When I returned home that afternoon, Vanessa was waiting in the kitchen.
“So?” she asked.
I put my bag down.
“How did it go?”
I looked at her.
“Very well.”
She laughed.
“With that jacket?”
I didn’t answer.
She walked closer.
“Did they laugh at you?”
“No.”
“Did they ask why you looked like you got attacked by a bottle of bleach?”
“No.”
Her smile disappeared.
“Then what happened?”
I picked up a glass of water.
“The dean knew Grandpa.”
Vanessa went completely still.
“What?”
“Apparently, Grandpa was very important to Adler.”
My mother came into the room.
“What are you talking about?”
I told them.
The scholarship.
The lecture hall.
The clinic.
The emergency fund.
My mother’s face changed with every sentence.
Then I said something that made Vanessa drop her phone.
“They gave me Grandpa’s notebook.”
Silence.
My father walked in from the hallway.
“Which notebook?”
I looked at him.
“You know it?”
He didn’t answer.
That was when I understood.
There was something my family had never told me.
Something about my grandfather.
Something about why they had spent years minimizing his accomplishments.
And something about why my sister had suddenly looked terrified when I mentioned Adler Medical School.
Vanessa recovered first.
“Julia, don’t get carried away. Knowing Grandpa doesn’t mean you’re getting into medical school.”
“I know.”
She smiled again.
But it wasn’t the confident smile from that morning.
It was nervous.
Then my father spoke.
“Did the dean mention the Garrett Foundation?”
I frowned.
“No.”
My mother immediately looked at him.
“Stop.”
He went silent.
I looked between them.
“What foundation?”
Nobody answered.
I set down my glass.
“Dad.”
He wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“What foundation?”
Finally, he whispered:
“The one your grandfather left for you.”
My heart stopped.
“For me?”
Vanessa’s face went white.
My mother closed her eyes.
And suddenly the ruined blazer made sense.
The missing letters.
The strange arguments whenever my grandfather’s name came up.
The reason Vanessa had always insisted that I was wasting my time with medicine.
My father looked at me with an expression I had never seen before.
Fear.
“Julia,” he said quietly, “there’s something you need to know before you talk to that dean again.”
He glanced toward Vanessa.
“Your sister knows about it.”
Vanessa immediately snapped, “Dad!”
He continued anyway.
“And she’s been trying to make sure you never find out.”
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