I frowned. I had hoped that if I’d had a chance to look at it again, that maybe I would see something that I’d missed before. But it was all the same cherished words that I had read over and over again in my mind a thousand times.
“What’s wrong?” Michael asked. “I thought you’d be happy to have your mother’s letter back.”
“I am,” I said. “But I just can’t figure out what message she was trying to leave me with.”
“I don’t think you’re looking close enough,” he said as he touched my hand and moved my finger across the paper. “Hold it up.”
“Huh?”
“Just do it.”
I held the letter up and could barely make out the watermark under the dim light of the night sky. I still don’t see anything aside from the words, the Lineage monogram, and the watermark.
“Oh my god,” I said in a whisper. “The watermark.”
Michael smiled at me as if he were pleased that I’d just solved a riddle. The letterhead belonged to Lineage, the monogramming was from Lineage, but the watermark was the Goldshire crest.
“How can that be?” I asked breathlessly. “The letterhead and the watermark should match. How can Lineage stationery have a Goldshire watermark on it?”
“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.
