Page 71 of Wicked Elites

“Those girls forced enough alcohol down my throat to poison me. I nearly died.”

Her face blanked. “You’re alive, aren’t you?”

“Only because I vomited!”

“If you want an apology—”

“I want an explanation. What the hell has happened to you?”

“I got dragged out of my normal life to this bizarre academy—”

“You had a choice!”

“Did I?” She sat up and narrowed her eyes. “You could have dropped out of school and gotten a job to support us both, but you selfishly decided to take up a bursary and not give me my share.”

My entire body reverberated with rage, and a dozen insults surged to the back of my throat. I clenched my jaw. This was another of her distractions. She needed to lead me down a ridiculous path to avoid the real issue of how she nearly got me killed. I sucked in a cooling breath and tamped down my anger.

“Ashley, answer my question.” My voice turned cold.

“As I said earlier, I came to this bizarre academy where no one likes me, and everything’s set up to once again make you the special one.”

My mouth dropped open. “And therefore you thought you’d knock me off my pedestal by getting me humiliated and almost killed?”

She curled her lip. “You’re so sanctimonious, you know that? Maybe it was time for you to fall off your high fucking horse. Mom and Dad treated you like you were the only person who ever existed.”

“Right,” I said through quickening breaths. “You’ve resented me all this time.”

“Don’t put words in my mouth,” she snapped. “Where did you go?”

My nostrils flared. There was no point in continuing this conversation. Ashley was no longer my sister but someone whose rivalry had turned rancid. I sent Mom a silent apology. Even if she wanted us to stick together, she would never have condemned me to a knife in the back.

“None of it matters anymore,” she slurred. “Mom and Dad did right by me in the end.”

“By dying?”

“Brittas Academy’s the best thing that ever happened to me. Everyone here is ambitious, even the so-called airheads.”

“What do you mean?”

“They showed me ways I could be more like them.”

I eyed the shopping bags. Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Louboutin. “Where did you get the kind of money to buy things like this?”

She raised a shoulder. “I applied for credit using Mom’s name. Her record is still active.”

Mr. Selby had assured us he had shut down all her accounts and notified all the financial institutions of Mom and Dad’s death. Someone must have taught her how to commit fraud. “How could you?”

She waved her hand. “I’ll pay it all back next week.”

“With what money?”

“The house is going to auction.”

All the blood drained from my face. “What?”

“You heard me. Aunt Hortense agreed that there’s no point in us living down here while there’s an empty house gathering expenses and dust.”

My mind went blank. What right did Aunt Hortense have to go behind my back and arrange this with Ashley? “What about Mom and Dad’s things?”