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With a sigh, Adam climbed out He knocked on the top of the BMW, and Ronan pulled sloay Above him, the stars were brutal and clear

As Adam stepped up the three steps to the house, the front door opened, light flashing down across his legs and feet His father left the door hanging open as he stood in it, staring down his son

"Hi, Dad," Adam said

"Don’t ‘hi, dad’ me," his father replied He was already revved up He sh he didn’t s to hide from your lies?"

Warily, Adam asked, "What?"

"YourCan you guess what it would be?"

Ada He did his best to keep lionby life hidden fros about himself and his life that wouldn’t please Robert Parrish The fact that he didn’t know precisely what had been found was agonizing He couldn’t rabbed Ada to you A pay stub From the factory"

Oh

Think fast, Adam What does he need to hear?

"I don’t understand why you’re angry," Adam said He tried to keep his voice as level as possible, but now that he kneas about the et out of it

His father drew Adam’s face a bare inch from his, so that Adam could feel the words as well as hear them "You lied to your mother about how much you made"

"I didn’t lie"

This was a mistake, and Adam knew it as soon as the words were out of his mouth

"Do not look in h he kneas co, Adam’s arm was too slow to protect his face

When his father’s hand hit his cheek, it wasa nail Adae of the stair and his father let hi, it was a catastrophe of light He are in a single, exploded moment of how many colors combined to round by the stairs without any recollection of the second between hitting the railing and the ground His face was caked with dust; it was in his , of opening his eyes, of breathing again

"Oh, come on," his father said, tired "Get up Really"

Ada back, he crouched, knees braced on the ground, while his ears rang, rang, rang He waited for the whine

Halfway down the drive, he saw the brake lights on Ronan’s BMW

Just go, Ronan

"You’re not playing that ga about this just because you threw yourself on the ground I knohen you’re faking, Adam I’m not a fool I can’t believe you’d make this kind of money and throw it away on that da about the power bill, the phone?"

His father was far from done Adam could see it in the way he pushed off his feet with every step down the stairs, from the coil in his body Ada his ears to clear What he needed to do was put hiine what he had to say to defuse this situation

But he couldn’t think His thoughts crashed explosively across the dirt in front of him, in time with the rhythm of his heart His left ear screarowled his father "You told us that school was giving you " -- he stopped long enough to withdraw a battered piece of paper frohteen thousand, four hundred and twenty-three dollars a year!"

Adaasped an answer

"What’s that?" His father ca Ada Ada away frole to find the words again; soasped "Partial scholarship"

His father bellowed so else at hi but a roar on that side

"Do not ignore rowled And then, inexplicably, he turned his head from Adam, and he shouted, "What do you want?"

"To do this," Ronan Lynch snarled, s his fist into the side of Robert Parrish’s face Beyond hihts illu clouds of dust in the darkness

Ronan, said Ada hi Ronan’s shirt, Adam’s father propelled him back toward the double-wide But it only took Ronan a ut Doubled over, Adaers passed harmlessly over Ronan’s shaved head It set him back just half a second Parrish crashed his skull into Ronan’s face