by Sofia Daniel
Leopold’s eyes landed on me, and he opened them comically wide. “Wills, you’ve been cheating on me with my other best friend.”
I tilted my head to the side. “Isn’t that what you said when you came to pick us up at the club?”
Sebastian pushed past his friend. “You remember?”
“Come in, why don’t you?” Prakash muttered.
“Don’t mind if I do, old bean,” said Leopold.
Still securing the sheet around my chest, I crossed my legs and tapped the side of my head. “It’s all there, I think. But I just remember the most significant parts of the day.”
Leopold and Sebastian settled onto the sofa. Prakash glowered at the pair and muttered something about them being late for breakfast.
“Who needs food when there’s a veritable feast in front of us?” Leopold licked his lips. “Sit between us and give us a good morning kiss.”
I huffed a laugh.
Sebastian leaned forward. “How did you end up in that car?”
My head throbbed, and I closed my eyes to concentrate. “It’s a little bit jumbled. I remember stopping Mum’s Renault on the side of the road—”
“You were driving?” asked Leopold. “I thought someone knocked you out and carried you into the driver’s seat.
I rubbed my temples, trying to ease out the memories. Nothing made sense. I’d been injured, and Cormac was trying to staunch the bleeding with paper towels. But that had taken place inside the academy. Miss Claymore was there, but she wasn’t wearing her thick dressing gown. And…
I shook my head. “The last things I remember are driving down Hard Knott pass and being blinded by a car with its headlamps on full blast.”
“Inconsiderate fucker,” muttered Leopold.
My eyes snapped open, and I turned to the two kings sitting on the sofa. “That was the murderer.”
Prakash, who sat on the edge of the bed and now wore a T-shirt and boxers, leaned across and stroked my bare arm. “There’s no hurry. Don’t try to force it.”
Leopold leaned forward. “Maybe I should take you for another session with Master Chang—”
“I stopped the car.” Words tumbled out of my mouth as the memory replayed itself. “The mirrors reflected that light and nearly blinded me.”
“That was the sensible thing to do,” said Sebastian.
“But they reversed their car and rammed into the side.”
Leopold shot out of his seat. “Fucking hell!”
I turned from Prakash, whose dark features had become pale and drawn and panicked, to Leopold, who stood over me, breathing hard, to Sebastian, who remained seated on the sofa, clutching his middle and looking like he wanted to throw up.
Harsh breaths eased in and out of my lungs. I’d always pictured myself being pinned down by the attacker, rendered unconscious, and had alcohol poured down my throat. Just as Bianca had ordered during Ashley’s initiation. But I’d been driving Mom’s car.
“Why would I get into a car after drinking all day at a private members club?” I whispered.
Prakash knelt at my feet and took my hand. “You had about two gin and tonics, two amaretto and cokes, vino santo, and amaretto coffee.”
I clapped my free hand over my mouth and gasped. “That’s so much.”
“It was spread out through the entire day, and we ate.”
“You threw up later on the roadside,” said Sebastian.
Tears filled my eyes. How could I have been so reckless? “Was I sober when I found you with Miss Claymore?”
“You’re all forgetting one thing,” said Leopold.
I stared up at the blond boy, whose face hardened with irritation. “What?”
“You stopped the car when the headlights filled your vision. It doesn’t matter how much you drank. They rammed into you.”
“The question is, who?” muttered Sebastian.
I dipped my head. Miss Claymore was the most likely suspect, but something didn’t make sense. “Why would she come after me if I was already leaving the academy?”
Prakash squeezed my hand. “She came to your house after forcing you to resign. It wasn’t enough for her to make you leave. You’d become a nuisance, and she needed you dead.”
Pain lanced through my skull, and another memory forced itself to the front of my mind. Prakash had been the last person to see me before the accident, but we had argued.
“I came to you for help,” the words slipped from my lips in a whisper. “Why?”
The door slammed open, and my head snapped up.
A bleached blonde stepped into the room, wearing the white sneakers and blue, checkered dress of a cleaner. But her sneering features hit me like a fist to the stomach.
“Ashley?” I gasped.
She raised her chin. “Hello, Willow.”
“You’ve got a nerve to show your face here after everything you’ve done,” said Leopold.
“I’ve been here all this time.” Ashley placed her hands on her hips. “And thanks to my new job, I know everyone’s secrets.”
Sebastian’s mouth gaped open. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
My head throbbed harder, and I rubbed my eyes, hoping to relieve the pain, but Ashley’s presence triggered a bunch of memories. In the morning after my first visit of the hideout, she’d shown herself in my room, brandishing a bunch of designer shopping bags and boasting about putting the house for sale on auction.
Ashley pointed at Leopold. “You will fuck everything that moves, including my sister.”
Leopold raised a shoulder. “That’s not exactly a secret, but these days, I only want to fuck Willow.”
Then she pointed at Sebastian. “And you had an affair with Miss Claymore.”
“Your deductive reasoning is impeccable,” said Leopold. “Did you discover this before or after you bugged our rooms?”
Ashley pointed at me. “These three are playing a long game. At the end of it, they’ll dump and humiliate you in the worst possible way.”
My brows drew together. Ashley had ambushed me at the end of the night and hit me over the head with something heavy. That’s why I ended up in the east wing, looking for help.
Leopold chuckled. “You’re just regurgitating your experience with the knights. Bugger off and crawl back into your hole.”
Ashley ignored him and pointed at Prakash. “I have every scrap of evidence linking you to the murder of Corrine Gibbons, and I’m willing to hand it into the police and have you jailed.”
I sucked in a sharp breath.
“Impossible,” Prakash whispered.
“My sister isn’t the only person who has been collecting shit about you. Practically everyone who matters knows you killed Corrine.”
Prakash stiffened, and he turned wide, betrayed-looking eyes at me. His brows drew together, and his mouth went slack as though to ask, ‘why?’
I shook my head. “She’s exaggerating. I found Corrine’s diary in my room. It was written in code, and I started translating it. Your name came up a lot, and I just wanted to find out what happened from her point of view.”
“You kept quiet because you thought he had killed her,” said Ashley.
“How about we stop feeding this attention-craving lunatic and sling her out?” said Leopold.
“I have Corrine’s diary, Willow’s laptop, the coroner’s report, Miss Claymore’s journal, and a whole bunch of other incriminating evidence. I can prove to the police who killed Corrine and why.”
My breath caught in the back of my throat. “You burned my stuff.”
Her lips twisted into a smirk. “Amongst other things.”
“Like what?” Sebastian snarled.
“That would be telling.” She turned to Leopold and fixed him with eyes that glared with malice. “Where are your clever remarks now? Leo, boy?”
Leopold snarled. “Why are you bothering us, when it was the knights who pigged you?”
“They’re bastards who will get their comeuppance, but you’re the only
group who has a murderer in their midst.”
“I did not kill Corrine,” Prakash said between clenched teeth.
“Corrine’s diary says otherwise.” She pulled out her smartphone from her cleaner’s uniform. “El Sol… That’s Prakash, by the way, pushed me against the wall and called me a lying bitch for accusing him of rape.”
I bit down on my lip. Ashley probably had more time on her hands to decipher the bits I hadn’t yet done.
“Then he said I would pay for my lies. The truth burns in my heart. He raped me, plain and simple. Raped me when he lied about his emotions to play that terrible game. Even now, el Moreno and el Rubio give me these pitying looks. Nobody cares that my heart was violated. They just want me to move on. But had I known how things would end up, I would never have given him a second look, and that’s what makes it rape.”
Prakash’s face stilled.
Leopold shook his head. “That proves it wasn’t rape. Besides, Kash did love her.”
“She didn’t seem to think so,” said Ashley.
Sebastian reached for Ashley’s phone. “I fail to see the murder plot in that passage.”
“I’m getting to it.” She twisted her body and backed toward the door. “I’ve become a nuisance. To Miss Claymore, to Mrs. Benazir, to Michelle, to everyone. The kings don’t look at me anymore, and even Cormac is becoming weary every time I speak about them. Today la Puta pushed me down the stairs and told me not to look at the royal table. La Perra told me I was an eyesore. La Puta kicked me in the gut, and el Sol told her to stop. She asked if he was still in love with me. El Sol just turned around and walked away, leaving me to their mercy.”
Prakash lowered his gaze, indicating that the story was true.
Puta meant whore in Spanish, and Perra meant bitch. Corrine had probably been referring to Geraldine and Bianca. From the violence of la Puta, I was guessing she was Bianca.
I clutched at my dry throat. The passage Ashley had read out indicated that Bianca had suspected that their relationship had been real all along. This was just like in Dangerous Liaisons when Marquise de Merteuil tricked Valmont into breaking off his relationship with Madame de Tourvel, knowing that it was no longer a game and that the act would break Valmont’s heart.
“Why are you doing this?” Prakash asked.
“I want a hundred-and-fifty thousand pounds for the diary and all the other evidence I have linking you to Corrine’s…” She made finger quotes. “Suicide.”
“So far, all I hear are the ramblings of an obsessed girl,” said Leopold.
“Same here.” Sebastian advanced toward Ashley. “Everything you’ve read out proves that Bianca and Geraldine are bullies. Not even they would pay to have that information kept quiet.”
Ashley turned to me. “Someone told me Prakash overheard that you were alone and naked on the side of a mountain, and he rushed out in his car to the ‘rescue.’ How do you know he didn’t rape you and cover his tracks with pork ribs?”
“Because that makes no sense,” I snapped. “Stop wasting everyone’s time and go back to Carlisle before someone decides you’re the nuisance.”
Ashley raised her chin. “Is that a threat? You’ve taken everything else from me, why not my life?”
I folded my arms across my chest. “My biggest revenge on you is to let you continue your lifestyle and not interfere.”
She curled her lip. “One-hundred-and-fifty-thousand pounds or I’ll take everything I have to the fucking police.”
My nostrils flared. It was fifty percent of the sum Prakash had bid for Mom and Dad’s house in the auction. Ashley had been angry enough on that day to smash something over my head. What else had she done in the past months? As a cleaner, she would have access to my room. My head snapped up, and I glared into her gloating face.
“You poisoned me,” I whispered.
“Prove it.” She slipped her smartphone in her pocket and backed into the hallway. “When I’ve finished with you all, this academy will burn itself to ashes!”
Chapter 22
According to Sebastian, Ashley sprinted down the hallway and ducked into a stairwell. Still sitting on the bed with a sheet wrapped around my naked form, I shook my head, trying to process the recent revelations.
Prakash sat at the farthest end of the bed to me with his clenched fists resting on his thighs, and his head dipped. Ashley’s ugly and untrue accusations had clearly affected him.
I scooted down on the bed and placed a hand on his arm. “Kash?”
He flinched away from me. “Why didn’t you tell me you had Corrine’s diary?”
I stilled. Maybe if it had been common knowledge that Prakash had been dating Corrine, I might have mentioned it, but by the time I found that diary, I’d only known her as Cormac’s sister.
“It wasn’t any of your business,” I said.
“Come on, Kash,” said Leopold. “Put the blame where it really belongs.”
“You’re being harsh,” added Sebastian.
“Maybe you two forgot about Corrine’s rape accusations, but I haven’t,” he snapped.
I buried my head in my hands and tried to make sense of what I’d just learned and what it meant in the context of my resurfacing memories. “Ashley lied that I was investigating you. I translated Corrine’s diary because I wanted to make sense of what happened to her.”
It was mostly the truth. Cormac’s comments about the kings’ involvement with his sister had triggered me into uncovering the diary’s secrets. Maybe it was an underhanded way to go about researching potential boyfriends, but in light of the pull-a-pig game, reading the diary had seemed the most reliable source of information.
“Let’s not fall out,” said Leopold. “Ashley will do anything to hurt her sister, and accusing Wills is playing into her hands.”
“I’m sorry.” Prakash scooted over and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. “Corrine is a sore point.”
I raised my head. “You told me about the rape accusation she made after you had consensual sex.”
He nodded. “Shortly after that, Corrine killed herself. I swore to put an end to that chapter of my life and move on, but Ashley—”
“We’ll stop her,” said Sebastian.
“You’re not thinking of giving her what she wants?” I said.
“Of course not.” Leopold rolled up his sleeves. “But if we take away her circumstantial evidence, she won’t be able to make any threats.”
Prakash nodded. “Let’s report this to Mrs. Benazir. She’ll have the maids’ quarters searched.”
“Ashley would have thought about that,” I said. “The blackmail material won’t be anywhere on the academy grounds.”
“This is just like Scooby-Doo.” Leopold’s gaze lingered over my breasts. “Since I’m the handsome blond, I’ll take Daphne and Velma to investigate the house in Cummersdale.”
“You’ve named them?” I said.
He turned to Sebastian. “Shaggy, you and Scooby search the academy in case Ashley’s hidden her stash on the grounds.”
Prakash’s eyes widened. “I’m the dog?”
Leopold folded his arms over his broad chest. “Be grateful you’re not Scrappy-Doo or the dog with the straw hat.”
Prakash spluttered. “There was no such character in that cartoon franchise!”
Sebastian strode over patted him on the back. “Come on, Scooby, let’s make a move or you’ll get no snacks.”
After getting dressed, we split into two groups. Leopold and I headed down the stairs to the ground floor and walked through the hallway. Because of the fallout from Ashley’s surprise appearance, we’d missed breakfast, and students streamed out of the dining room, heading either to their dorms or the private study rooms to do their prep.
Up ahead, the door to Mrs. Claymore’s office opened, and a man in a suit flanked by two police officers stepped out. Something about the way the officers deferred to him told me that he was their superior.
A breath caught in the back of my thr
oat. Had something else happened? I placed a hand on Leopold’s shoulder, and we stopped to observe from a distance.
Mrs. Benazir stood at the doorway, looking pale. “Thank you, Detective Chief Inspector. I will ensure that all my staff cooperates with your inquiries.”
Leopold and I exchanged looks. The assault case against Geraldine and Bianca had hit a dead end. If this was about Miss Claymore, why hadn’t any of us been called?
The next person to leave the office was Cormac, who held a handkerchief to his eyes. Mrs. Benazir wrapped her arms around him and murmured words I couldn’t hear.
My stomach dropped. Had Geraldine absconded with his ten-thousand-pound contribution toward their honeymoon? The pair broke apart, and Mrs. Benazir retreated to her room, leaving Cormac in the hallway.
I turned to Leopold. “Stay back. He won’t talk to me if you’re around.”
Leopold gave me a sharp nod. “I’ll wait for you at the double doors.”
Cormac bowed his head and continued down the hallway, and Leopold turned in the opposite direction, presumably to double back, run up the stairs and take the long route to the main entrance. My best friend walked into the infirmary’s waiting room and sat on one of the seats.
I followed after him, lowered myself into the seat next to him, and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “What’s happened?”
“The police came today.” He wiped his sleeve across his damp eyes. “They’re reopening Corrine’s case.”
All the air left my lungs in a single breath. “What?”
“Too many things have happened around here.” He twisted the handkerchief in his hands, Adam’s apple bobbing as he gulped. “It started with you.”
“What did I do?” I asked.
“The initiation.” He dipped his head. “The autopsy found pork ribs inside Corrine, too.”
I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth. When the senior consultant had told me mine wasn’t the first case of raw meat stuffed inside a girl, my mind had gone to Corrine. But I didn’t know she had been dead at the time.
“W-what else?” I asked.
“Your blood-alcohol levels.” Cormack ran trembling fingers through his hair. “I’m saying this all wrong.”
