BLUE BLOOD

40 | she knows

She knows.

"A nobody becomes a somebody overnight!" Clara Jane exclaimed, giggling in an almost insane way. "A hot girl transfers to Queens out of the blue, declares to be Avery Dragomir's girlfriend, becomes Valedictorian at one of the most academically rigorous institutes in the world, and to top it all off, she becomes a blue blood. All in what? A month? Two?" Her green chilly eyes meet mine. "And you still managed to fool everyone into thinking its because you're a Du Sang."

"I don't understand," I laughed, trying to keep the nervous edge out of my voice. "Are you drunk, Clara Jane?"

"It's Clara," she snarled, stepping even closer. "And I am more sober than you."

"Get out," Avery said, coldly. "Now."

Clara swayed, her gaze swerving to him. Contempt. That could only mean one thing. "You lied to me, Avery. But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. You lied to her as well. That's all you do. Lie."

"What is she talking about?" I stared at Avery, too drunk, too fed-up, too panicked to keep up the façade. She knows.

"For someone so smart, you really can be naïve," Clara Jane murmured, eyes flickering between us. "You really don't recognize me, Vesper?"

My head started to clear, but the fear seizing at my heart did not. Still, I forced myself to look at her. To really look at her. A faint memory tugged at the back of my mind, of a girl who I have not seen in years.

"Jane," I said, standing there like a fool. "You're Jane. You were the daughter of a maid at my summer manor."

Clara Jane mentioned that her stepfather was Sasha Laurence's father. My stepmother mentioned offhandedly, once, that Sasha's father had married one of our maids and it had been a huge scandal. I should have pieced it together.

A brilliant, maniacal smile lit up her face. She looked to Avery, who seemed paler. "She really is a smart one." Then, Clara looked back to me, where I was frozen in place at the revelation, and said slyly, "It's really amazing how adopting another name can make everyone forget who you were."

This time, a new fear rose into my stomach. That last sentence would fly over Avery's head, but it wasn't missed by me. Clara said that last sentence as if it were a joke between us, but it almost made me puke.

She knows my real name. She knows about the tunnels. She knows that Avery-

"Why are you here?" I managed to ask, bile rising in my throat.

"Vesper, Vesper, Vesper," Clara tutted. "Surely you've figured it out. You can't really think Avery Dragomir loves you, can you?"

When I looked to Avery, he didn't avoid my gaze, but I could see the regret in his eyes.

"It's funny, really," Clara remarked with her signature smirk.

"The girl from the tunnels," I whispered, remembering what Helen had told me. "Avery Dragomir's heart was stolen by the girl from the tunnels." Then understanding dawned to me. "You told him you were the girl from the tunnels.

"I am the girl from the tunnels," Clara Jane corrected, daring me to contradict her. "Aren't I?"

This time, Avery caught onto the tone in my voice and suspicion rose in his eyes. This whole time, I thought Clara Jane was with Cole. I never would have thought that it would be the boy who had held me when I cried. The boy who asked for something real between us.