She gasped and clapped a hand to her mouth. “That poor woman.”

I gritted my teeth. I hated pity, and so did Mom. “Not anymore. She’s pretty well-off these days. But yes, the boys at school used to pick on me because of that.”

I felt something brush against my fingers and glanced down to see Willow place her hand on mine. “I’m sorry,” she said. “That must have been awful.”

“It was.” I wouldn’t sugarcoat it. “But she’s the one laughing now. She no longer has to work. She started her own charitable foundation and spends her days either working on that or volunteering at a homeless shelter because that’s the kind of person she is.”

“You love her very much.” It was an observation rather than a question, so I didn’t bother responding. “Did my father know about the bullying when he hired you?”

“He never came out and said it, but he asked after my mother often enough that I wondered.”

“If things were so tight, how did you manage to go to college?” she asked.

I smiled wryly. “The same way I got into Horton. I earned a full ride to Harvard.”

Her eyes widened. “Tom got rejected by Harvard. I can’t imagine he took that well.”

I snorted. “He didn’t, but as long as I didn’t have to deal with him anymore, I didn’t care how he took it. I never expected to see him again. When I graduated, I received several job offers. I considered turning down Frank’s because of my history with Tom, but his was objectively the best offer and there was something about him that I liked.”

At that, she smiled. “He had that effect on people.”

I couldn’t deny it. I’d admired my mentor more than anyone else. “In the end, I figured that Tom had surely grown during our years apart so things would be different.”

“But it didn’t happen that way?”

I gritted my teeth. “He hated being treated as my equal. We were judged on our merits, and I respected the hell out of Frank for that, but Tom didn’t like it.”

She squeezed my hand. “Dad respected you too. He thought of you as his protégé.”

Unexpectedly, the words hurt, and I couldn’t hold back a bitter response. “If Frank respected me so damn much, why’d he leave me in such a crappy position? Tom tossed me aside the moment he could.”

Her fingers jerked where they rested against my skin. “He fired you?”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, I didn’t leave Lennox willingly. Frank meant a lot to me. I wouldn’t have abandoned his legacy like that.”

Her eyes darkened with sorrow…and was that a hint of anger? “Tom had no right to do that, and I’d have smacked him over the head if I’d known.” She pursed her lips, her eyes glistening with emotion. “I knew he’d made things difficult, but I had no idea he’d gone that far. You’d just lost your mentor. How could he do that to you? It’s thoughtless and selfish.”