Maybe Marta had already had one too many cocktails and was losing track of what she was saying. But she didn’t sound like she was slurring at all and no one else in the crowd seemed shocked by what she was saying. Which seemed very odd to me.

“Had it not been for our long alliance,” she continued, “we would not be here today. And we certainly would not be able to plan for what our future holds without Goldshire Academy’s cooperation. I know that most of you aren’t aware of what was sacrificed in order for us to have this solid foundation with which our business stands upon and that most of you have no idea how the relationship had been strong enough to continue all these years, even after the unfortunate death of my husband. But it is thanks to our new Headmaster, a genius man who had orchestrated all of our powerful financial gains and relationships, a man who had kept the image of our school-front pristine, and a man who was once one of Goldshire Academy’s most prominent members…”

What?

“It is thanks to this man that we owe both our fortunes and our futures, and I am very pleased to welcome him to the position of Headmaster of Lineage.”

Marta started to clap her hands together, and within moments, the rest of the crowd had joined her. Everyone seemed to be turning their heads around to see who and where this man was. A disturbing silence fell over the tables as the clapping ceased, and whispers started to emerge. I saw someone start to walk in from the back of the room but couldn’t make out who it was.

These damn glasses that I had stolen were making everything too blurry to see clearly. I pulled them down onto the bridge of my nose a little and tried to look over the edge. A large older man, maybe in his early sixties, was walking toward the front of the crowd. Marta seemed to be absolutely gushing over him, while several of the board members at her table looked on with nothing short of sheer shock on their faces.

Apparently, none of them knew about that before that night either, but some of them sure seemed to recognize the man walking toward them.

The man gave Marta a huge hug and whispered something in her ear. Then he walked along the front of the table with his back to the audience and shook each one of the board member’s hands in turn. Some of them had expressions of awe on their face. One lady turned pale white and looked like she was going to throw up right in her salad plate.

Turn around, I whispered to myself. Come on, turn around so we can see who you are.

As the man started to walk around to the opposite side of the long table to take his seat next to Marta, I began to think of what the best way would be for me to get close enough to plunge this knife into his throat. Or maybe his chest. Whichever I could reach the fastest. I knew I’d only have one chance before I got caught, and it was all over.

But as long as I made that chance count, it will have been worth it.

Damn it, I left my phone in the greenhouse.

I knew I’d have to find a way to go back and get it. I must have set it down on the ground as I was trying to get the knife concealed into my dress. The mysterious man made the turn around the corner of the table and walked up to his seat, looking out at everyone there and smiling with the evilest, most recognizable, and unmistakable smile that I had ever seen. I mean, it may have been years since I’d seen it, and I may have only been four years old, but some images are etched into your memory forever no matter how hard you try to scrub them out of your head. Now, I understood why people looked as if they wanted to vomit. Now, I understood the secrecy. Now, I understood why my presence here was so risky and so volatile and making so many people frustrated.

Because that wicked grin belonged to my father.

A man I thought had died.

23

I sat in a paralyzed fear as I stared ahead at the face looking out over the crowd. Not only was my father alive, but he was the new Headmaster of Lineage Academy?

How was that even possible?

I started to panic. I should have listened to the guys. I shouldn’t have come in here alone. Not only wasn’t I going to be able to get close enough to kill him, but I likely wasn’t even strong enough to deliver a fatal blow with a freaking steak knife. And even if I could mortally wound him, there was zero way I was making it out of here alive.

What in the hell was I thinking? I needed to get out of there but getting up now while everyone else was seated and quiet would only draw attention to me. I was trapped, and I all I could do was sit glued to this seat and try to hold it together long enough to wait for an escape.

Marta spoke again. “Some of you remember Jack, I’m sure.”

I haven’t heard that name mentioned since I was a child.

Marta’s voice pierced through my shock. “I’m going to hand the floor over to him now so that he can fill you in on his great and silent accomplishments that have led us all here to this day.” She sat down, and all eyes turned toward my father.

“Good evening, everyone,” he said.

That voice….

Dad—I mean, Jack—paused. “I think I should begin by dismissing the aquarium staff for a couple of hours.”

The wait staff looked up at him in surprise. They whispered to each other, and within a few moments, a catering manager had gone up to the front table to speak with the board members and my father directly. The manager looked flustered as he talked with my father, and then he turned around and waved his waitstaff away with him to leave.

Then, he plastered on that crooked little smile of his. “A big thanks to the staff for providing us with such a cooperative and vastly adequate venue,” he said as the service staff left the rooftop, leaving the bars unmanned and the tables of food uncleared.

“Now,” he said as he cleared his throat. “We can get down to business.”

I looked around nervously. Now there was no one there that I could even signal for help.

“As some of you may have known, and as many of you did not know, I staged my own death many years ago in order to allow me to disappear for all essential purposes. When I disappeared from public view, many of you had known me as a high-ranking board member of our rival college, Goldshire Academy.”

He took a pause for drama’s sake before continuing.

Guess some things don’t even change with death.

“That assumption, on the surface, of course, was true. My family had been long vested in the pockets of Goldshire and had long served as one of the prominent faces of our rival school. I worked tirelessly to line the pockets of Goldshire members and to secure the college’s place as a formidable opponent to Lineage. What all of you did not know, with the exception of my dear friend Marta, is that during my time at Goldshire, I was also furthering the interests of Lineage.”

I jumped as the man sitting next to me tapped me on the shoulder.

“Sorry,” he said. “I was just going to offer you some more wine.”

I looked at the wine bottle he was holding half-tilted in his hand and realized that he wasn’t a threat.

“Sure,” I said. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” he smiled as he refilled my glass. “Pretty shocking stuff, huh?”

I looked at him in confusion, and he just continued talking.

“I can’t say I’m surprised, though. Everyone knew he was behind his wife’s killing. It was only a matter of time before he resurfaced again.”

“What did you say?” I asked.

“Oh, I assumed everyone here already knew that,” he looked a bit taken aback. “Pauline, his wife…everyone knows he put out the kill order on her. Of course, it was the right thing to do, being that she was about to rat him out and all. I just felt bad for their kid, you know?”

I put the wine glass to my lips to avoid having to respond. In the back of my mind, I heard my father continue to speak, just as I heard the man sitting next to me continue to speak. But all the words just sounded like nothing.

My father had pretended to be dead all these years. He had pretended to have allegiance to Goldshire while he was alive. Hell, he even pretended to love me and my mother while he was still around. None of it was true, though. And it seemed not even the rumors were true as well. He hadn’t embezzled money from the college. He had merely shifted hands with it and given it to Lineage while he was working behind the scenes to use both schools as a cover for a much more sinister and illegal operation.

No wonder my mother was glad when he left us and probably even more glad when she thought he was dead.

But she must have stumbled upon something that clued her in on what was really going on and to the fact that he was still alive. And when she did, she became his next target. He killed my mother, not Michael. Michael may have been put up to the task, but it was my father who commanded her murder. Looking at him now, so cozy alongside Marta, it wouldn’t surprise me if he had been behind the murder of Michael’s father as well.

I listened as he finished his speech to a round of roaring applause. He had just promised more money, more swift transactions of illegal drug trades behind the guise of Academy finances, than any of the people here could have dreamed of. I had no idea how he would manage to explain away the fact that he was supposed to be dead to the public, but now that he was “back,” he said he had no intention of hiding again. He would expand his reach by combining both schools for a singular, wicked purpose, and he would not hesitate to hunt down anyone that dared to expose him or slow him down.

That solidified my decision. I needed to be sure that he died tonight.