the screen dimmed on its own, th

e of the same campaign, another anonymou

liar or a schemer. It had simply planted a question

seminar, informing the class that the semester's major research project would be completed in pairs,

kson - Sc

cou

hat afternoon already braced for an arg

mmediately informed her that he intended to focus their project on international currency mar

orks," Scott said, leaning back in his chair a

untered. "Professor Halloway is not looking for easy. She is lo

have a be

to sleep after the second note and the anonymous message had left her mind too restless for rest. "Emerging market microfinance struct

ething shifting in his expression as he read through her notes

is tho

of banking model that actually helps people instead of just

and unreadable, before he masked it with his usua

en people slip anonymou

e had not intended to mention the notes, certainly not to him, but exhaustion

sharpened immedia

s not m

eaned forward, all traces of his earlier arrogance gone,

ay at Dortmund and had already learned that information here move

nuine concern threading through his usual p

textbook telling me to ask

Scott

questioning why you actually helped me in the dinin

known number telling me not everyone who def

ent ver

nk I sen

eeting, humiliated a legacy student in front of half the dining hall to defend me, and now apparently someone inside your own do

lost all its earlier lightness. "And if I f

re that much? Doe

he deflected everything else, with charm or arrogance or some careless joke designed to clos

han I want it to." He paused, jaw tightening. "Vanessa has never liked outsiders getting close

t was

for certain. But I

to find, the hidden angle Vanessa had warned her about, and foun

ty would have. Hostility she knew how to h

he conversation again. "Professor Halloway expects an outline by Friday, and I woul

hough something more careful lingered beneath it now. "Fi

u are just too stu

nced. I said convince me prop

enjoyable, each of them pushing the other toward better reasoning,

s, the way he picked apart weak points in her research with a precision that suggested

I expected," she admitted eve

money meant I never h

I say

sliding it back across the table toward her. "It is refreshing, actually.

you feel anything. I am t

ntly, for most peop

how quickly the hours passed, and how much easier conversation be

ain the careful distance she had promised herself she w

began emptying for the evening when Scott

think you manipulated anything to get close

on. "That is the first time you have a

get used

not dre

d again. "Be careful anyway. Whoever sent that message kno

s,assuring herself the unease settling in he

phone buzzed once more, the screen lighting w

mpus. Ask him what his family already knew about the Whit

the phone, the easy warmth of the

re made public, and whoever was sending these messages s