he reached a public bus stop. She pulled out her phone. The screen lit up with a photo of her mother, Eleanor, smiling, her eyes full

from a public high school in a forgotten corner of the Rust Belt. His lip curled in a sneer. "

ot with a call, but with

hase one hibernation

econd. Her fingers moved with preternatural speed

e flashed on the screen. She answe

rked, his voice raw with fury. "That's your punishment for this l

ging. "I'll be applying to the V

eady been granted provisional acceptance. They wouldn't let someone with your record clean the floors."

uddle, trying to comprehend an ocean. She felt not

make one call. One call to the Sinclair family, and every decent university

idian. Their patriarch, Theodore Sinclair Sr., was a media magnate who could r

, a hint of academic dishonesty on her high school trans

ger was a confession of his own weakness, his own fear. It only strengt

litary," Andrew boasted, trying to overwh

didn't matter. Her dictionary didn't have the word 'retreat'. She kept her breathing even, a mask of calm she had perf

nciliatory. "Listen, if you just do as you're

could buy her soul for a ten-year-old sedan. Her values

, trying to weave a web of familial gu

, her voice as cold and sharp as a

ity! You'll be a social pariah!"

ian high society. Her battl

to hang up, she heard a woman's voice in the background of h

already knew. Helena w

ered his final ultimatum. "Report to the vocationa

pulled away from the curb, she watched the opulent mansions of the city's elit

IT. It held resources she needed, secrets she ha