Page 16 of Fortuity

Ouch.

I finally got exactly what she was asking of me. The foster kids were going to be an example to the golden boy. To scare him straight, or something like that. I hated to admit it, but it stung a little knowing why she’d reached out to me for help. I thought she’d come to see me as more than just a foster kid. That we’d gotten to know each other and she saw me as the person I was trying so hard tobecome.

But I did what I always did and buried the pain, refusing to show her that she had the power to hurt me. Instead, I focused on injecting some positivity into my tone when I answered. “I can see how it’d work that way. We definitely have our fair share of kids with sob stories who’ve accomplished a lot that might be able toinspirehim.”

“Oh! Ididn’tmean—”

I must not have done as good a job at hiding my hurt as I thought. Either that, or Elaine had gotten to know me better than Iexpected.

“It’s okay,” I interrupted her. “According to that stupid article the newspaper insisted on running, I’m apparently pretty good at motivating people. So you might have come up with abrilliantplan.”

“Hey, now. The article couldn’t have been that stupid since it’s how I heard about what you’d accomplished,” she reminded me. “And yes, it certainly crossed my mind that I couldn’t do much better than having my son spend timewithyou.”

That compliment helped ease the sting fromearlier.

Alot.

I laughed softly—and awkwardly—before she hurried to explain further. “Don’t get me wrong, Dillon’s a good boy. Or man, really, since he’s twenty-one. But he’s a little lost right now, and I need to do something to try to find a way to stop his downward spiral before he finds himself in realtrouble.”

I wasn’t convinced that hanging out with me and the other foster kids was going to make a difference for her son, but I was definitely willing to try. “Let’s see if I can help with that. Maybe he’d like to come with me tomorrow to my old high school? I’m supposed to be there at three, and it’ll probably take less than two hours since some of the kids already applied for early decision and are just waiting to hear back if they got accepted. I’ll mostly be working with a group of seniors who’re prepping to take the SAT early next month since they decided late that they wanted to try for college. It’s the last test they can take that’ll get scores to the schools by the applicationdeadline.”

“That sounds perfect. Maybe he could even help them with some of the math questions since that’s hisminor.”

“That’d be great since math definitely isn’t my area of expertise.” I’d had other reasons in mind when I’d decided to study social work, but I sure hadn’t minded that the number of math classes I had to take was limited. “What’s hismajor?”

“Finance.”

“Finance and math? He must really likenumbers.”

“It’s a lucky thing he does since his dad would love to be able to hand The Montgomery Group over to himsomeday.”

Lucky was an understatement since the company Elaine’s husband owned was an asset management company with something like forty billion dollars that they managed. I’d gotten curious about her after she’d handed over the first batch of envelopes to me, and any resistance I might have felt at accepting one for myself disappeared when I saw that figure. It wasn’t much of a surprise to hear they wanted to keep management of a company that big in thefamily.

“Will my plans work with his classschedule?”

“Yes, he’s done at two-thirty on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and he can drive the two of you over there so you don’t have to take arideshare.”

“Are you sure he’ll be okaywiththat?”

“Oh, yes.” She didn’t hesitate, not even the tiniest bit. “If I tell him to meet you outside your dorm, he’ll bethere.”

“Then I guess I’ll finally meet your sontomorrow.”

“If only it was under bettercircumstances.”

“It’ll be fine,” I reassured her. And if it wasn’t, at least I’d save the cost of the rideshare to the high school and back tocampus.

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