Chapter 3

"Then I'm out too."

Brooke panicked.

"No. Everyone's going!"

The shout killed every other sound in the office.

In my first life I never understood why she was so desperate to drag the whole cohort into that company.

I found out later that going after me was only half of it. Brooke had been sleeping with my fiancé, Marcus Hale, and she was also drowning under the private loans she'd taken out to keep up the rich-girl act.

Meridian Global Partners had promised her a thousand dollars for every student she delivered.

She caught everyone staring and made herself smile.

"Nobody needs to panic. The company belongs to a relative of mine. The salary is a favor to me. They sponsor college students all the time — it isn't a scam."

She gestured at Rachel and Dylan.

"They know. They both toured the offices with me."

Rachel nodded fast. "A town car picked us up. Afterward the CEO's assistant took us out for a seafood buffet that had to cost a fortune."

Dylan thumped his chest.

"I'll vouch for it. I heard the chairman call her his niece with my own ears."

He looked over at me, not bothering to hide the sneer.

"Brooke has enough pull to get us a salary like that at a company like that. Some people offer us work at their own family's plant and still only pay three thousand. What do they think we're worth?"

The relief went through the room like a held breath letting go.

Brooke turned to me with her face arranged into wounded innocence.

"Ms. Morgan, I know finding everyone a good placement may have cost you a payday, but you don't get to call me a fraud over it.

"We're all adults. We can size up an employer and pick where we work. You're our adviser, not our guardian."

Inside, I was laughing.

If she wanted a performance, she'd get one.

I sighed like a woman weighed down by concern.

"You are adults. You're also students of this university, and if something happens on a placement I signed off on, it comes back here.

"So now that I know about this offer, I'm making the calls. At the very least, the school needs to run the employer's credentials."

Diane nodded. "Agreed. Nobody should be going anywhere until that company's been checked."

Brooke's expression froze.

She didn't want the university or the parents anywhere near this. A real look at the paperwork could turn up what she stood to make per head.

Sure enough, the second I picked up my phone, she blurted it out.

"Director Hale already knows. I reported the placement to him."

I raised an eyebrow.

The fish had taken the bait.

In my first life, Marcus cut me loose the moment the complaint was filed. When the investigators wanted evidence, he took our private conversations about the internships, stripped out the context, and submitted them as a statement. Every line, on its own, made me look like a woman selling her authority.

On the day I died, I begged him for help. He just held Brooke against him and watched.

That was when I found out how long they'd been at it behind my back.

This time I'd get to watch Brooke walk the man who protected her straight into the ground.

Marcus showed up not long after the call.

The moment Brooke saw him, the tears arrived in her voice.

"Director Hale, Ms. Morgan is insisting I'm running a scam. She wants to call every parent and frighten everyone off.

"All I did was help people find an internship, and because she didn't get her commission she's accusing me of a crime."

Marcus didn't ask a single question about what had happened. He just frowned at me like the verdict was already in.

"Ms. Morgan, is this how you handle students?

"I inspected that company myself. Over ten million in registered capital, offices downtown. There's nothing wrong with it."