Chapter 18 - Brightwood Burns
Smoke was already pouring from the back of Brightwood when Emma arrived.
Fire trucks filled the street.
Parents stood behind barricades.
Margaret Grant was on the sidewalk wrapped in a blanket.
Emma ran to her.
“Is everyone out?”
“Yes.”
“Where did it start?”
“The office wing.”
The archive.
Of course.
Margaret looked at Emma with hollow eyes. “I did this.”
Emma stared at her.
“What?”
“Not the fire.” Margaret shook her head quickly. “All of it. I let Vivian stay. I let her buy influence. I signed score sheets I knew were wrong.”
“Then tell the police.”
“I will.”
“Everything.”
“Yes.”
Firefighters contained the blaze before it reached the main studios.
Investigators soon found an accelerant near the office storage room.
Security footage from a business across the street showed a figure entering through the rear door shortly before the fire.
Not Vivian.
Ms. Vale.
The instructor who had watched Brooke slap Lily and called it a disagreement.
Police found her two hours later at a motel with a duffel bag and twelve thousand dollars in cash.
By midnight, she was talking.
Vivian had paid her to destroy records.
The fire was supposed to look electrical.
It didn’t.
The next morning, the story broke publicly.
BRIGHTWOOD DANCE ACADEMY UNDER INVESTIGATION.
Parents flooded local news stations with complaints.
Former students came forward.
So many that David stopped counting after twenty-seven.
The City Conservatory suspended Brightwood from its partner program.
Margaret resigned.
The parent board dissolved itself pending review.
And Brooke withdrew from the spring showcase.
Lily should have felt safe.
Instead she sat on Emma’s porch staring at her shoes.
“What if Brightwood closes?”
“It might.”
“Then nobody gets the showcase.”
Emma sat beside her.
“You still danced well.”
“That’s not the point.”
“What is?”
“I wanted them to see me.”
Emma understood.
Then a black sedan pulled up at the curb.
A woman stepped out carrying a City Conservatory folder.
She walked toward the porch and smiled at Lily.
“Lily Carter?”
Lily stood.
“Yes?”
“My name is Dr. Helen Park. I judged your audition.”
Lily’s eyes widened.
May you like
Dr. Park held out the folder.
“We’d like you to finish it.”
