Uncle Martin responded, "Miss Taylor, and Mr. Clark didn't explicitly refuse; it could be considered as acceptance. The dean has instructed someone to arrange for Chair Clark to be moved to the room next to yours."

Barrett glanced sideways out the window, the night was dark. He recalled Zoe's words to him outside the hospital not long ago, filled with hatred: "There can never be anything between us again. Let that notion die."

He sighed softly, "If she could, she would have preferred not to agree."

She always seemed to view anything he offered with disdain, as if it were tainted. But for the sake of her father, she had...