Good academic record.
Two years of teaching experience before Westbridge.”
Claire said nothing, knowing that he already probably knew everything about her.
Sebastian closed the file again.
“You seem quite confident in how children should be raised…”