Chapter 16 - The Girl They Never Met
At two o'clock, I sat in Ms. Patel's office facing a laptop camera.
Six scholarship trustees appeared on the screen.
Dr. Rowan was there, along with Leah and a university security officer who explained the findings without making accusations he couldn't prove.
The portal had been reset from the catering office connection.
The recovery number had been changed.
The decline had been submitted while I was in the school lab.
There was enough evidence, he said, to treat the withdrawal as potentially unauthorized.
"Zarya," one trustee asked, "why Northvale?"
I could have talked about the engineering department, the laboratories, or the internship program.
Instead, I told them about the spring our street flooded.
I was twelve, carrying Jo on my hip while Lila held my shirt.
Dad had been dead a few months.
The city told us water was supposed to drain down the next block, but there was a broken culvert no one had mapped.
"I don't want to spend my life being grateful somebody let me out of a bad situation," I said.
"I want to learn how to fix the situations people are told to live with."
The trustee leaned forward.
"And your sisters?"
"I love them. I'll keep loving them from college. But if I don't go, they'll learn a terrible lesson about what daughters owe their families."
For the first time all week, my hands stopped shaking.
A message flashed on Leah's screen.
She excused herself, then returned with a strange expression.
"We just received a signed statement from Patrice Bennett," she said.
My heart thudded.
"Does it say I asked her to cancel it?"
"No."
Leah looked directly at the camera.
"It says she accessed your account without your permission."
The trustees ended the call to deliberate.
May you like
At four thirty, Dr. Rowan called me back.
"We have reached a decision," he said.
