Families. There were families everywhere.
She loved PAVAD. Loved how the people she worked with had formed bonds that went beyond biology.
A smile escaped, not that she was trying to keep it back. PAVAD was a family all on its own.
Emery saw her before she made it halfway there. The little girl started running—her philosophy was why walk when she could run—calling Jac’s name.
Then Jac had her arms full of her favorite kid in the world.
This was where she belonged, right here.
12
Paul Sturvin carried his daughter Ava in his arms as he and his wife, Rachel, and their elder daughter, Olivia, made their way through the crowd at Brynlock Academy’s Annual Fall Festival. He had been looking forward to this networking event for weeks. Rachel was getting more obstinate each and every day. He was going to have to find a way to deal with that. Before she ruined every opportunity he was creating for their family.
There were men here he needed to see.
He needed to build their trust.
Brynlock was his creative ticket to getting that.
He suspected his association with Brynlock was the main reason he’d been chosen for this little special assignment of his.
Paul smiled at how easily his plans were coming together.
He’d been the IT consultant for the PAVAD division of the FBI for two and a half months now. That was just his first step. He was busting his ass to make sure he did that job very, very well.
He was giving PAVAD no excuse to dissolve his contract.
He wouldn’t be slogging as a consultant for too much longer. If he made this work, he would be paid enough to never need to work again.
The money that would bring…that was his ultimate goal. Paul wasn’t afraid to do what he had to do to make what he wanted happen. He would take that money and make even more for his family.
So that his children would have a future.
It would be nice to not have to worry about scraping by every month when the bills came due again. To not have to worry about the neighbors getting their mail with the past due notices by mistake. To have them looking at him and Rachel and their children and mocking them for their financial circumstances. That mere idea infuriated him.
His children would have the best.
Paul was adamant about that.
Then Rachel wouldn’t look at him with that expression that told him he’d failed her.
The fall festival was the biggest event at the small, exclusive private school he had chosen with deliberate care.
He had been planning this day for weeks, right down to the clothing his daughters and his wife wore now. They looked like exactly what he wanted them to: an upwardly mobile, typical all-American family. Successful, well-groomed, attractive, and engaging.
He had very exacting standards.
Paul bit back a curse, seeing the throng of imbeciles blocking their way. Brynlock was supposed to be the best the city of St. Louis had to offer. Paul wasn’t exactly impressed with what he was seeing right now.
It wasn’t living up to his standards. Educationally, it was spot-on, but…it wasn’t the educational tools he had chosen for his children that Paul was ultimately after.
It was far more than that. It was the connections his daughters would make at Brynlock that mattered the most.
He fully intended that both Olivia and Ava would marry into the wealthiest families at Brynlock as soon as they were of age to do so. Anyone who was anyone in the city competed for placement at the small private school. At one point, it had catered to upper-middle-class families, with heavy scholarship opportunities.
Now…competition was so fierce to get in, the price of tuition was rising. Drastically. The middle class were being squeezed out—unless they were already grandfathered in at the previous price. It all had to do with that damned Davis Lucas and his family.
Everyone wanted to send their kids where the billionaire’s family went. For the connection and the prestige.
Paul understood that very, very well.
He and Rachel had fortunately been locked in on the previous tuition rates. Or they wouldn’t be here right now.
This was where his daughters would do what he wished of them.
They would not dare defy him. He would ensure they understood the importance of what he wanted from them.
For them.
He had expected to see those of high class walking around this place. Sophistication. The coolly wealthy as they deigned to condescend to something as quaint as a fall festival for their equally sophisticated children.
He had had to miss last year’s festival when Olivia and Ava were ill with a virus that had increased Ava’s asthma complications, but this year…
He had had such plans. This was disappointing. He’d spent all year thinking about this event, and the several other events Brynlock hosted each year.
Connections were worth more than gold right now.
Paul did his best to ensure that disappointment didn’t show as they walked further into the multipurpose room.
He hadn’t expected this.
Not this…upper-middle-class-family fun. That could be found anywhere. What separated Brynlock from the other dozens of private schools catering to white-collar families? He wasn’t seeing that now.
Here, he and his family were just a part of the crowd. They didn’t stand out at all.
That was not acceptable.
Paul wanted the absolute best for his daughters. He’d scraped together enough for Olivia’s tuition to the elementary school, and Ava’s to the three times a week preschool on the same campus for damned good reason.
They were his tickets to the life he had been working toward for years. The life Paul deserved.
Every sacrifice he had ever made had been to ensure his current family had the very best. He would do better for them.
Paul would not fail again.
Their names would be ones that were remembered. They wouldn’t be shuttled off to strangers to be raised without a name.
Both were bright girls, and if their mother followed his instructions for how they were to be raised, they would have brilliant futures ahead
