The Professor's Ruin

It started after my husband hired a couple of thugs to trash the flower stall I’d set up outside the university gates.

So I took a bouquet of roses to the graduation ceremony of the student he was sponsoring.

My husband, a tenured professor at the college, was on stage, adjusting the tassel on her mortarboard.

As he smiled and posed with her for a photograph, I switched on my portable megaphone.

“Two for the price of one, folks! The professor and his protégée, sharing a bed and a diploma! Roses are three for a dollar today—my wedding gift to the happy couple!”

A sea of stunned, na?ve faces turned to stare.

And up on that stage, Professor Arthur Pierce—my calm, composed husband—panicked for the second time in his life.

1.

The first time was the day I found out he was cheating.

It was a perfectly ordinary Friday.

He came home after his weekly graduate seminar, just like always, but this time he collapsed with stomach pain so severe he nearly passed out.

His tweed jacket smelled of cayenne and fried chicken.

Arthur has a sensitive stomach. He never eats spicy food.

I called his teaching assistant, and that’s when I learned there was a new student in his seminar.

Arthur had taken her out for Nashville hot chicken, just because she wanted to try it.

“It’s not a big deal,” I told the TA, my voice steady. “Just, your professor’s stomach can’t handle things like that. In the future, could you please make sure he avoids it?”

The voice on the other end hesitated. “Ma’am… honestly, Sadie… she doesn’t even meet the qualifications to be in the seminar.”

A strange, sharp thought exploded in my mind.

Arthur was resting in bed, his brow furrowed in discomfort even in his sleep. After two decades together, we were an open book to each other.

I unlocked his phone without any trouble.

The group chat for the seminar looked normal.

At first.

[Arthur Pierce: Next time, try to stay awake during the discussion.]

[Sadie: But it’s so boring. What if I just look at you instead? I know I won’t get sleepy if I’m looking at you.]

[Arthur Pierce: Fine.]

[Sadie: Calling you ‘Professor Pierce’ feels so old-fashioned. Can I call you ‘Professor A’? Or maybe just Arthur? Pretty please?]

[Arthur Pierce: Whatever you want.]

[Sadie: xoxo! (heart_emoji.gif)]

I pulled out my own phone, checked the profile picture, and confirmed that this Sadie was the girl I knew.

A knot of pressure formed in my chest, tight and suffocating.

Arthur woke as the daylight began to fade.

I handed him a glass of water. Next to it, I placed his phone, open to their chat.

In the time he’d been asleep, Sadie had sent him a dozen more messages.

“Professor A, can we get hot chicken again tomorrow?”

“Professor A, I’m so stuck on this paper. Can I get my handsome professor to ghostwrite it for me? I’ll let you be the second author!”

She was a senior, an undergraduate not even on the graduate track. There was absolutely no reason, academic or otherwise, for her to be in Arthur’s master’s level seminar.

“Get her out of the group,” I said, my voice quiet. “She doesn’t belong there. She’ll drag down the rest of the students.”

I took a breath. “We can pretend this never happened.”

Twenty years. I was trying to give him an ounce of dignity.

Arthur’s gaze landed on the glowing screen.

He squinted at me.

“Nora.”

“If I hadn’t married you, you’d still be just a girl selling flowers on a street corner.”

2.

I’ve always been a supportive wife.

I listen to my husband. So, the very next day, I put my hair up, went to the entrance of Blackwood University, and set up a flower stall.

On the wrapping paper for each bouquet, I thoughtfully printed screenshots of Arthur and Sadie’s text messages.

Over the years, I had become a familiar face on campus. Faculty and students knew me. As soon as I set up, one of Arthur’s former students wandered over.

“Mrs. Pierce? What are you doing out here? Is everything okay with you and the professor?”

I handed him a freshly wrapped bouquet.

“Everything’s fine. Your professor just has another family to support now.”

My voice was light, conspiratorial. “You know how it is. Younger women, they have expensive tastes. I’m just worried he’s going to run himself into the ground trying to keep up.”

I let the venom seep out, my words deliberately cruel and suggestive.

Within a day, the rumors about Professor Pierce and his young new protégée were tearing across campus.

The second time I set up my stall, a couple of thugs showed up and kicked it to pieces, stomping my flowers into the pavement.

“Lady,” one of them sneered, “someone sent us with a message. Know when to quit.”

Of course, I didn’t listen.

That same afternoon, I went from the campus security office to the Dean’s office, and finally, I filed a formal complaint with the university’s ethics board. I cried at every stop.

Arthur was summoned for a meeting.

He came home early that evening, not lingering at the university.

“Nora, that’s enough.”

I just snorted. “We’re just getting started. You did the disgusting deed, Arthur. Don’t tell me you’re getting scared now.”

He sighed heavily, tossing his briefcase onto the sofa, his expression a mask of frustration.

“None of this had to happen, Nora. We could have talked this through.”

He looked at me with pure disappointment.

“If our marriage is over, it’s because you pushed it there.”

He was blaming me.

He was blaming me for my hysteria, for shattering the perfect facade of our ugly marriage. He was the one who had been unfaithful, who had betrayed twenty years of history, yet here he stood on the moral high ground, accusing me of being the crazy one, the one whose unhinged behavior was driving him away.

“Did I make you cheat on me, Arthur?”

He laughed, a cold, bitter sound. “Have you forgotten who brought Sadie into our home in the first place, Nora?”

My stomach dropped.

A wave of nausea, so profound it was suffocating, washed over me.

That girl. I had sponsored her. Adopted her, in everything but name.

I brought her into our home. For nearly ten years, I had cherished her like a daughter.

“You make me sick, Arthur.”

For the first time, we looked at each other and saw a stranger.

That night, Arthur moved out. And Sadie went with him.

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