“Like the drug-ring?” I asked.
Adam’s eyes widened. “How do you know about that?”
“Julian told me.”
He drew in a deep breath through his nose. “Ah, so that’s what the urgent meeting you two had was about,” he murmured.
I was surprised he wasn’t denying it or telling me that Julian was wrong about what he had heard. And even more shocked when he continued to explain. “Lineage has been the front for a drug operation since long before you or I ever knew about this school. From what I’ve been told, it’s been decades of drug trafficking that kept the pockets of all these fancy board members lined.”
I nodded slowly. “So, the board members are all drug dealers?”
He shook his head. “Not quite. The drug dealers are the low-hanging fruit. The board members are the executioners.”
Something about the way he said that last word was a bit too real and scary.
“What about Goldshire?” I asked. “Julian said there was some sort of planned merger between the colleges, but I thought they were rivals?”
“I don’t really know about that,” Adam said with a shrug. “I know that there’s something shady between the two schools, more than just a vicious rivalry. But I also know that their boards hate each other, so I can’t imagine that Goldshire would be in league with Lineage. Things are definitely amping up though, that’s for sure.”
“What about the threat that Lineage made?” I asked.
He tilted his head. “What threat?”
“Julian said they threatened to shut Goldshire down if the school didn’t agree to be used as part of a cover-up.”
He blinked. “Oh, I didn’t know anything about that. I was talking about the gala.”
It took a lot more convincing for me to get Adam to spill all the details he knew about the upcoming gala. But I think he felt awful about how badly I had gotten beaten up, so he had a difficult time refusing me.
Apparently, the gala was to be held in the city’s aquarium, a place that I loved to visit with my mom when I was a kid. She and I had gone once during a nighttime visit, and I remembered thinking how much cooler it was than going during the day. The entire aquarium was lit up in teals and cerulean blues that seemed to make all the tanks look backlit. It was truly a magical experience. Less magical that Adam told me the event was being used in preparation for a charity event that would be used as a cover for a huge drug trafficking deal. The more I heard about the people there, the more disgusted I became.
Everyone at Lineage was invited to the gala, even me. Adam thought it was best for us to sit the event out, but not only did I want to revisit the aquarium, I also wanted to get some insight as to the fake charity event that Lineage would be putting on. He agreed to take me as long as I stayed close this time and didn’t wander off. I think he was afraid he would find me at the bottom of one of the tanks if I did.
Unlike the events I had attended at Goldshire, this event had a strict dress requirement, and I had absolutely nothing suitable to wear to it. I had mentioned to Adam about needing to go shopping before the gala, and he had nodded while half-listening and obviously thinking about something else.
We walked back to the apartment from class together, and Michael was back when we arrived. He stood at the kitchen bar, pouring a cocktail, and completely ignored both of us as we walked inside. I had the burning desire to turn around and look at him as we went down the hall just to see if he was watching us, but I didn’t. When we got into the bedroom, there was a large box laying on the bed with my name on it.
“Is it a bomb?” I asked.
Adam laughed. “It’s in much too pretty of a box to be a bomb, I think. Open it.”
I pulled the giant gold ribbon off the top of the box and removed the lid. Inside was the most beautiful, sparkling dress that I had ever seen. I pulled it out and held it up to my chest. It was the midnight blue color of the night sky and was covered in so many little rhinestones that it looked as though all the stars had suddenly fallen onto the dress at once.
There were no sleeves and a deep, plunging neckline that reached all the way down the bodice of the dress. I turned the dress around to look at the back, which scooped almost down to the waist and held my hand under the gorgeous layers of cascading lace at the bottom.
“Do you like it?” Adam grinned.
“Did you get this?” I asked in astonishment.
“Yep,” he said as he popped the ‘p’. “You said you didn’t have anything to wear.”
“It’s perfect,” I beamed. “Thank you.”
Adam smiled with satisfaction. “Oh, there’s one more thing inside the box.”
He went over and lifted a teardrop pendant out from inside the tissue paper. The diamond in the center of it was huge and glittered as it reflected all the light in the room. He held it up against my breastbone and looked at me.
“You’re going to look like a walking galaxy,” he said.
And as I gazed into his eyes, I wondered how in the world this mysterious boy that had come into my life could peg a dress and jewelry for me that easily.
Much less get everything—like my size—just right.
13
By the time the night of the gala had arrived, all of my cuts and bruises had healed. And so had Michael’s. Although he and Adam still had some hostility between them, they were back on talking terms in an attempt to keep things civil and at least uphold the appearance of peace between us all.
I just hoped it held up.
I knew that I shouldn’t have been looking forward to going to the gala at all, especially considering that it was just the cover for something bad, but I couldn’t help being at least a little bit excited about going to the aquarium. I couldn’t even remember the last time I got to dress up for anything, I mean really dress up, and I had the most beautiful dress to wear.
All of that aside, I knew it would be the prime place to find out more about what Lineage was up to.
I had continued to search around campus, but I hadn’t found anything of particular interest since that one letter I had found in the maintenance office. Michael must have discarded it somewhere because I had searched his room one day when he wasn’t home and couldn’t find anything in there either. Out of everything, I was hoping to finally find some usable leads to follow.
While I was in the bathroom trying to get my long pieces of hair to stay up in some sort of pretty concoction on my head, I heard Michael and Adam talking to each other in the other room. I couldn’t make out everything that they were saying, but essentially, it had something to do with “keeping me out of the way” and “getting through the night without any drama.” I walked back into the bedroom to change into my dress, Adam was standing in the middle of the room already ready to go.
