x
"Alexander," I whispered, shaking his shoulder. "Alex, wake up."
Thunder rattled the tall windows of his room. I screamed and held my teddy close to me. Alexander groggily awoke as my piercing scream filled his ear drums. His reaction was calm and steady, as always.
If I had been a serial killer, he would have been just as calm. And he would have made it out alive and talked the killer into a friend. I have never met a single person nor stranger who didn't love my brother upon meeting him.
"Oh. It's just you," he muttered, rubbing his eyes. Alexander sunk back down in the covers, but also raised his blankets so that I could crawl in beside him. He let me burrow under him before saying, "You know there's nothing to be scared of. Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. Lightning suddenly increases in temperature and pressure which-"
"Alexander?"
"Yeah?" he sighed, already predicting my response.
"Shut up or I'm telling Mum that you're trying to teach me again," I said, matter of fact. He did this every time I wake him up in the middle of the night. My brother used to always tell me that I was smarter than more adults, even though we both knew he had an intelligence that were multiple thresholds above me. "And by the way pressure increases because of the increase in temperature."
I could feel his smile as he ruffled my hair. "So you do listen to me."
"Shut up!"
Alexander laughed before shifting the covers so that they would cover my toes. "Alright, alright. But you can only sleep here if you promise you won't snore and admit that you're scared-"
"I do not-"
Lightning blinked and thunder followed, causing me to scream again and to dive under the blankets. He started to chuckle when I poked my head out and mumbled, "Fine. I'm scared."
"You didn't let me finish," Alex said gently. "You have to admit that you're scared of something that has no intention to kill you. Mother nature will always be innocent."
"But nature isn't a person," I argued and noticed the change in his mood. He was always so sad, but I could never figure out why.
"That's exactly why she's innocent."
x
"Oh no you're not," said Clara Jane purred, shutting the door behind her carefully. "The both of you are going nowhere."
Avery stilled at her sudden arrival. I sensed his unease. Come to think of it, he was always tense around her. I could not understand why, but from the glint in Clara Jane's eyes, I could tell I was about to find out very soon.
Her heels tapped the floor as she made her way to me, her expression a mixture of a sneer, admiration, and disgust. It was a strange expression, one I never thought could exist.
"I should have known," she began, pushing her fiery hair behind her shoulders. "I should have known all along."
My eyes caught Avery's and the same thought passed through our minds.
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.
She's manipulating him. She doesn't love him, but she knows he loved the girl in the tunnels.
Her story lines up perfectly.
"Oh I told him how you're actually a bitch," Clara shrugged, walking to Avery and wrapping her arms around his neck. He flinched at her touch but didn't push her away. That hurt me more than I could ever imagine. "How you used to look down on me because my mother was your maid. How you used to get me in trouble because you caught me wearing your dress."
I couldn't contradict her, no matter what lies she spat out. She knew too much. She knew everything.
But did she know about Ella?
Avery seemed to snap out of it and pushed her off with a flash of disgust in his eyes. I could barely look at him.
First it was Satin Queens, then it was Sasha Laurence Sinclair, and now it was Clara Jane Sinclair.
Maybe this was why everyone said to never fall in love with a blue blood, with Avery Dragomir, or you'll become another one of their secrets.
Would I be his next secret?
"I should tell Avery everything about you," I murmured, watching her eyes flash. I could expose her too. I could endure some things, but I also had a line. "Since I know all about you too, Clara Jane, isn't that right?"
Especially about the girl in the tunnels.
"Do you really think I have no idea about Ella?" Clara's smile sharpened. "Do you really think I don't know why you're really here?" She laughed again. "How do you think Avery found out about Ella? I told him, darling."
I closed my eyes for a second. This is how it feels to be a fool.
"I mentioned it to him off-hand, when we were in bed, That was right before the birthday party started," she tossed me another smirk that made my stomach roll, but then it faded. Clara's expression darkened. "The next day, however, Avery breaks it off with me completely without an explanation. He avoids and ignores me."
"Let me guess. You had no idea why," I said, unable to keep the sarcasm away from my voice.
Clara ignored me, eyes trained on Avery who stared at her coldly. "Then you're in the picture, Vesper. And I approached you because I had to know how a girl like you managed to make him completely enamored in just a few days." Clara did not stop staring at Avery. "You never treated me with that much warmth, did you Avery?"
"I thank God every day that I didn't," he gritted. "And I'm not even religious."
"He didn't ignore your sister," I questioned, ignoring Avery altogether. "You-"
"Sasha?" Clara Jane let out a laugh as if I had made the funnient joke in the world, glancing over at Avery, who clenched his jaw. "Don't tell me you believe that pathetic bitch. She's been panting over Avery forever and he's never even looked at her."
I blinked at her. "Sasha's your sister."
"Stepsister," Clara corrected with a snap. "She was crushed when she found out that Avery had always been in love with the girl from the tunnels." She paused with glinting eyes, daring for me to contradict her. "With me."
"That's enough, Clara," Avery interrupted, prying her arms off of him. "Leave us alone."
Clara scoffed, crossing her arm. "I'm not your servant, Avery. I will stay if I want to and I will expose her if I have to."
"Then you'll be exposing me," Avery snapped.
"Do you think she cares?" I couldn't look at him right now. "She doesn't. She's been using you this whole time."
"I know," he gritted through his teeth. I never imagined it would be Clara Jane who'd be the one to fool the both of us, but now I knew I should have never trusted nor underestimated this cunning girl. "I know now."
"Well you should have known from the beginning," I retorted, the anger in my voice unmistakable. "You're an asshole, by the way. What happened to wanting something real, Avery?"
"Yeah, well, I didn't exactly admit that I still loved my ex."
"I don't love Erik!" I snapped, losing my temper. "Your father was the one who tried to-"
I stopped short, eyes widening at my outburst. Avery stared at me for a moment before rage started to fill his silver eyes. He hated his father. "You listened to that bastard?"
"It doesn't matter," I laughed humorlessly, feeling something clench at my chest. Only he could ever hurt me like this. "Every time I start to trust you, you give me a reason to stop. But, to be fair, I haven't been honest with you either. I guess that means none of us ever trusted the other."
"Ah and this is where the whole charade falls apart," said Clara Jane, causing the both of us to glance at her. "This whole relationship is a sham. What oh what will you do when the blue bloods figure it all out?"
"If you haven't noticed," I lowered my voice in an attempt to keep it leveled, "Half of them are gone."
"Erik Solar had it coming. Gloria, I'll admit, surprised me a little. But Shannon?" Clara Jane's emerald eyes flashed with a raw hatred that surprised me. "She did nothing wrong. You shouldn't have-"
Clara Jane abruptly stopped, as if she just revealed her hand.
At that moment, a memory came back to me. The flash of a lock screen picture. Ella, Shannon, and Clara Jane in one photo. At the time, I was so shocked by seeing Ella in sight that I completely missed the fact that Shannon and Clara Jane were held in a tight embrace and Shannon kissing her cheek.
A position like that could be interpreted as the both of them being very close friends. But given a different context...
Clara Jane hated when I called her Clara. I always wondered why but what if it really was because someone used to call her that.
Someone she loved.
"Shannon?" I murmured, a slow grin spreading on my lips. "You know, Clara, I had a thought."
"A thought," Avery repeated, eyeing me warily. I could have sworn Clara Jane paled.
"You don't let anyone call you Clara," I mused, regaining my sense of control once I realized that I had her in the bag. "No one but Shannon Dragomir."
Avery caught on instantly. A flush of red swept his cheekbones, startling me. Clara Jane's complexion matched her bright red hair.
"Perhaps, Avery, Clara here got close to you for a reason," I commented, enjoying the blotchy redness on Clara Jane's neck. "But not for why you'd think. Perhaps it had something to do with your older sister."
"You-"
"What?" I interrupted coldly. "How does it feel, Clara, to hear your secrets spill? Violating? Disgusting? Humiliating?"
She stayed silent.
"I found it strange that you associate yourself with Cole," I walked across the room to lower myself in a gold-lined armchair. "Strange until I realized that Shannon and Cole have history. If I had to take a guess, you were the reason they broke up. You probably blackmailed a few people or did something underhanded."
"You have no proof," Clara Jane spat out scornfully. "No proof that we were more than best friends."
I lifted my chin slightly. "I don't need proof, Clara Jane. Just the slip of a tongue is enough."
A cold, charged silence filled the room. I waited patiently, feeling that I had all the time in the world. I was done giving these people sympathy because now that I know she was romantically involved with Shannon, I knew that she was there the night Ella died.
"What do you want?" she whispered, closing her eyes tight.
I could have tormented her more, but I wasn't going to stoop to her level. "You know what I want. I want you to stay quiet and I want the truth."
"The truth," Clara Jane whispered with a small, broken laugh. "No. No you don't."
"I do, and I want it now."
"Fine. You want the truth? I'll tell you the truth," Clara Jane sneered, her mascara running down her cheeks. "Whatever Shannon told you is just the altered truth. She was protecting me."
I tried to look for any shred of guilt. I wasn't sure if I could find any in those emerald eyes.
"The truth is, I was the one who let Gabriella Jontas die."
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