But the red pen came down anyway.
“Not Verified.”
The words felt heavier the second time.
At recess, Lily sat alone, staring at the classroom window. She wondered, quietly, if loving her father had somehow been wrong.
When she got home, her mother—now Rachel Reed—noticed immediately.
“What happened?” she asked gently.
“She didn’t believe me,” Lily said, her voice small.
Rachel read the words on the page, her expression tightening just slightly before she closed the folder. “I see,” she said calmly, though something in her eyes had changed.
That night, Rachel stared at her phone, Marcus’s name glowing on the screen. She didn’t call. She knew him too well.
Some things didn’t need to be explained twice.
The next morning, the classroom felt colder.
“Lily, bring your project up,” Ms. Harper said.
Lily walked slowly to the front. Ms. Harper opened the folder, underlined “Not Verified” again, then placed it in a small bin beneath her desk.
A quiet gasp spread through the room.
“Lily, I’d like you to apologize to the class.”
The words hit harder than anything before.
“Apologize?” she asked faintly.
“For presenting information that hasn’t been verified,” Ms. Harper said. “We don’t present guesses as facts.”