Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Revenge, I Just Love It

Chapter 13: Money is Power

Knocking firmly on Amanda's bedroom door, Nolan Ross sighed inwardly as he patiently waited for her response. This was all new to him. After revealing the truth to Amanda, she had refused to go back to the apartment the Grayson's had paid for and he didn't blame her. So he had invited her into his not so humble home and given her the only other room with an actual bed in it. For all the expense he had spent for his house, he hadn't really invested in all the necessary home furnishings one usually buys to fill the space. Truth be told, he liked his house as more of a bachelor's pad, or bat's cave with all his favourite gadgets, than as an actual home that one shares with someone. But now he had an actual guest in it. A fierce teenage girl of all people.

Nolan had been walking on tiptoes around Amanda in his own house since she'd become his roommate. He wanted to connect with her, but he didn't know how. He didn't even know if she trusted him. Yes, she trusted the truth he had told her about her father, thanks to Jack's assistance. But he didn't think she trusted him as a person yet. It was true she had accepted his offer to stay with him, but that was just her best option at the moment. He didn't mind being used by her for the time being though as his main goal was just to help Amanda in any way possible. However, it would be nice, if he could earn her trust, and gain the young girl's friendship out of it.

Amanda slowly opened her bedroom door, "What do you want Nolan?" she questioned with raised eyebrows.

"To check on you"

"I'm fine," she replied firmly, staring steadily into Nolan's blue eyes, daring him to challenge her on that.

He didn't, but before she could send him away he slipped past her and walked into her room without permission, taking a seat on the armchair beside her window, his lanky legs stretching out towards her bed.

She turned around to face him, opening her mouth as if she was going to protest his intruding but then she closed it and walked over to the edge of her bed, taking a tentative seat as she faced him.

"I'm worried about you", Nolan said carefully.

Amanda just shook her head, trying to stop herself from rolling her eyes. She was tired of that line. Jack had already used it too often. It had been years since any one was worried about her, and now she had people just throwing those words around at her. She could take care of herself.

"I'm thankful for you telling me the truth, but you don't even know me and I don't…."

"You don't know me" Nolan finished her sentence, watching her nod her head in confirmation.

"I would like to change that. Your father meant a lot to me, Amanda. I started my company or tried to when I was just a year or two older than you. I was young, naive, and I had no idea how the business world worked, but I knew I was smart and I knew my innovative ideas could change the technology industry. I had no money of my own though. My own father didn't believe in me and would not even invest a dime to my cause, and I was laughed at and kicked out of all the meetings I had with any potential investors."

"Except my father"

"Yes, except for David. He believed in me when no one else would. He kick-started my business with his initial investment. For reasons I still can't comprehend he took a huge chance on me and used his own personal savings, despite not being even half as wealthy as the previous investors I had been looking at. David saw something in me that no one else would…...and look at me now, a billionaire at 25. It's crazy, and I will forever love him for that. But even more than his investment, David showed me guidance, respect, and care which I was missing for a long time. He felt like more than a mentor to me, Amanda, I honestly looked up to him like a father."

Lifting her eyes into Nolan's attentively, Amanda couldn't help feeling touched by the sincerity behind his words. "I didn't know," she murmured, as she took in all this new information thoughtfully. She couldn't remember the last time someone had talked about her father so sincerely, except for maybe Jack. But Jack was different, they were friends and he only knew her father as a kid. Nolan had been touched by David's kindness as a stranger to him and as a young man.

"It broke my heart when I found out that David was accused and then convicted for the downing of Flight 197. I visited him in prison all the time, I never believed it. He loved you so much Amanda, even in prison having been wrongly accused of an abhorrent crime, he would smile when talking about you. We tried planning ways to show evidence that he hadn't committed the crime but our efforts came up fruitless. So towards the end he just made me promise to look out for you and to give you the box when you were ready... Believe it or not, I actually tried adopting you back then".

Amanda raised her eyebrows at Nolan, and let out a little laugh, "really?"

Nolan just sighed, feeling sheepish, "It was stupid. I was a young male with little financial security as I had only just started out with my company. I don't want to imagine how bizarre it must have seemed to the adoption agency or what they thought of me but my request was instantly denied."

"At least you tried", Amanda appeased, touched by the sentiment, although it felt weird to imagine Nolan Ross as her legal guardian. "You wouldn't have been able to handle me as a child anyway" she tried joking.

Nolan smiled but it didn't quite reach his eyes, "I know you suffered a lot in the system and got shuffled around to places and people you shouldn't have. I should have done more. I should have found a way, especially as I grew older and gained more affluence. For what it's worth though, I did try to keep tabs on you as a child. I even had you moved from a few bad homes…..remember the Jackson's and the Sommerfield's?"

Amanda winced at the mention of those names. She tried not to think about the bad homes. "How?"

"I always tried to investigate the guardians they put you in the care of. If I found any dirt or suspicious activity on them, I would anonymously send that information to your social worker with the belief that they would do the right thing and remove you from the home. The last I remember was when you were 12 and were placed with the Robinson's. They seemed like a nice family, I thought you were safe there".

"I thought so too," Amanda said reflectively, a pained expression behind her eyes, "it took me a long while to trust them, but they didn't give up on me. For a year they treated me as one of their own. They even filed for adoption rights, but then Mrs Robinson's mother in England got sick, and they decided it was best to move back over there to stay with her. The Robinson's gave me up. They said they couldn't wait for the adoption to be finalized, because her mother needed them, and legally they couldn't take me across borders….so".

"That's horrible".

Amanda shrugged her shoulders heavily. She was over it now, but that betrayal had hurt the most back then because it had happened just when she had finally started to trust again and smile more as a child. After the Robinson's was when she had truly hardened and shut herself off to trusting people. "That's the thing with the foster care system. You can be treated as family, but there's always those reminders and situations that prove you aren't. When things get bad, the familial division goes back up, and the foster kid is always the first to be sacrificed."

"Fuck them," Nolan said fiercely, defensively, "You deserved so much better. And I'm so sorry that I lost track of you after them. I don't know why but they moved you to another foster care agency in a different state, and back then all the files were done on paper and organized in boxed folders. Not like now when I could have hacked the computer system and easily found your file."

"I survived"

A troubled expression flashed across Nolan's face. That wasn't much consolation to him. Surviving should not be the sum result of one's experiences, it should just be expected. Parting his lips to speak, before he could, Amanda stubbornly cut him off.

"There was nothing you could have done Nolan, we were both too young. Just help me now"

Nolan nodded his head adamantly, determination brimming in his cerulean eyes, "Anything?"

"First things first, I need to get out from under Victoria's and Conrad's control. For reasons I don't understand, they're practically paying for my stay in the Hamptons. Although, now that I've been MIA for days, I'm positive that Victoria will see it as an act of defiance and revoke those privileges and try to kick me out of the Hamptons."

"Let her try…..you're rich now, Mandy", Nolan said with an upturned smirk.

Amanda shook her head, despite that new sentiment entertaining her. "Don't call me that" she deadpanned.

Nolan chuckled, he had a feeling she wouldn't be too amused by that nickname, although he had to try.

"I want to toy with her first, I want to get under her skin and piss her off".

"Let's shake up the Hampton's then with your return as Amanda Clarke!".

"I've heard you've been looking for me, Victoria?", Amanda said boldly as she stepped into the main living room where Victoria was sitting poised on her favourite armchair detailing direct instructions to her assistant.

Victoria narrowed her eyes at the teenage girl in front of her before gesturing for her assistant to leave, "I am not sure who let you in here without permission, but you are no longer a welcome guest in this house. I don't know where you have been or what you have been doing these past few days Amanda, but your behaviour is quite frankly unacceptable. It's time for you to leave the Hampton's. You need more guidance than I can provide... I've already called your past social worker."

Amanda's eyes flickered with dark excitement. She relished in knowing she had the upper hand…...the weapon of surprise. Victoria still believed she held power over her life, but through learning the truth had come power and privileges she would not have believed weeks ago.

Amanda hadn't known how she would react upon seeing Victoria in flesh after learning the truth about her father but in the present, she felt strangely calm and confident. Her anger was definitely a constant, burning deep in the pit of her stomach like a furnace but she felt in control of it. She was not going to lash out at the older woman in rage. She would gain nothing from that. She knew she would have to be smarter….play the long game.

"The Hampton's is my home Victoria. I remember my father saying how beautiful a place it was to live, how lucky we were. If he was alive, he would want me here. Is that why you helped me, for him?"

Despite keeping a straight face, Victoria bristled at the mention of David, it was a topic that usually nobody dared to breach. A topic she had discreetly warned Amanda to let remain in the past, upon inviting her in her home. She knew what the girl was trying to do though, and it was not going to work. Manipulation was her own art form, it could not be used against her.

"That's a pretty sentiment, Amanda, but the Hampton's stopped being your home a long time ago".

"I'm sorry, I guess you try not to think about my father… I bet he weighs on your conscience?", Amanda retorted slyly.

"Excuse me?"

There was a warning tone in Victoria's voice but Amanda purposefully ignored it. Winding Victoria up was giving her thrills. "Falling in love with a terrorist?" she clarified, "He was my father, I had to love him….but you, you had a choice?"

Victoria's dark brown eyes bore into Amanda's with disdain, "You have a wild imagination, Amanda, you were a little girl, and still even now…..so naive"

Amanda shook her head, not afraid to stare Victoria in her eyes. She refused to be intimidated. "I know what I saw, and I'm old enough to know what all those late-night visits and kisses meant. Did you ever love him?"

That question rang on her mind more than Amanda wanted to admit. It confused her immensely. How could her father have loved a woman like Victoria? What did he see in her? Had it been real in some way? Had Victoria actually loved him like he naively believed? Or had it all been part of her immaculate plan to frame him?

Amanda didn't know, and she knew Victoria would not enlighten her upon asking, but her main goal wasn't the truth right now, it was just to get deep under Victoria's skin.

Victoria let out a sharp laugh, her eyes dancing with concealed anger. "Love" she repeated bitterly. What did Amanda know about love? Of course, Victoria had loved David. She had fallen for him when she shouldn't have. She had been married to Conrad, and spoiled by wealth but David had snuck into her life and then into the deepest crevices of her mind where she just couldn't shake him off. He was sweet and kind; gentle in ways Conrad never was, but never weak. He made her feel young and giddy; with him, her thoughts could escape their occupation with wealth and prestige. With David, she had felt free.

"If kisses so easily mean love, are you in love with my son, Amanda?" Victoria asked snidely, purposefully deflecting, as she narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Amanda, "Or were you just using Daniel, so he would help you get out of the foster system?".

Now it was Amanda's turn to tense up. She tried to keep a straight face, but she wasn't as well-trained as Victoria yet. Surprise flashed quickly across her face as she watched a satisfied smirk grace Victoria's lips. Daniel had told his mother about their kiss? What teenage boy does that?

She did not love him. That was incomprehensible. How could she? Daniel was everything she now hated. Because of her, Daniel couldn't even be a friend. It didn't matter that he was kind, it didn't matter that he had always treated her with respect. It didn't even matter that he had vouched for and looked out for her in so many ways before and after her return to the Hamptons.

"I don't use people," Amanda replied sharply, feeling provoked, her anger beginning to bubble to the surface. " And I never wanted your help".

"No, you just made my son ask for it," Victoria retorted smoothly, as she stood up from her chair, smoothed out her skirt and began to slowly approach Amanda, stopping a few steps away from her. Experience had taught her that intimidation was always best from a standing vantage and in close proximity to the target. "Believe it or not"

Not. Amanda thought instantly.

"I helped you from the goodness of my heart. I saw a troubled young girl and I had the power to help. I helped you become emancipated, I gave you an apartment, I paid your tuition, I even paid for your clothes. That was a mistake. Any normal teenager would be grateful, but no….you chose to disappear mysteriously for days. I don't know what game you are playing and frankly, I do not care, but you are now a liability. My reputation is important, and you are not stable enough for this lifestyle. I refuse to let you make me look bad. You've overstayed your welcome. It's time for you to go."

"No," Amanda challenged unwaveringly, her lips curling up into an infuriating smirk. Those two simple letters sounded glorious coming from her lips. They were essentially a big fuck you to Victoria, and she loved that. She loved watching Victoria tense in anger and seeing her face harden into a cold glower as her dark brown eyes pierced into hers with outrage and disbelief.

"I have power over you, Amanda, you practically consented to it when you accepted my help," Victoria icily replied as she took a powerful step closer towards Amanda, hoping to see her recoil, hoping to see the fear in her eyes. All she found was anger, resentment, and the slightest unsettling trace of David instead. It enraged her, Victoria wasn't used to such defiance. She had come too far to be treated with such insolence and disrespect, especially by a girl less than half her age.

"I've pulled your tuition at Collin's Prep, I've pulled the lease on your apartment, and a court order has been sent to have your emancipation status revoked since clearly, you do not have the means any longer to support yourself. It's over. There's no Emily Thorne any more, just Amanda Clarke. I found a group home for troubled teenage girls over in Alaska. It sounds perfect for you. Pack up your belongings, you have one more night in the apartment, and tomorrow morning, 6-am sharp, your social worker will arrive to take you there."

For a few seconds, silence blanketed the room, the surprising quietness from Amanda alluding to Victoria's triumph in dominating the teenage girl in front of her. There was nothing Amanda could do or say in Victoria's eyes. Amanda had tenacity but lacked power, just as David had unfortunately lost power over his life trajectory. It was sad but she felt no guilt towards Amanda, only David, and she'd done well at burying that deep within.

Amanda was at a loss of words as she glared at Victoria but not because she'd caved to the older woman's calculated demand. But because she was mulling over the best way to break it to Victoria that she was here to stay. She wanted it to sting optimally. Averting her eyes down to her handbag, Amanda unzipped the front pocket, slipped her hand inside and pulled out a small white envelope.

"I wanted to repay you," Amanda said smoothly, handing the envelope to Victoria who reluctantly accepted it from her hands. "For your kindness," Amanda couldn't help but add caustically.

Raising her eyebrows in suspicion, Victoria, dug her sharp manicured finger through the envelope and pulled out the slip of paper inside. She was usually good at masking her emotions when it served her best to look cold. But this took her by immediate surprise, her dark brown eyes widening before narrowing in anger and confusion which she focused on the infuriating girl in front of her.

"How did you get this?" Victoria questioned sharply.

Amanda smirked devilishly. She could feel Victoria's outrage which only excited her own. She held answers that Victoria did not have, and held power in the form of knowledge and money that Victoria could not yet discern. Victoria had called her a liability and she was right. She was dangerous, and Amanda relished in the feeling that Victoria could sense that.

"I estimated all the costs you spent on me….. tuition, rent, clothes, and added a couple more thousands for your inconvenience. I believe you'll find it a fair sum for your troubles. I'm too valuable to be in anyone's debt".

"How did you get this money?", Victoria furiously demanded to know as she stared at the cheque in her hands which detailed Amanda Clarke as the remitter and herself as the beneficiary to a large sum of money she did not need. She was shocked and confused, and that infuriated her. How was a teenage girl able to make her feel so uncomfortable?

Amanda shrugged her shoulders, "I might just be rich" she answered sneeringly.

Victoria looked down at Amanda Clarke with a cold fixed stare as she purposely ripped the cheque in half and let the paper fall to the floor. She refused to let her outrage show more than it already had. Something was telling her that was exactly what the girl wanted…..a big reaction. "I can't accept money from a young girl in way over her head. To have that kind of money you must be mixed up in something really bad. It's time for you to leave Amanda."

Gladly. Amanda thought as she turned on her converse to walk away, satisfied with the outcome of their confrontation. Before she completely exited the room, Amanda couldn't help but dig the knife a little deeper under Victoria's skin as she vindictively said. "Tell Daniel, I'll see him in school tomorrow".

Bounding up the front steps of the manor Daniel Grayson swung the door open and rushed through just as a triumphant feeling Amanda Clarke moved forward to step out. Colliding instantly, Daniel knocked Amanda a few steps backwards, and instinctively reached out for her arms to brace her, but Amanda immediately recoiled back from him.

"Emily?" he questioned in surprise, his confused brown eyes penetrating hers, searching for an ounce of understanding. "What are you doing here? And where have you been? You've been ignoring me….why?". The chronic questions on his mind flew out his mouth before he could prioritize what one to ask first.

Swearing under her breath, Amanda averted her eyes from his and towards the backpack he'd strung lazily on the ground. She hadn't wanted to see Daniel yet, she was not ready. She didn't know what to say. He was the son of the people who had destroyed her father's life. But she couldn't tell him that, could she? And if she did, what would happen? What would he say? What could it change? She didn't know and that was too many unknown variables for her. It was safer to avoid him while she could. She had purposefully come to Grayson manor at a time she knew he'd be occupied at football practice, and yet here he was.

"Speaking to your mother" she murmured slowly, only answering the first of his questions in the simplest of forms.

"She's not very happy," Daniel stated, his face scrunching up into a frown, "and honestly, I don't blame her. Did you apologize?"

"No" Amanda replied honestly. She didn't want to lie to him although she also didn't want to tell him the truth. She just wanted to be out of his face and rapid line of questioning.

Taking a silent breath, she took a step forwards towards the door, hoping he would step aside. He didn't budge. So she stepped back again.

"What's going on with you Amanda? I don't understand. My parents helped you and it's like you're purposely trying to sabotage that".

"I never asked for their help Daniel".

"Yeah but you needed it" he retorted. Thinking about that fateful morning he had found her sitting alone by the river in Connecticut with a deep and painful bruise on her cheek. As well as the moment he had found out that the man who was supposed to be her guardian had been beating on her. It was sickening and could not be ignored.

"No! I didn't need anything from you or your family, Daniel," Amanda replied fiercely. The thought of needing the Grayson's instantly incensing her. Had she known the truth she never would have accepted their help in the first place. It wasn't real help anyway, it was just Victoria keeping her under her thumb, controlling her life like a puppet down to the clothes she wore. She had probably gained satisfaction from it, from having power over the daughter of her infamous lover.

"You are ungrateful," Daniel muttered angrily, his words instantly bruising Amanda. She wasn't used to him insulting her, he was usually so forgiving. And it made it worse knowing those words probably mirrored what his mother had said to him about her. "My mother could have left you in that home".

"She should have," Amanda fired back. It was too late now though for the Grayson's. She was back in the Hamptons to stay, and would not rest until the whole world discovered the truth about her father's innocence and the Grayson's transgressions.

Daniel shook his head frustratedly, "What's going on with you? This isn't you."

"You don't really know me, Daniel"

"Yes, I do! And I thought we were friends"

"I thought so too and then you tried to kiss me," Amanda retorted, the words coming out in the heat of the moment before she could stop them. She hadn't wanted to talk about the kiss. In fact, she was trying to forget that ever happened.

Hurt instantly flashed across Daniel's face before it slowly hardened., "Yes that was a mistake, I didn't realize I was second in line that day. Are you in love with Jack? Is that why you've been ignoring me?"

Amanda's eyes widened in surprise, and for a few seconds, he had her at a loss of words. How did he know about Jack's kiss? He shouldn't know about that, she didn't want him to. She felt weird….guilty even, like she should apologize. She didn't owe him that though. She didn't owe him anything. She hadn't told him to kiss her, she hadn't said it was okay. Jack had at least asked her first. But Daniel had just drawn his lips to hers like they belonged there. It was confusing. She didn't even know what love was.

"Look I just needed some space alright", she said tensely, not acknowledging his mention of Jack and hoping he wouldn't push it. He didn't….he couldn't because the truth was Daniel wasn't ready for her answer.

"So tell me that and then ignore me, you can't just disappear and think I won't care".

Care.

He had to stop throwing around these words so carelessly. She didn't want to take it to heart.

"I have to go," she said firmly, as she stepped forwards towards the door Daniel was blocking. Daniel still didn't budge. He stood steadfast in front of the door, a defiant look in his eyes. "Not until you tell me where you have been".

Amanda glared up at him, "Move!" she said angrily. His demand felt aggressive, and their proximity and the fact that he wasn't intimidated by the anger in her voice or the glare in her eyes further frustrated her. In her resistance to step back away from him and his resistance to step aside for her, they were so close. She could feel the heat of his body, taste his familiar chocolaty scent as it assaulted her nostrils. The last time they'd been this close Daniel's lips had found hers and she had let him. She'd been vulnerable, that couldn't happen again.

"No!"

Clenching her fists angrily, hating the feeling of being trapped, Amanda forcefully planted her hand against his left shoulder and harshly pushed him out the way.

It worked, as his leg took a step back to brace the momentum of her force, it gave her the little space she needed to slip past him and out the front door. But she hadn't bet on Daniel grabbing firmly on to her arm.

"Let go of me" she all but snarled, whipping her head back around to glare at him her eyes a dangerous pool of anger, as she tried to break free from his grip. Being forcefully touched, grabbed, and restrained was an instant way to trigger her. He should know that, he should know better, she'd told him some of what she'd endured in the foster system. And being grabbed like that just took her back to when she was younger and softer, and unable to fight the people that tried to force her to their will.

"No, tell me what's going on, Emily!," He shouted furiously, his voice trembling. He deserved to know. He deserved that much from her. And he was scared, scared if he let her go, she'd disappear. His mother wanted as much, and his mother held all the power.

"Don't call me that anymore, its Amanda!" she shouted back with just as much rage. "Get off of me!"

"No!"

Wincing she looked in Daniels's dark eyes, they felt so familiar, and yet so strange to see all that anger directed at her. Had she hurt him that much? Had her mysterious silence caused him such torment.

"You're hurting me, Daniel".

It worked, he instantly dropped her arm as she knew he would. Guilt flashed through his eyes as he murmured a quiet sorry under his breath.

He hadn't hurt her though, his grip had been firm but not painful. She just knew he'd respond to her vulnerability over her anger.

"I'll see you tomorrow at school Daniel" Amanda muttered, feeling suddenly exhausted as she turned her back to him and made her way across the front lawn.

He didn't reply. He didn't know if he believed her. He didn't know what was going on.

"How was Queen Vicky's?" Nolan Ross questioned as soon as he heard Amanda enter through his front door.

Amanda rolled her eyes at his nickname for Victoria, though she couldn't stop the smirk that flitted across her pretty face. "You should have seen the look on her face"

Nolan raised his eyebrows, "Ravishing?"

Amanda nodded her head with a cool and contained gleefulness, 'She was fuming by the time she opened that cheque...Her great plan was to send me to a group home in Alaska!"

Nolan laughed amusedly, "Of course, the ice queen tries to banish you to one of the coldest states".

"She petitioned to have my emancipation status revoked, and said that my old social worker is coming down tomorrow morning to take me there."

"That's not happening," Nolan responded assuredly, "You're legally emancipated, and she's no judge. She probably petitioned under the basis that you cannot financially support yourself without her help or that you've been missing school. But, if the case gets taken to court we can prove that she is wrong. My family attorney doesn't think it will come to that though, she's going to try to settle the case privately if the court contacts you".

Amanda nodded her head feeling relieved, she had thought as much, but still, there were twinges of worry seeded in her mind at Victoria's words. She didn't fear Victoria, but she feared the foster care system, and the thought of ever returning to it made her nauseous. In the back of her mind, she couldn't help thinking that if the Grayson's could have fooled the court into believing her father was guilty than surely an emancipation status being revoked was also within their power. However, she had to remind herself that their situations were different. Her father had been blindsided and framed, while she had already anticipated this, and thankfully Nolan Ross now had the affluence to help her.

In mere days Nolan had proved to be more than just words and information. He was a wildcard for sure; a very unexpected addition to her life, but he was an ally, and although she couldn't quite say it yet, she was grateful.

"And the school?"

A couple of days ago, they had discussed whether it was best to put Amanda back in Collins Prep, or as Jack had wanted to enrol her in his public high school. Jack's school would have been easier for her, and she liked the idea of having Jack close. But when had she ever taken the easy route?

She had chosen Collins prep. It would be complicated because everyone there knew her as Emily Thorne, including the teachers and the administration…..but it would be scandalous, and that is just what Victoria had wanted to avoid. So it was just what Amanda was planning to do. The spotlight would be on her, but she wasn't scared, she had been Amanda Clarke all her life, let those rich kids hate her, at least she knew the truth now. Her only real apprehension was Daniel, but she refused to let him get in the way. Anyway, it was a bonus knowing that her still being in Victoria's treasured son's orbit would provoke her even more.

"They weren't happy", Nolan admitted, "and they had a lot of questions. They told me they didn't believe it would be the best environment for you to learn because you had betrayed the trust of the students and the faculty by lying about your identity."

Amanda scoffed.

"But I told them that you were a child and had been influenced by the Grayson's to lie and reminded them that it was their negligence that had allowed you to be enrolled under a fake identity in the first place, and that it would be discriminatory to refuse you from the school based on your identity."

"So I start tomorrow?" Amanda presumed, as her lips pulled up into a smirk, and her eyes twinkled with cryptic excitement.

Nolan nodded his head in confirmation, "I already paid off your tuition".

To his surprise, a quiet thank you graced Amanda's lips and Nolan couldn't help but smile genuinely, "Mi casa su casa, my money's your money. Legally, you're not allowed your share of Nolcorp and its dividends until you turn 18….but they can't stop me from spending as much money on you as you need…..or want " he added sending her a pointed look.

"You should indulge. God knows you deserve it. I'm a genie in a bottle, baby" he couldn't help but playfully jest. "Really though, anything you want?... I'll buy you a car".

Amanda cocked her head to the side and sighed heavily. His words for some reason made her think of when Daniel had tried to question her on her favourite things, and she hadn't been able to tell him much. For years she hadn't had the luxury of picking and choosing what she liked and wanted. So when someone asked her those things she always drew blanks. It was another reminder that she wasn't like most teenagers who dreamed of new phones, and clothes, and cars, or even the simple privilege of being taught how to drive. Now that she did have the luxury of buying all the things and more that she had been deprived of, ironically she didn't care. The things she wanted were not materialistic, they went far beyond that. The first thing she had used her money on was a cheque worth thousands of dollars to pay back Victoria Grayson for what had been spent on her, even though she knew Victoria definitely did not need, and would definitely not want her money. But still, Amanda had been prepared to spend thousands on her enemy just as a way to aggravate Victoria. In the present, she was thankful for the money because she knew it would help her immensely with taking down the Graysons, but for the future, Amanda was just happy to know that her fortune would grant her power. She would never have to struggle or rely on anyone to take care of her again. She'd be completely independent.

"Amanda"

Being snapped from her thoughts, Amanda looked up at Nolan and shook her head as she tartly replied, "I don't know how to drive"

"I'll teach you," Nolan responded matter of factly.

Amanda drew in a breath before sharply exhaling. He was being kind, but he didn't get it, and that irritated her. "I don't care about driving, Nolan," she said indignantly, "and I don't care about buying myself useless fancy shit." Emphasizing, she waved her hands around his fancy house; a not so subtle jab at how he spent his money. "All I want is my father's name to be cleared and the Grayson's to pay. All I want is Revenge!"

Nolan put up his hands in surrender, "Alright, your highness", he said sarcastically eliciting a dirty glare from Amanda, "Just don't let it destroy you. Your father didn't want this for you."

"Then he shouldn't have written me the journals!" Amanda retorted with finality.

Nolan sighed. He was quickly learning that he couldn't fight with her. Amanda was unbelievably stubborn and was definitely not the little princess her father had described, but she was still David's daughter and almost innately he felt protective over her. He had promised David to take care of her after all.

A/N Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you thought of this chapter and if you have any predictions for what might happen next.