Page 164 of Finding Us

“I’m sure he’s not doing that. I’m not his daughter.”

“You’re family now, Jade. He takes care of his family.”

Jade gets this glazed-over look on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“What you said just now. It reminded me of something your dad said after you were shot.”

“What did he say?”

“After it happened, he welcomed me to the family. I didn’t know what he meant by that.”

“He meant that he’d look out for you.”

“But I’d only been friends with you a few months, so why would he look out for me?”

“Because you saw something you shouldn’t have. And knowing shit like that could put you in danger.”

“But nobody else knows what I saw.”

“All kinds of people know. The people who cleaned it up. The doctors. Listen, we can’t talk about this here. We shouldn’t be talking about it at all.”

Jade’s quiet for a moment, then says, “What if your dad decides this school isn’t good enough?”

“He’ll donate a shitload of money and demand they hire new business professors or science professors or get new equipment for your labs.”

“Seriously? He can do that?”

“If you have as much money as he does, you can do whatever the hell you want. Before I started at Moorhurst, he got rid of one of the business professors and replaced him with a guy he thought was better.”

“All because you were going there?”

“I know, it’s crazy. The guy he hired was my finance professor. I had him for two classes last year. He’s really good. He should be teaching at Harvard, not Moorhurst. Now I don’t even go there and the guy’s still stuck working there, although I’m sure he gets paid a fortune so he really can’t complain.”

I see my dad exiting the building where the president’s office is located. Right behind him is Dr. Adler, the college president. He’s in his early sixties but has a full head of white hair so he looks older than that.

“I think they’re done.” I stand up as they approach us. Jade does as well.

“Garret. Jade.” Adler smiles at us. “Pearce and I were just discussing some possible improvements to the business program and the science department.”

“Dr. Adler is going to give me a quick tour,” my dad says to me. “Would you like to come with us?”

“No, we’ll wait here. What kind of improvements?” I direct the question to Adler.

“Your father has offered to fund a lecture series that will bring top business leaders from various industries here to campus to talk to our business students. And he’s creating two new summer internships at Kensington Chemical just for Camsburg students.”

My dad waits for my reaction. I’m sure he thinks I’ll get mad at him for interfering like this, but instead I just smile and say, “That’s great.”

Adler nods. “And we also discussed some improvements to the science labs. We’re going over there now.”

My dad follows him toward the science building. He looks back at Jade and me. “We shouldn’t be long.”

Once they’re gone, Jade turns to me and says, “I’m surprised you’re not mad at your dad for doing this.”

“Iwouldbe if it were just about me. But now it’s about you, so it’s different.”

“I don’t get it.”

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