Free Ask Adam by Jess Dee Page B

help. She could do this without him.
     
    For the kids. It was all for the kids.
     
    Her shoulders relaxed a little and she hit the enter key on her keyboard. She typed feverishly and then hit enter again. The screen blinked and there it was—the file she’d been searching for.
     
    The list of potential donors to POWS.
     
    She’d started the list years before, when she’d first joined the hospital staff. Each year she’d added a couple of names as she learned who the big players in the fundraising game were. The list had grown substantially. After Daniel’s exhibition, its numbers were at an all-time high.
     
    She’d find someone on that list to donate money, or she’d die trying. No way Riley was stopping her plans. She’d do it without the bastard. She scanned down the screen, waiting for a name to jump out at her, someone she hadn’t already contacted. Who would it be?
     
    The Cancer Research Foundation? Their priority was research, not psychosocial support. What about Ronald McDonald House Charity? Nope. They ran their own similar programs. Any money they had, they’d plough back into their own projects. In fact, most of the other foundations on her list worked the same way. They used their cash to fund their own programs.
     
    She considered private companies and scrolled down a couple of pages to the list of buyers from her brother’s exhibition. Some of the names were meaningless—she’d never heard of them. Several of them she gave careful consideration and then discarded with a simple shake of her head. Four names sounded familiar and she jotted down their details, considering them viable possibilities.
     
    She’d compiled the list alphabetically, and her pulse quickened as she reached the Rs. Yes, Riley Corporation had been there. They’d bought four photos—and donated them straight back to the hospital, where they now hung at the entry to POWS. With the hefty price tag attached to each picture, the generosity of the company had, by no means, been small.
     
    She drummed the desk and wondered who’d represented Riley’s at the exhibition. At the time, she’d been so wrapped up in the success of the evening she hadn’t taken note. Could Adam have been there?
     
    Surely not. She would have noticed him. Hell, she would have sensed his presence across that cavernous gallery, pulling her like a magnet.
     
    Maybe not. She’d hardly had a minute to herself that night. By the time the hive of activity had slowed to a gentle buzz, most of the crowd had left. The only people remaining behind so late into the night had been the core group involved in the exhibition set up, POWS staff members and close family and friends.
     
    If Adam had been there, he’d have left by the time she’d had a chance to notice him. It was immaterial. She didn’t have time to ponder the matter. She needed to secure funds for the project.
     
    Half an hour later, she rang through to the department secretary.
     
    “Penny, I need your help,” she said when the petite blonde appeared in her office. She was on a mission and time was wasting. “This is a list of companies I’m thinking of approaching for money for the sibling program. Can you please do a little more research on them? Find out who the right people are to contact and when would be the best time to contact them. Also, please make up six more files of the proposal and send them off to those people. By the time I phone them, I want them to know who I am and why I’m trying to get in touch with them.”
     
    Penny looked confused as she took the sheet of paper from her. “You’re still trying to raise funds?”
     
    “Yes,” she said, trying to keep the bitterness from her voice. “I’m afraid I had no luck at Riley Corporation yesterday.” There was the understatement of the century. “I have to look elsewhere.”
     
    “I don’t understand…”
     
    “Let’s just say, um, AJ Riley and I didn’t get off to a great start. He’s somewhat