Ms. Griffith re-entered the conference room with a tiny, raven-haired beauty with the saddest blue eyes that I’d ever seen. She was dressed in a sack of a school uniform.

“Hello Amanda,” I said while gazing on the pathetic site before me. ~Damn. I’d look pathetic too if my parents were dead and I’d gotten stuck in a nunnery for three months with the Sisters of Corporal Punishment and Perpetual Misery. I felt for the kid – maybe Van Dyke had been correct in calling me compassionate. ~