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“If you throw it away—this whole thing goes away?”
“Where your education is concerned, you mean?”
One nod—a very succinct up and down motion of the head she’d cradled between her breasts such a short time ago—was all she got.
“There’s a chance that it will, yes.”
“A chance?”
“They’re looking at cases that could make the university vulnerable to lawsuits,” she reminded him. “Someone else could feasibly find this same information. If they knew to look for it.” She would be honest with Mark in terms of her own duplicity, but she absolutely could not reveal any information involving Will or any other students.
“If you turn in that list, what happens next?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you could make a pretty good guess.”
He was a bright man. “Yes.”
“And?”
“My guess is you’ll lose the scholarship.” She quickly added, “But you won’t have to pay back the money already spent.”
He nodded again, the tightening of his jaw the only evidence of the emotions that had to be roiling through him.
Addy took a deep breath, praying for the strength to get through this while she slowly unraveled inside.
He couldn’t see that. Couldn’t know what this was doing to her. She wasn’t going to play the vulnerable-woman card. He didn’t deserve that garbage.
“What are you going to do?” he finally asked.
“What would you have me do?” If he asked her to throw the list in the trash, would she?
Mark was silent for so long she figured he wasn’t going to answer her. When he finally spoke, it was only to ask, “Who are you working for?”
“I can’t disclose that information.”
“Why not? Is someone forcing you to do this against your will? Are you in some kind of trouble?”
Addy’s eyes filled with tears. Even now he was coming to her rescue. For the first time in her life she wished she was in trouble.
“No.”
“Is someone blackmailing you?”
“No.”
“That cop that was behind you yesterday—he has something to do with this, doesn’t he?”
“I can’t say.”
“Are you part of an investigation?”
“As a suspect, you mean?”
His gaze narrowed again and, too late, she realized she’d just given him a clue. “Yeah, that’s what I mean.”
“No.”
