Chapter 15 - “Fix It”
Monique remembered writing the message.
That was the worst part.
Not because she remembered intending fraud.
She had not.
She remembered exhaustion.
Jaylen had received a 42 on an algebra test.
Derrick was traveling for work.
Monique had been sitting in her car outside a grocery store when Ellis messaged that Jaylen might fail the quarter.
She had typed:
I don’t care how you do it. He cannot fail this class. Fix it.
At the time, “fix it” meant tutor harder.
Schedule more sessions.
Find missing work.
Now the words looked poisonous.
Derrick read the screenshot.
He did not accuse her.
That somehow made it worse.
“I wrote it,” she said.
“I know.”
“I didn’t mean cheat.”
“I know.”
“But if somebody else read it—”
“I know.”
She sat.
Jaylen stood in the hallway listening.
Monique looked at him.
“Did Mr. Ellis ever tell you I authorized him to do your work?”
Jaylen hesitated.
“Sometimes.”
Her face fell.
“What did he say?”
“That you paid him to make sure I passed.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“To me it kinda was.”
Monique closed her eyes.
Jaylen continued.
“He’d say, ‘Your mom wants results.’”
Renee sat on the arm of the sofa.
“Did you ever ask what your mom actually approved?”
Jaylen shook his head.
“Because you didn’t want to.”
He looked at her.
“No.”
Monique stared at her son.
The answer was painful.
But honest.
Derrick placed Ellis’s letter on the table.
“We need an attorney.”
Monique looked alarmed.
“Are you saying I’m going to be charged?”
“No.”
“Then why—”
“Because Ellis has one.”
Renee agreed.
“And because you should stop talking directly to him.”
They contacted a local attorney, Simone Grant, who specialized in education and employment matters.
She met them that afternoon.
Simone was precise and unsentimental.
She reviewed every text.
Every invoice.
Every payment.
Then she looked at Monique.
“The bad news is your messages are ambiguous.”
Monique swallowed.
“And the good news?”
“So are his invoices.”
Derrick leaned forward.
“What does that mean?”
“It means nobody should pretend this is simple.”
Simone tapped the paperwork.
“Ellis appears to have intentionally blurred tutoring, editing, assignment assistance, and misconduct.”
“Why?”
“So everybody had deniability.”
Renee murmured:
“Exactly what the district said.”
Simone nodded.
“Parents could tell themselves they were buying support. Students could understand they were buying outcomes. Ellis could profit from both interpretations.”
Monique looked sick.
“Did I break the law?”
Simone did not rush.
“I see no evidence you asked anyone to steal test materials or access school systems.”
Monique exhaled.
“But.”
She tensed.
“You knowingly allowed work you understood was not entirely Jaylen’s to be submitted.”
Monique looked down.
“That can violate school policy. It can create consequences for him. Whether it creates legal exposure for you depends on facts I do not currently see.”
Derrick asked:
“What should we do?”
“Preserve everything. Do not delete messages. Do not contact Ellis. Cooperate with legitimate requests.”
She looked at Jaylen.
“And you need separate honesty.”
Jaylen frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“It means your parents’ mistakes do not become your defense.”
He looked away.
After the lawyer left, Monique remained at the table.
Jaylen approached slowly.
“Mom.”
She did not look up.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what part?”
The question surprised him.
“All of it.”
“That’s too easy.”
He frowned.
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth.”
Jaylen sat across from her.
He thought.
“I knew Mr. Ellis was doing too much.”
Monique nodded.
“I knew you didn’t understand all of it.”
She blinked.
“I knew if Dad found out, he’d stop it.”
Derrick stood in the kitchen doorway.
Jaylen continued.
“So I made sure you didn’t tell him.”
“How?”
Monique asked.
Jaylen stared at his hands.
“Whenever you said maybe we should tell Dad, I’d say he’d take basketball.”
Monique’s face tightened.
“And you knew that scared me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you wanted basketball to save me.”
She stared at him.
That sentence reached somewhere deep.
Terrence had loved basketball too.
For a while.
Before trouble swallowed everything else.
Monique had spent years telling herself sports kept boys focused.
Safe.
Moving forward.
Jaylen had understood that fear better than she had.
He had used it.
“I manipulated you,” he said.
Monique’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Jaylen flinched.
He had expected her to soften it.
She did not.
“But I let myself be manipulated,” she added.
He looked up.
“That part belongs to me.”
Derrick leaned against the doorway.
Nobody rescued anybody from their sentence.
It was strangely peaceful.
Then Jaylen asked:
“Are you and Dad gonna get divorced?”
Monique froze.
Derrick straightened.
“Why would you ask that?” she said.
“You keep fighting.”
“So?”
“You sleep in the guest room.”
Monique glanced at Derrick.
Jaylen had noticed.
Of course he had.
Derrick walked in.
“We don’t know what happens with us.”
Jaylen’s face fell.
“But this is not your responsibility.”
Jaylen laughed bitterly.
“Kinda feels like it is.”
“It isn’t.”
“If I didn’t get suspended—”
“The suspension exposed things,” Monique said. “It did not create them.”
Jaylen looked at both parents.
Derrick added:
“Your choices have consequences. So do ours.”
Jaylen swallowed.
“Okay.”
He stood.
Then Derrick’s phone buzzed.
A message from Assistant Principal Miles.
District investigators found evidence Coach Lawson accessed Ms. Cooper’s classroom using a substitute keycard the evening before the answer key was photographed.
Derrick looked at Jaylen.
Jaylen’s eyes widened.
Proof.
But the next sentence destroyed the relief.
Video shows Jaylen entering the hallway with Lawson that evening. We need him back tomorrow.
Derrick turned the phone toward his son.
Jaylen read it.
His face drained of color.
Monique whispered:
“You told us you got the picture from Ellis.”
Jaylen said nothing.
Derrick’s voice became quiet.
“Were you there when Lawson took it?”
Jaylen stared at the screen.
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Then whispered:
“Yes.”
