Page 55 of Wicked Elites

“Close to Hard Knott,” whispered Geraldine.

I sucked in a breath and clasped my hand to my chest. That was the area where Mom and Dad had died.

Bianca shrugged. “Willow was an overachiever and downed a bottle of vodka.”

“And you left her in the mountains?”

“She sprinted away. We thought she’d gone to Geraldine’s car. But when we went to meet her, she wasn’t there, so we called nine-nine-nine.”

“That’s not true,” I said. “They pinned me down, and—”

“Thank you, Miss Evergreen.” Mrs. Benazir turned to the other girls. “From this moment, there will be no such initiations, do you hear?”

They both nodded.

The headmistress inclined her head. “You may leave. I wish to question the other Miss Evergreen.”

Miss Claymore opened the door and let the girls out. Then she ushered Ashley inside, who was clad in a creased and rumpled uniform that looked like it had been thrown on the floor and put on in a hurry. Her gaze fell on me for a millisecond, and her expression blanked. She turned to Mrs. Benazir, who gestured for her to sit.

Nausea surged up my gullet. I wanted to spit in her face, especially when Ashley pulled the wooden seat next to mine about three feet away and sat.

The headmistress stared at Ashley for several moments before speaking. “Now, I’m hearing two different accounts of the events that led to your sister’s hospitalization. What happened to Willow?”

“We wanted to join the Queens of Brittas Academy, and the girls dared us to do something brave. I think they wanted us to tell our deepest secret, but Willow grabbed a bottle of Everclear vodka and gulped it down.”

My lungs filled with air. “That’s a lie—”

“You didn’t think to stop your sister?” asked Mrs. Benazir.

“By the time I rushed over and snatched the bottle, she’d finished it all.”

Blood roared through my ears, and the edges of my vision turned black. My own twin had betrayed me… Again.

Miss Claymore stepped forward from where she had leaned against the wall, her nose wrinkled with disgust. “And the pork ribs?”

Ashley twisted around in her seat and fixed the deputy head with a wide-eyed stare. “What pork ribs?”

“Thank you, Ashley. You may leave,” said Mrs. Benazir.

Ashley rose from her seat and walked to the door. She opened it and turned to stare at a spot above my left shoulder. “Please stop hurting yourself. Mom and Dad wouldn’t want you to go off the rails.”

Adrenaline spiked through my heart, and fury coursed through my veins. She had twisted the knife by using her concern for Mom and Dad to give her lies credibility. My hands trembled and itched with the desire to wring the truth out of her scrawny neck.

Mrs. Benazir pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m afraid my hands are tied. If your sister is corroborating the others’ account of events, it’s now your word against theirs unless your forensic exam can prove otherwise.”

Chapter 13

If I had to describe what it felt like to have Mrs. Benazir attempt to assure me she had done her best, I would say it was like watching a scene on TV. Not quite real and through a glass barrier.

I supposed I watched the headmistress through the numb shock of Ashley’s second betrayal. Everything else paled in comparison, even the forced alcohol, the pork ribs, and the groping boys.

Seventeen years. Seventeen years of sisterhood, more if one counted the amount of time we spent together in utero, and the moment Mom and Dad died, she had turned on me.

Cold seeped into my heart. I no longer had a sister.

“I’ll call the constable who took my statement,” I cut through the headmistress’s bumbling excuses. “It’s time to press charges and to process the forensic examination for evidence.”

Mrs. Benazir’s brows furrowed, and her lips thinned into a disapproving line. I mentally dared her to say something discouraging, but the older woman just nodded. “As you wish.”