CLAIMED BY THE CALLAHAN HEIR

onds, neither

ng on Zayn's phone screen i

ER SUPPOSED

ade his face loo

ed. My th

m where? Montc

ping against the edge of his phone. Fast. Nervous.

I'm trying to

ugh to see the faint scar near his left eyebrow. "You knew s

w tigh

trying to fi

re ly

he small security room felt too small. T

s hiding something. Maybe it was the way he wouldn't look at me directly. Maybe it w

everything I did to control it. "Do you get that? Half the university has a video of me being sear

s phone, at the

mother like this is some game

n, slowly, he slid the

re ri

ked. "

serve a

give m

e them. Not

pected. I thought he'

reatening. Just close eno

ou're not going back to

a sharp, humorless

planted that pendant in your bag. They knew where you were. They

w all

me when I say they kno

my name made m

n't see my hands shaking. "You don't

holding mine. "But I can

rder than any th

t. My bravado crac

ke care o

he meant it. "I just don't believe whoever s

tled betwee

my shoulders droppe

office door and pulled i

me

he

ce has no cameras. No mics.

going to your office in

ally were. Close enough that I had to tilt my head back. Close enough to smel

softened for

ying to tra

g everything sou

, sometimes a threat is the

gain. People l

ke you," I

es dar

own me for

er for twenty-one years,

ped before I c

again - my mother's - like a wound nob

nd your father?" I whispered

tors. "I don't know the whole s

anothe

tt was engaged to my father. And that she left him three wee

thing. Th

did sh

a loud *CRASH* echoed fr

whippe

y - an empty lecture hall - swung s

umped into

ear that?"

d in front of me. One

y he

m n

ri

Firm. Not lou

inctively my fee

e floor. I stayed where I was, gripping the st

" I wh

hed the lecture hall doo

. Dark windows reflec

de the window. A shadow de

d in a

und instantly

ehind the solid wall just as someth

RA

is other hand came up, co

ff the glass and landed on the

t. Then at me. "

it up carefully with

n't a

ap, old burner phone

sed the s

reen l

graph a

stopped. C

But not the young woman

at she wore to her cleaning job, standing outsid

l, elegant, blonde, maybe in her fortie

otograph was

GO - VALENNE

in pr

y mom is in Eldon. She can't be in

the screen, his

ossible," h

hy

wer. I grabbe

y is it i

lowly lift

olished twelve years ago. I watched them tear it d

h. My mother smiling, standing in front of a buil

r?" I whispered, my finge

face changed. The co

new

she?" I

tight I could se

is Celes

meant not

y meant every

Celest

like it had just rewritten e

one buzzed agai

age. Same un

, only fo

MOTHER WHY

od ran

d, we were no longer heir and scholarship girl. We were j

llway light

like in th

ete b

. Fast. Coming st

ip tight, warm, desperate - a

un

efore a camera flash exploded i

se

not

ielding my body completely wi

flash.

was there was gone,

his phone and turned on th

ridor w

he floor where the foo

aph. Prin

ayn could stop me, m

together in the dark hallway, h

erally se

rs went

ck ink, were six words that made

E WILL THINK