Page 21 of Thick and Thin

But that wasn’t the man I’d grown to know and love…was it?

The fact that he’d lied to me about the renovations told me I didn’t have the whole story. But what Mr. Sherwood was saying just seemed like the other side of the coin.

“I can’t solve all of America’s problems—but if I can at least get the Whittiers out of Winchester, I’ll feel satisfied. So how do we do that? We send a message. Destroying that lab was just the first of many things we plan to do to get the Whittiers out—and the more people we get on our side, the easier it’ll be. But the world is filled with obsequious sycophants like Leona Rakhimov, willing to kiss their feet simply because of their money.”

Well…yes, it revolved around money, but I understood Dr. Rakhimov’s motives. She might have been Cruella de Vil to a good many students, but in the short time I’d been a student at WCC, I’d seen what she’d done to improve the campus and its programs—including the simulation lab. I’d seen how it could help students going into health care learn hands-on skills without endangering real people’s lives.

I couldn’t even say that her means of getting it done were bad or evil. And, even though the way she’d seemed to pander to Sinclair seemed a little discomforting, I would have never described her as obsequious.

“Are you saying—”

“Do you need me to draw you a picture, Anna? I think you know exactly what I’m saying.”

As much as I didn’t want to, I was afraid I did. But the pieces weren’t quite fitting. “You couldn’t have been in the lab that evening. You were at the auditorium.”

A smile spread over his face. “Yes, I was.”

“So how—”

“Do you really want to know?”

I did—but I didn’t. “I—”

Mr. Sherwood grabbed me by the shoulders, pulling me close. “Why the hesitation, Anna? I thought you hated the Whittiers as much as I do. As much as your father does. But you’ve fallen victim to his son’s charms, haven’t you? That was all I heard the week before Leona’s soirée: Whispers from dozens of my female students about how handsome he was and that he was a bachelor, as if he was coming to Winchester Community College to find someone to fall in love with.”

Although his grip had relaxed, he tightened it again. “But you have, haven’t you? Of all my students, you were the last one I’d have ever guessed would fall in love with someone from that family. But can’t you see you and I are meant to be together? We can expose the Whittiers’ secrets—and you’re in the perfect position to do that now.”

All those neighbors I’d been glad had stayed inside I was now wishing would step outdoors. I hadn’t wanted witnesses before, but Mr. Sherwood seemed to be losing his mind, and having other people around might make him snap out of it.

Maybe if I played along, I could protect myself.

“How?”

“You’re closer to the family now, right? What do they have you doing?”

“I’m just cataloging.” A list of what should have been garage-sale items? I couldn’t quite figure out how to describe my work until I added, “Old family heirlooms.”

“Do you have access to computers or records?”

“No.” That old laptop didn’t count—it wasn’t connected to anything Whittier related, other than the WiFi at the mansion.

“Hmm. We’ll have to give it some thought. For you to be effective, you can’t just begin destroying everything around you—but maybe we could have you be our eyes inside.”

When he let go of my shoulders, I tried to take a subtle step back, but it didn’t quite work. “How could anything I learn there help you here?”

“We might have to expand our operation—because, really, what did we accomplish here? All that happened was the Whittiers had to spend a little more money—and I’m sure every penny of it was tax-deductible, so what’s the point?”

“But did they even get the message?” I asked. Once I’d left Winchester, I hadn’t known a thing about what had transpired after—and my father, in his own little world, hadn’t known either. He wasn’t privy to Winchester’s gossip mill, because he’d often been the subject of it. And he’d stopped getting the local paper years ago, preferring instead to tune in to national news. So I hadn’t even known about the simulation lab getting fixed so quickly until encountering Mr. Sherwood the day before.

“They did—but it clearly wasn’t loud enough. We’ve got to hit harder and make a bigger impact.”

“You keep saying we. Who else besides you?”

Mr. Sherwood grinned again. “I’m not going to give you names, if that’s what you’re expecting. I can’t jeopardize the people working with me. Let’s just say I have a faithful crew of youthful intelligent people working alongside me. And you and I, working together, can make the destruction of the lab look like child’s play.”

“I still don’t understand how—”

“We did it? You’re not supposed to. Let me just preface this by assuring you that you weren’t supposed to be involved. You hadn’t come on board yet.” Did he think I was on board now? He must have. Otherwise, why would he be giving me so many details? “And if Winchester’s finest hadn’t been so inept, they would have known you had nothing to do with it. There were four stud—” Although he stopped himself, I knew he’d been about to say students, and I would have assumed it anyway based on what he’d already said and what I knew about him. “Friends who worked with me. You’ll get to know them soon enough. I knew I had to protect them or we would fail. And if I or they were to be locked up, the billionaires—in this case, the Whittiers—would win. So we planned it for weeks and almost changed our minds that last week—until we figured out how to keep their identities safe.

---