CLAIMED BY THE CALLAHAN HEIR

versity didn't look

elted it down, and poured it into marble floors, crystal cha

anding in the corner, trying

at probably cost more than my mother's entire yearly salary floated past, laughing too loud,

sale rack two years ago, shoes that pinc

kid. Everyon

ragic heroine in the co

impossible to miss. My roommate - the only person in this entire

sparkling w

r ten minutes looking like yo

at my sleeve. "Do you know how much that chandel

red higher than half the legacy admits in

r. The scholarship. Montclair Crown - the most exclusive university in the co

to be my fresh st

stil

ay anything else,

eliers, the wall sconces, the fairy l

complete

rvous l

the presentation?" some

d mid-note with

d around Lily's

- the one that had been playing the univ

li

wall. Black and white. Grainy, lik

twenties. Sharp suit. That kind of effortless arr

as around

him at first. I wa

saw h

t to my fingertips so fast I

slipped fr

d - loud in the silent ballroo

own, alarmed. "Hey,

nswer. I cou

in that photogra

younger - hair darker, face without the tired lines I knew, wearin

d with his like s

ad never even left our town before I was born. Who had never onc

gold letters, a crest app

N ESTATE

s started l

is that Adri

s dad. When h

e woman w

years ago. The date burned under the

dn't mean what I

e slammed ont

I couldn't read it, the font was too small, b

n c

e stage, barking into a radio. "Lock

ned. Peop

whispered, stepping in

ted straight into the

nett. Security needs yo

a 500-person ballroom

ran cold.

nder's Gallery tonight at 19:40. The Callahan family vault

allery! I've been here the wh

er the whole nigh

more guards were already pushi

Calm. The kind of calm that

ch he

so fast it

nd marble staircase,

ite, from every gossip p

Cal

son. The boy who technically owne

ghtly over his forehead like he didn't care. He looked bored, and

irs. Slowly. People parted wit

dark grey, unreadable - found me throu

just looked at me. At my shaking h

ered there. I c

abbed my little black clutc

nd dumped everything

nt ID card that said BENNETT, ARI

his han

n again, dee

, he was holding something

elvet.

wrapp

e front r

stone that caught the light even in the dim emergency ligh

llahan

d. "That's the Founder's Eye.

in her

The scholarship

up - dozens of them - recording

e. My mother who trusted

it, gone in

ever seen that before in my life,

ward the staircase. "Mr

eached the

ithout looking at it. His fingers br

looked

on wasn't angry anymore. It was tense. Like he'd j

en back to the photograph still frozen on the gia

hit his face

uld smell his cologne, so close the crowd couldn'

n't lower

am, toward the entire ballroom watching, and

not the