Page 21 of A Man of Wealth

“What did he say that you overheard?” he asks.

I bite my lip because I don’t know how much I want to share. Can I trust him?

“How old were you?” he asks. Now, this I can answer.

“I was sixteen,” I reply.

“And what did he say?” he asks again. I decide to share the truth. It might be the only way I find out if we are playing for the same team, or if I’ve made a horrible mistake.

“He said something about knowing what had happened. He said Todd knew and the council would speak. And because she didn’t die, they would need to take care of it…to protect their own? It was strange. It was the second time that I heard him speak of this guy named Todd. The first was when I was maybe ten. I was visiting him at the White House. It was Christmastime. And he was in the hallway, speaking to some man. The man said Todd would take care of it. And then started to say something else but stopped when he saw me. I thought that was a little strange, but not totally since it was the White House. It was stranger how my grandfather looked at me. He asked me later if I’d heard that conversation, and I just said no that I was thinking about a school project and hadn’t heard them. He seemed to believe me, but it was just weird because he’d never asked that before. It stuck with me. And then when I heard the other conversation, I got curious. I wanted to know who Todd was. And what was being ‘taken care of’ and so I started researching.”

I stop and stare at him. “You know,” I state because I see an understanding in his eyes.

He nods.

“You’re part of it,” I state.

He nods.

“It took me a long time, embarrassingly longer than it should have, to realize Todd wasn’t a person. TOD was Theta Omega Delta.”

He swallows. “What else did you figure out?”

“What my grandfather is part of…what I think you are a part of…is beyond TOD, isn’t it?”

He doesn’t speak.

“I know you must have taken a vow of some kind. TOD is a front. I bet not everyone in TOD is part of the brotherhood, now, are they?” I ask.

His eyes widen slightly.

“And then…there’s the council. But I’m not totally sure how the governing body of the brotherhood is set up. There might be brothers in a power position within the council,” I state, testing my theory.

His eyes widen further.

“How do I know?”

He nods slightly but doesn’t speak.

“Someone got careless,” I explain. “I was in the right place at the right time.”

I don’t want to give away my hiding spot. It’s a good one.

“So, what did you want to tell me?” I ask, letting him know that I haven’t forgotten why we are sitting out here.

“Sebastian, Aiden, and I…we think there are some shady things going down,” he explains cryptically. I give him a look that says I think there are always shady things going down around here. “More than usual,” he clarifies.

“Such as?”

“Is this off the record, Ms. Westerly?”

“Yes,” I say as I straighten my back and look at him anxiously waiting for information. I feel like my entire life has been spent waiting for whatever is about to be said.

“Confervo is somehow linked to the brotherhood, not just members, but to the organization itself.”

Now it’s my turn for my eyes to widen. “The pharmaceutical company?”

He nods. “We think they are bringing in an illegal drug and it’s being used on young women.”

---