Listed: Volume IV by Noelle Adams Page B

him.
    Besides,
Paul knew this was an act of final desperation that would almost certainly
prove to be futile.
    Then
he saw his father—craggy face, gray hair, utterly self-contained expression—as he
approached the table and sat down across from his son.
    He
didn’t greet Paul, but that was to be expected. Empty words gave too much away.
That was a lesson his father had taught him very young.
    When
Paul didn’t speak, his father finally arched his eyebrows in amused arrogance. “This
is your meeting. We can spend it in silence if you’d like.”
    Lying
in bed awake all last night, Paul had plotted out a carefully nuanced strategy
for this conversation, but now he couldn’t remember any of it. He blurted out, “Emily
is dying.”
    “That’s
not news to me. I was at the trial too.”
    Paul
hated the smug unconcern on his father’s face, although he knew it was put on
for show as much as anything else. “I think the virus has the source in your
research facility. I know you were working on biological weapons there. We have
concrete proof.”
    “If
you have evidence, then why do you need me?”
    “You
know why. She’s eighteen. She’s innocent. And she’s dying. You’re already going
to be in prison for life. You might as well just tell us what we need to know.”
    Vincent
Marino’s eyebrows rose even higher. “You think I had something to do with her
illness?”
    “I
know you did.”
    “Then
what do you want from me? If I’m that man—the man you think I am—then what
could you possibly want from me now?”
    What
Paul wanted from his father he would never get. He’d resigned himself to that
truth years ago. Everyone had heard him say it out loud in the courtroom, so
there was no mystery about it. No puzzle for his father to solve.
    Instead,
this was just a battle to him. A duel. A game of strategy.
    Paul
was too emotionally invested in this particular issue to ever come out ahead of
his father in strategy, so he didn’t even try. “I want you to give us the
information and research you have on the virus so we can find a cure.”
    “If
I did what you think, I’m surprised you’re even asking me such a thing.”
    “I
have nothing left to lose. I admit it. But your hand is played. You have
nothing to win.”
    “There’s
always something to win. I know I taught you that …if nothing else.”
    “I
love her,” Paul admitted, the words ripped out of him without warning.
    “I
know that. It was more than obvious from watching you with her in the
courtroom.”
    Paul
swallowed hard. “She’s going to die.”
    “We
all have our trials. What matters is what we do with them.”
    This
conversation had played out exactly as Paul had known it would. He wasn’t even
angry.  The faint hope had been doomed from the start. “So you won’t help?”
    “I can’t help. I’m not the monster you think I am. I didn’t do this.”  The
words were almost convincing.
    “I
don’t believe you.”
    His
father shrugged. “You’re still young, and you still live your life looking for
dragons to slay. It doesn’t always work like that. Sometimes the world is just
brutal. For no particular reason. Without anybody to blame.”
    Paul
stared blindly and couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.
    It
felt like his father had just signed Emily’s death warrant.
    When
Paul was thirteen and his parents were headed for divorce, he’d been both devastated
and furious one night at seeing his mother cry.
    His
father had told him to toughen up.
    Not
long ago, Paul had believed himself to be tough.
    He
stood up. So abruptly his chair tipped backwards and hit the floor with a loud
clatter.
    His
father smiled faintly. “I guess this is goodbye then. Give my best to your
pretty wife.”
    Despite
everything else, those last words managed to hurt Paul.
    He
turned to leave. He wasn’t going to say anything more. He wouldn’t give his father
the satisfaction of seeing him made even more vulnerable.
    Paul
only made it a couple of steps