Part 9 (1/2)

He heard the door crack open and turned, startled.

”Adam, this better be really important.” The temporary calm he'd felt seeing Lisa's things melted and he felt his purpose and his anger return.

”The University took away Amelia's and my financial aid today. Do you know what that means? I'm out. We're out. No more Stanford. No more California. No more chances. We're back on the street.” Lisa's shoulders sank and her eyes closed in disappointment. ”Oh, G.o.d,” she said ”Was it your Dad?”

She looked down at her hands and then said, weakly, ”He's a trustee of the University.”

”So, he did it?”

”He gives a lot of money to the school. They'd do it if he asked them to.” ”Your father's a dirty-”

Her eyes sprung open. ”Hey!”

”What kind of a person goes around picking on eighteen-year-old foster kids?”

”Oh, please! Don't you dare play that sympathy card with me. Do you have any idea what that little e-mail of Amelia's did to him? To our family?

The deal's probably off, Adam. And, more importantly, he's on the hook for it. He didn't catch it, Adam, and that means his a.s.s and his reputation are on the line. Do you have any idea how many people-how many friends-invested in Gibly? Do you have any idea how much money was just lost?” He'd never seen her so animated. ”He's breaking the law, Lisa. Doesn't that mean anything?”

”He's breaking the law? And what was Amelia doing when she hacked into the system? She broke the law, and then brought down this company with speculation based on the confidential information she found.”

Now Adam was getting protective. ”She did the right thing, Lisa. The site was totally corrupt. The deal was totally corrupt.”

”That is an a.s.sumption that you cannot prove.”

”She did! She did prove it; she found the database. She found the rotten money trail.”

”She thinks that's what she found. Does she have any way of proving it?

That that's what it was? That whoever was paying Lloyd's was a bad guy?” Lisa was repeating the lines she'd heard repeated over and over in the house since the news broke.

”If it wasn't true, why would your father have offered her a hundred grand to keep her mouth shut?”

”I don't know, Adam. Maybe he was trying to help you poor, pathetic foster kids?”

Adam felt his teeth clench. He glared at her.

”You little, disrespectful, stuck-up . . . How dare you?”

”How dare I?” She laughed. ”You, the brother of the girl who is bringing down my family's reputation as we speak, who sneaks into my house with my father downstairs? How dare you yell at me!” Lisa stood up and charged at Adam with every ounce of anger and frustration. She swung her hand, meaning to slap him hard enough to make him feel what she was feeling.

He blocked her arm with his and forced it to her side.

And then Adam pulled her face into his hands and kissed her.

For a moment their lips were pressed hard against each other, then he felt her mouth open against his and her hands slide behind his shoulders.

They stood pressed against each other, kissing with pa.s.sion and force for long enough to forget about Gibly and Ted Bristol. They kissed until all they knew in the world was each other. She finally pulled away and rested her head against his shoulder while he enveloped her slender body in his arms.

”Oh, Adam. I am so, so sorry,” she whimpered into his sleeve.

”It'll work out,” he said, trying to convince himself as well as her. ”And it's better knowing we've got each other.”

Chapter 18.

For the Greater Good.

Amelia took a deep breath, gathering her strength, and pushed open the gla.s.s door. The area was all new, the s.p.a.ce to the right still draped in plastic from construction. The receptionist desk was empty, but there were two workers drilling in a room to the side. Amelia stuck her head in.

”Excuse me?” she said. ”Excuse me, do you know where Tom Fenway is?” The men stopped drilling. ”Sure thing, kid. Try the office at the end of the hall on the left.”

Amelia had tried to focus after Adam left the Gates building last night, but she hadn't been successful. She'd walked back to her dorm via Stanford's main quad. The quad was empty and silent, save the faint sound of a piano coming from Memorial Church, the majestic centerpiece of the campus, whose tile mosaic entry glistened in the low moonlight. Without thinking, she followed the music and took a seat in a back pew.

She'd only been in a church once before, when she was very young and their social worker had dragged her and Adam to a Baptist revival. She remembered being terrified and had decided G.o.d wasn't for her. It was nothing like this, though; Memorial Church was a cathedral with a high-crested ceiling of dark wood, the walls covered in sweeping multi-color mosaics. Candles were lit on the altar, creating a glow that bounced off the stained-gla.s.s windows and painted the church a beautifully eerie yellow.

The pianist was at the front, seated at a long concert grand piano to the left of the pulpit, practicing a dark and dramatic piece. Beethoven, maybe?

Amelia sat in the back pew and closed her eyes. There was something magical about this scene, and she tried to absorb it as she searched for . . .

She didn't know what she was searching for. She also didn't know how long she sat there before the pianist stopped playing and blew out the candles.

As he did, she blinked open her eyes and said out loud, ”Okay, I'll do it.”

She'd tried not to give it any more thought when she woke up; she just got up and went before she could talk herself out of it.

Now the office door was open and Tom was bent over his desk, scribbling something on a notepad.

She knocked gently on the door. ”Mr. Fenway?” Tom looked up, startled, then grinned. ”Amelia! Amelia Dory! h.e.l.lo!

What a wonderful surprise!” He stood up and shook her hand, using his other arm to usher her in. ”Have a seat. Can I get you coffee or juice or anything?”

She sat down. ”Oh no, I'm fine. I just wanted to say I'm in. I mean, I'll do it. I'll join your incubator.”

Tom laughed, his eyes bright. ”Just like that? Just like that, you're in?”

”Well, it's true you're covering our college expenses, right? And we get a salary?”

”Yes. That's the deal. But who is 'we'? Do you have a partner?”

”Yes. My twin brother, Adam. I want him to be my partner.”