The next afternoon I arranged to swap my work shifts so I could visit the dance studio without telling anyone. I desperately needed to speak directly with Audrey in a private setting to understand the root cause of her misery. I arrived at the building just as her scheduled class was supposed to end and carefully scanned the room full of dancers. I felt a wave of panic when I realized Audrey was nowhere to be found among the other students. A polite woman introduced herself as Ms Alvarez the head ballet teacher and quickly ushered me into an empty private office. My stomach tied into painful knots as she revealed that Audrey had abandoned her ballet classes nearly two weeks ago. The teacher sadly explained that Audrey had formally withdrawn from lessons because she believed I thought she lacked the talent to succeed. I immediately pulled out my phone to prove I was still actively paying the monthly tuition fees to keep her enrolled. Ms Alvarez was shocked and explained that Audrey had tearfully begged her not to call our house to discuss the situation. The studio had sent several urgent emails to my account but I discovered they had all been filtered directly into my spam folder…
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