“You will tell them that since you are now the Headmaster of Goldshire,” my father said to Michael, “that you will be doing some restructuring for the betterment of the schools. One such move, of course, will be the merger between Lineage and Goldshire as allies instead of our continued rivalry. The public won’t question that decision. The leadership here at Goldshire had been long lacking and the community will be pleased to see the two elite colleges joining for the betterment of all students.”

“And what do I say in response to the fact that I am standing in allegiance with a dead man?” Michael looked cool and cunning as he spoke.

“Let me handle that,” my father answered. “I am prepared to tell them that I was forced to fake my death in order to hide from threats against my life based on the bogus embezzlement claims that have now been put to rest.”

“No one is going to believe that bullshit,” I mumbled under my breath.

I felt my father’s hand squeeze into the meat of my arm and saw both Michael and Julian look as if they wanted to kill him on the spot. Neither of them made a move, though.

They knew it wouldn’t do any good.

“They’ll believe it if you sell it well enough,” he growled at me. “That is your whole entire job, my dear. Smile, look pretty, give a kiss on the cheek to Michael first, and then to your poor lost father who has returned to you and who has returned to help the success of the schools by taking over Lineage Academy as an amicable ally.”

I felt like I was about to throw up. “I’m not going to kiss you,” I said.

“You are if I tell you to.”

I heard a faint scratching noise and saw Julian’s fingers clawed against the edge of the table so hard that his knuckles were turning white.

There was a knock at the door, and one of the Goldshire members announced to us that the press had just arrived, an assemblage of journalists from the various local papers and news stations.

“Shall we?” my father said as he held out his arm to me. I envisioned what Michael had said about making my father choke on his own hand. The thought was becoming more and more appealing by the minute.

I needed to tell Michael about the depth and reach of my father’s plan.

“I need to use the restroom,” I said.

“You can wait,” my father replied.

“Just because we’re all forced to go along with this,” Michael said to him. “It doesn’t mean that we need to act uncivilized.” He held his arm out for me to take, and I quickly chose that over my father’s. “I’ll escort her to the bathroom and then meet you back here. It won’t kill the press, or you, to wait for a moment.”

My father looked unhappy, but Marta made some comment about not losing his temper before going on camera, which forced him to calm down.

As soon as Michael and I had left the room, he pulled me into the hallway around the corner and pushed me up against the wall with his body and kissed me. I had missed him so much that I wanted to hold onto him and our brief moment alone more than anything. But I had to tell him about what I knew before the press event. I pulled him further down the hall and whispered to him as quickly as I could, telling him everything my father had said about having control over more than just the schools and how he was going to bleed the entire city dry. Michael looked as if there was something brewing behind his eyes, and I warned him to be careful.

“We can stay stuck like this forever,” he said.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“I don’t know but—”

Marta came around the corner and glared at us until we walked back toward the office.

The reporters were all fanned out in a semi-circle in front of the steps of the Goldshire Hall. When the five of us stepped out and took our places at the top of the steps, the sound of camera shutters started to go off like a loud, pattering rain. Marta thanked the press for coming and expressed her excitement on the recovery of “Mr. Jack White.”.” Then she handed the moment over to my father, who carefully explained his bogus story, which the press seemed to be completely buying into. He went on to announce the merger of the two schools. Although the general consensus from the press seemed to be one of approval, I noticed that there were a few faces out there that looked suspicious and uneasy about my father’s speech. When it came time for Michael to speak, there was a moment of unanticipated pause.

I was standing in-between my father and Michael, with Marta standing by my father’s side, and Julian standing by Michael’s side. As everyone eagerly waited for Michael to begin talking, I felt the side of his hand brush mine down against my leg, and I had the immediate sense that he had done it purposefully. He was sending me a signal. Michael wasn’t going to go through with it.

“Sorry to have brought everyone out here today for nothing,” Michael said in the arrogant and defiant tone that reminded me so much of how I first thought of him, that I actually laughed out loud a little.

My father looked at me with a stern and scolding look.

I hope they got that on camera, I thought.

“But there will be no merger between Goldshire and Lineage today.”

My father’s head snapped around to look across me to Michael.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he growled at Michael under his breath.

“Telling you to fuck off in front of all of these cameras,” Michael smiled.

He turned back to the reporters who were feverishly snapping photos and holding their microphones in the air like a pack of hungry vultures.

“Goldshire is under new leadership now—mine. And I don’t necessarily like the way that Lineage handles their business affairs. Perhaps if Mr. White would like to agree to undergo an audit of the college’s ledgers, then maybe we can revisit the offer of a merger following a clear showing of transparency. What do you say, Jack? Surely you have nothing to hide.”

Michael’s wicked smile shot back at my father, and I was scared for a moment that my father’s rage would erupt and that he would kill everyone here, even in front of the cameras. The look of horror on Marta’s face indicated that she was also worried about that as well.

“Jack,” I heard her whisper to him.

She made a little squeak when he grabbed her hand and squeezed it so hard that I thought I could hear her bones crunch. He stared fixedly at Michael before finally turning his face to the cameras.

“Of course, I don’t have anything to hide,” he smiled as the camera flashes went off.

As soon as that was over, and a few reporters had managed to get lesser questions answered, my father pulled Marta and me off the campus so quickly that I didn’t have time to say goodbye to Michael or Julian. I saw the look of fear in Julian’s eyes as I was being dragged away, though. He knew that my father would take out his fury on someone at what Michael had done.

When we got back to Lineage, I tried to get away and get back to the apartment, but that was definitely not going to happen.

“Jack, please calm down,” Marta pleaded as he pushed us both into his office and slammed the door closed.

“Calm down? Do you have any idea what your bastard of a son just did? He made me look like a fool! He embarrassed me publicly and cast a spotlight on this entire operation! If Lineage gets audited, everything will be exposed.”

“I’ll talk to Michael,” she said. Her voice was shaking so much that she sounded like she was going to cry. “I’ll get him to change his mind and issue a public apology. The media will just think that he’s young and foolish, and they won’t question it further.”

I stood in the corner of the room as close to the door as I could. I watched as my father took huge, fast steps toward Marta and grabbed her by her neck with his thick fingers. He hit her across the face with his other hand, and the ring on his finger sliced a long gash into her cheekbone. I screamed, and two of the security guards outside the office pushed through the door. When they saw my father in his fit of rage, they just stood there as if they had been summoned to watch instead of to help. He was so angry that he was going to kill her. But instead of killing Marta, he turned his wrath on the guards. Killing them would bring less consequence than killing either of us. I knew that’s what he was thinking because I knew what an evil man he was.

He pulled a gun from his pocket, that I didn’t even know he had, and shot both of the guards squarely between the eyes before they even had their holsters opened. As soon as the two men fell down against the floor, he let go of Marta, and she dropped to her knees. Then he stared at me as I backed up into the corner as far as I could go. He held my eyes for a minute and then walked out the door, leaving Marta and I and two dead bodies behind in his wake.

I hated Marta with a passion, but she and I both seemed to be on the receiving end of things this time. So, I walked over to help her up.

“Get away from me!” she screamed.

Never doing that again, you stupid bitch. “I was just trying to help. Your cheek is going to need stitches.”

“I don’t need any help from you,” she hissed.

She got to her feet and stared at me as blood gushed from her cheek and onto her dress. “I wish I could have gotten you killed when I had the chance.”

After Marta left the room, I found myself standing between widening puddles of blood on the floor that was spilling out of the guards. Had I been in this situation prior to all of this, I probably would have run screaming from the room, but since I was already used to being in rooms of dead bodies now, I simply stepped over them and left.