Falling From Grace: Student-Teacher Forbidden Romance

Chapter 60

[RECAP: Leonie has fallen completely in love with Father Gabriel. But there's a secret from her past that she hasn't told him...]

"I have to tell you something. There's something about me you need to know."

The seriousness in Leonie's tone surprised Gabriel, but he wasn't concerned it could be anything that bad. After spending the past few days with her, he felt as though he knew her pretty well. There were times that he couldn't imagine not knowing her.

"You look worried. Whatever it is can't be that bad." He brushed her hair behind her ear, tilting her face towards his. "It's freezing cold out here. Do you want to head back to the hotel, or go to a bar?"

Leonie wasn't sure. It might make it worse if there were other people around. "Can we just sit over there?" She indicated a park bench that was shielded from a nearby streetlight by a tree. Even though it was bare of leaves in winter, it still created a dark and shady space.

They sat down, Gabriel wrapping his arm around Leonie to keep her warm. He looked at her, waiting for when she was ready.

"It's about high school. I never actually finished. I dropped out. Actually, I got kicked out." Leonie couldn't bring herself to look at Gabriel as she said this. She stared down at her hands instead.

Gabriel was surprised but let her continue.

"I got mixed up in some trouble. I know you're going to hate me when I tell you, and that I should have told you before. I'm just so ashamed about it all, I feel so stupid."

Gabriel turned Leonie to face him. "Whatever is in the past is over and done. In the time I've known you I can tell you are a good person. You're intelligent, hard working, talented. And I love you. Nothing can change that."

Leonie's eyes filled with tears. "It's really bad. You won't think the same when you know."

"You don't have to tell me anything. If you just want to tell someone, you can always go to confessional with Father Stephen," Gabriel told her.

Leonie could just imagine that. Telling Father Stephen, and then being asked "is there anything else you wish to confess?" and having to admit to a string of mortal sins with his colleague.

She decided just to get it out and over with. "When I was in my senior year I did the usual stupid getting mixed up with the wrong crowd thing. There was this boy, and well, you know. I was dumb. They were all into drugs and some of them were older. The boy I was with already had a prior conviction. Then the police raided a party and he got caught with more stuff, so he got me to say it was mine. So I got arrested and charged instead."

Gabriel stroked Leonie's hair to let her know that it was okay. "So what happened?"

"Eventually they dropped the charges. I think they figured out it wasn't mine. But I got some kind of caution and it's on my record. Then of course I got kicked out of school and my parents were furious. Then my grandmother offered to send me to a strict school to complete high school, and cut me off from the people I was hanging out with."

"That must have been very hard."

Leonie felt tears running down her face. "It was awful. I felt like I wrecked my whole future. I didn't realise how important it all was, getting the right grades and actually graduating, until I'd lost the opportunity. I didn't want to come to St Winifred's, I was so homesick. But then I met you, and there was the play, and now this. I can't bear to lose it all again."

Gabriel kissed her. "You don't have to lose any of it. None of it makes any difference to me. All you did was cover for someone you liked."

"Someone I thought I liked. The moment I took the rap he dropped me like a stone. And I found out he was seeing some other girl behind my back." Leonie still felt stupid and humiliated about it all. It had all been for nothing. At the time she had felt completely heartbroken as well. But looking back, she wondered what she had ever seen in him. Compared to Gabriel, and how amazing he was, and how she felt about him, the other boy seemed like nothing.