Just give it time. And Dylan assured her he wasn’t going to abandon her.
Dylan waved aside further questions. “I realize that I’m not the one you really want to hear about,” he said into the microphone with a small, dry smile. “So I’m going to turn things over to Guy Morales, who is our acting vice president of human resources. He’s going to tell you a little more about Alice Reed.” Alice shifted uncomfortably in her chair as the cameras started to click rapidly again. What did Guy Morales have to say about her? She’d only been briefly introduced to him by Dylan. She glanced at Dylan with a question in her eyes when he came and sat down next to her.
“I’m honored to be able to stand here before you all today and relate a truly amazing story about a young woman who, despite a relative lack of available resources and funds, managed to graduate with her business degree with honors from the University of Illinois, Chicago and her master of business administration, summa cum laude, from Arlington College. From an early age, she demonstrated remarkable skill in mathematics, winning a coveted scholarship to the University of Illinois. During her academic career, Ms. Reed contributed to one of the most talked-about research studies ever conducted about the correlation between corporate philanthropy and profit. Unbeknownst to her,” Morales paused for effect and gave Alice a brief smile, “she was vindicating the principles long held by Durand Enterprises . . . and by her parents, Alan and Lynn Durand.”
The cameras began popping like mad again. Alice felt a little queasy as Guy went on to describe her time at Camp Durand and how the managers had chosen her team—without knowing her identity as the Durand heir—as the championship team. She saw Dylan glance cautiously at her sideways, and wondered if he realized how uncomfortable she was, having her praises sung this way in front of a roomful of cameras and strangers.
As Guy continued, describing how Alice had been hired—again, without the managers’ knowledge of her true identity—as a Durand junior executive, Alice’s attention was drawn to the back of the room and a flicker of movement. She recognized a face that towered above the crowd. She sat up straighter, disbelieving. A shiver tore through her.
Dylan leaned over and whispered directly in her ear. “I knew how terrible you felt, missing their final night. Judith and Noble D volunteered to drive a carful each of them down,” Dylan whispered near her ear. “It looks like the majority of them made it.”
“I don’t believe it,” she whispered.
She noticed Noble D next, whose head was nearly as tall as Terrance’s. Terrance waved at her cheekily. Another hand flew up and pressed Terrance’s hand to his side. A smile flickered across Alice’s mouth when she saw that it was Judith who contained Terrance. A grinning Noble D stood behind Judith, his hands on her shoulders. Between Terrance and D, she spotted Angela Knox and over to the side, Justin Arun. An eager face peered up over the crowd. It was Jill Sanchez, who appeared to have sprouted several inches even since Alice had last seen her. Matt Dinorio suddenly jumped up over the heads of the audience, hand in the air. Judith hissed something at him, bringing him to order, too. Alice repressed an urge to laugh.
Seeing their faces made the entire experience shift for her. She listened to the end of Guy Morales’s introduction with a dawning sense of wonder. The new human resources VP was right. This was an incredible story. A couple that loved one another and who were seemingly blessed with everything, longed for a child more than anything else. After strife and struggling, they were given that child, only to have her ripped away from them by a man’s single-minded greed and jealousy. Because a lonely, scarred boy’s life had been touched indelibly by a man’s kindness and a child’s innocent love, he’d never given up on finding that girl.
A young woman, ignorant of her roots and the love she’d once breathed like the air surrounding her, had followed the tendencies and talents inherent to her blood, studying business and mathematics, even undertaking a research project that would have swelled her parents with pride, had they ever known of it. The young woman had come to a place where she could make a difference, and had touched the lives of unique children, and been touched by them, in turn, just like Dylan Fall had been altered forever by Alan Durand.
She looked over at Dylan as Guy Morales came to the conclusion of his introduction. Tears burned in her eyes, but her smile reflected genuine happiness.
And the woman and the man met, and everything came full circle . . .
Dylan stood to pull back her chair when Guy Morales introduced her. He grabbed her hand briefly as she rose, squeezing it for reassurance. This time, when Terrance put both hands up and waved and Matt jumped up, Alice grinned and gave them a wave back.