“Honestly, I don’t know,” he said. “But, I’m pretty sure that’s what your mother wanted you to see.”

I was disappointed that he didn’t know. I thought that maybe my mother would have told him. But then again, my mother always seemed to have an issue with trusting men, so it didn’t surprise me that she would keep it a secret and hope that I could figure it out on my own. I wouldn’t have figured this part out without Michael’s help, though. Even though I had found an anomaly, I still wasn’t sure what it meant or how it was supposed to help me.

“It’s weird, though, right?” he asked. “As crazy as my mother’s ideas are.”

“What crazy ideas?” I asked.

“Take your pick,” Michael huffed. “She’s got plenty of them. Her newest one seems to be her delusional scheme to put me in charge of Goldshire Academy.”

My face fell. “What?”

“Crazy, right?”

“That’s too crazy to be just a delusional idea,” I said, “even for Marta. What could she possibly have to gain from having her own son be Dean of the rival school?”

Especially since it sounded like Lineage was getting ready to force Goldshire to shut its doors anyway.

I groaned. “None of it makes any sense, Michael. Ugh.”

My brain hurt from trying to figure stuff out on hardly any sleep.

He scooted closer to me. “Agreed. It doesn’t.”

I sighed. “What did you tell her?”

“Nothing. I just left. By the time I got back to the apartment, Adam was texting about how he found you and so Julian and I started to head this way.”

It was getting close to the wee hours of the morning, and I was running out of time to do something that would prevent the guys from being here when all of this went down. I didn’t know what was going on with Marta, but from the sounds of it, she wouldn’t hesitate to throw her son to the wolves. Which meant it was even more dangerous for Adam and Julian to be here. I had to get them all to leave and not come back until it was over.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” I said as I stood up and tucked the letter into my pocket. “Adam, can I use those keys?” I called to him as I walked out of the greenhouse. “The office bathroom is the cleanest, but it’s always locked.”

He tossed me his keys, and I told them I’d be right back.

As I walked down the stairwell toward the bathroom, I tried to think of a way to get the guys out of here. Then an idea occurred to me when I saw the fire alarm at the bottom of the stairs and the keyed entry into the stairwell from the street. This place might not have the best security, but it was sure to at least have an alarm system. I headed straight for the front doors. Sure enough, right there by the entrance was a security alarm to pull. Without giving myself the chance to change my mind, I unlocked the door, pulled the alarm, and ran out into the street.

The entire place lit up with flashing lights, and a siren that sounded like a bank robbery was taking place. I hid across the street in the park and watched as I waited for the cops to show up. I wondered what the guys were doing inside, probably searching for me again.

When two cop cars arrived and went inside the building, it was only a few minutes before they came out again with all three guys in handcuffs. They were struggling and shouting at the cops, which just made the police pull their cuffs tighter and read them their rights. Then the cops tried to shove the guys into the backseat of their police cruisers. I watched as Michael tried to resist being arrested up until the point that the cop pushed his head down in order to get him into the car. Even then, Michael kept straining his neck around to try to look up to the roof of the aquarium.

I could only guess that he was looking for me.

It was another horrible act of betrayal that I had done to them. But it would keep the guys safe in custody for hopefully long enough to get past the charity event tonight. I had a feeling that Marta would let Michael sit in jail for a couple of days as a punishment and reminder not to cross her again.

And before I knew it, it was almost morning, which meant I had to get ready for what I was about to do.

I waited for a bit longer to make sure that the cops had cleared the area and then walked to the back of the aquarium and used the key to unlock the stairwell entrance. Then I climbed up to the rooftop and started to get ready for tonight’s event.

The aquarium was bustling with activity the entire day. In addition to their regular attendance, the staff was preparing for the Lineage charity event, which was supposedly the largest event that the aquarium hosted all year. I spent the day trying to stay hidden and out of the way and listened in on any of the chatter that I heard about the event tonight. One of the employees had mentioned that they may even need to use the overflow parking for the expected size of the crowd. I also heard some of the staff talking about the break-in last night, and about how the three “criminals” that the cops caught were students of the very same elite college that was hosting the event tonight.

Obviously, they got some of the details wrong since Julian wasn’t a student there at all. But they said enough for me to know that the police were waiting to hear back from the college administrators before letting the guys out of custody. That was all I needed to hear to know that they would be safe and out of the way tonight. I pitied whoever had to deal with them at the police station, though. I’m sure Michael’s full wrath was upon them, and somebody would probably end up losing their job at the precinct tomorrow.

During the downtime, when the staff was taking a late lunch break, I used the reflection in the side of the greenhouse walls to get changed into the dress and try to run my fingers through my hair. I pulled my hair around my face and put on a pair of glasses that I had snatched from the lost and found. They made my vision a bit blurry when I tried to look out of them for too long, but I was trying to disguise my appearance as much as possible. Aside from Marta, and maybe a few of the security guards, I don’t think anyone else at Lineage could really recognize me.

As evening approached and I sat in the back of the greenhouse waiting for things to begin, the staff started to bring up the food and drinks that they would serve at the event. It sounded like other parts of the aquarium would be open for the guests to peruse, but that the main gathering would be held mostly be here on the rooftop. Marta and the new Headmaster would be here on the roof. The general admission to the public closed, and the aquarium made its final preparations before the big event would begin.

I even overheard one of the girls at the rooftop bar say something about there being an hour before the guests started to arrive.

One hour, I thought to myself as I sat crouched down in this tight dress, balancing on the heels of someone else’s shoes, with the steak knife clenched in my hand. One hour until they get here. The adrenaline that rushed through me was making me nauseous, as was the thought of slicing someone’s throat open with this knife. I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself, but it didn’t seem to work. When I thought of my mother, all I could see was her lying face down on the storage room floor in a pool of her own blood. When I thought of Michael, all I could think of was the frenzied feeling of his body inside me. Everything I tried to imagine to help me calm my nerves did just the opposite. I resigned to embracing the chaos and hoped that it would fuel me with enough reckless bravery to do what I had been waiting to accomplish. I was going to kill the new Headmaster, and possibly even Michael’s mother too.

One by one, I started to hear the guests arrived. At first, there was only the slight sound of conversation and the occasional laugh or cough. Then it sounded like the entire rooftop was filling up with people. I didn’t dare to look out yet; I was waiting until the place was full and crowded enough for me to casually walk out of the greenhouse without being noticed. I had jammed the latch shut from the inside so that no one would open the greenhouse door until I was ready. One person tried the door to see if the greenhouse was open, but when it didn’t budge, she made some casual comment about it being locked and moved on.

I heard Marta’s voice above the others. She had that kind of high-pitched, grating voice that stood out in a crowd for all the wrong reasons. It sounded like she was walking around greeting guests and trying to stir up excitement for their “big reveal.”

“Oh yes, just wait,” Marta said as she spoke to someone who was standing close to the greenhouse doors. “This is going to change everything.”

I snickered silently to myself. If only she knew how much things were about to change tonight. Then, maybe she wouldn’t be quite so cocky and sure of herself.

It sounded like the crowd had grown to a sizeable amount, enough for me to start making my way out into the sea of people. I stood up and opened the greenhouse door and walked out as if I had been there the entire time and was supposed to be.

“I didn’t realize the greenhouse was open,” a woman said next to me. “I tried the lock a few minutes ago, and it didn’t budge.”

“Really?” I feigned ignorance. “It worked perfectly for me. You should definitely look inside. The flowers are stunning.”

The woman smiled, and I held the door open for her as she went inside. I looked out at the sea of people with drinks in their hands.

This was going to be harder than I thought.

22

I grabbed a cocktail off one of the trays of a waiter passing by and took a sip both to calm my nerves, and it helped me to look as though I was enjoying myself. The rooftop was set with tables and chairs and also enough space for people to mingle and walk around. There were two bar stations and at least a dozen servers weaving through the crowd with appetizers and drinks.

Along the edge of the rooftop, just in front of the railing that Michael had nearly dropped me over was a long table set with place cards. I casually walked past the table to take a look since no one was sitting there yet. I saw Marta’s name written on a card near the center, and next to hers was a card labeled “Headmaster.” The other names I didn’t recognize but assumed they were board members of one sort or another. I tried to stay to the corners of the roof, behind the crowds of gathered people, as I watched and waited.

Nearly an hour had gone by with nothing having happened yet, except for more mingling and the fact that I helped myself to another cocktail because the cold metal of the knife pressing up against my chest where I had slid it into my dress for safekeeping was making me so nervous that the insides of my thighs were sweating.

Finally, the crowd seemed to quiet, and people started to take their seats at the tables. I found the table that I was closest to and sat down. I was far enough from Marta and the other Deans that I was pretty confident I wouldn’t get spotted.

Marta started in on some speech about the rich history of Lineage Academy, and then she superfluously thanked the board members sitting at the table with her. The seat next to her remained empty. Then she mentioned the school's “successful operations,” which I assumed was code terminology for the illegal drug transactions going on under the watchful eye of the school leadership, and she made some rather bunt comments about moving the books around, which sounded an awful lot like embezzlement.

I wondered what the aquarium staff thought of all of this. When I looked around at them, they seemed to be more occupied talking with each other and looking on their phones than paying attention to the event. I let Marta’s words drone out a bit in my ears as I imagined what the wait staff would say the next day after they had worked an event that someone ended up being murdered at.

But when Marta started talking about Goldshire, my attention honed back in on her.

“Goldshire Academy has long been our ally,” she said.

What? Goldshire and Lineage had been rivals since before I was born. What was she even talking about?