Page 128 of Depraved Boys

I pressed my lips together. Part of me bristled that they thought I couldn’t stand up to Bianca and her father—my pride, I supposed. But common sense told me that Mr. Byrd would be a skilled negotiator and excelled at winning arguments and that I should listen to the boys’ warnings.

Turning around, I gave Prakash a smile. “Thanks. If they start acting unreasonable, I’ll stonewall them.”

His eyes softened, and the smile he returned melted my heart. “You have justice on your side. If they try to intimidate you into dropping the charges, it’s illegal.”

With Prakash’s bolstering words, I straightened my spine, pushed my shoulders back, and raised my chin. “Thanks. That’s exactly what I needed to hear.”

We walked the rest of the way in silence, with my pulse pounding between my ears like a war drum. This was a meeting, not a court of law, and I didn’t have to prove anything. I would go in, listen to what Mr. Byrd had to say, and leave if the man became aggressive.

I knocked on the door, turned the handle, and walked inside. Mrs. Benazir sat at her desk with Bianca seated opposite. Stepping out from a blind spot on the right was a tall, dark-haired man with blue eyes so piercing, they made my stomach churn.

The headmistress stood and glowered at the kings standing at my side. “What are you three doing here?”

“Escorting Miss Evergreen.” Sebastian shouldered his way into the room and walked up to the man. They were of an equal height, but while Sebastian appeared more athletic, he lacked that air of worldliness and danger.

“Sebastian Garraway.” He held out his hand. “I’m delighted to make your acquaintance.”

The man’s eyes widened, but he took Sebastian’s hand. From the hard look in his eyes, I wondered if Sebastian had crushed his bones.

As soon as Sebastian withdrew, Leopold swooped in and grabbed the man’s hand. “Leopold Brunswick. I can’t say I’m pleased to meet you.”

Prakash stepped into the room and folded his arms. “I’m sure you’re aware that intimidating witnesses is a common-law offense. Perverting the course of justice carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.”

The older man’s lip curled. “Who are you?”

“Prakash Kashaayah. I believe your firm has branches in Mumbai and Delhi.”

Mr. Byrd narrowed his eyes, as though he didn’t want to admit to ignorance of the Indian operations of his own firm.

“Thank you, boys.” Mrs. Benazir waved her hands back and forth out in a shooing motion. “As the headmistress, it’s my responsibility to act as a guardian in the absence of a student’s parents.”

I dipped my gaze to the ground. From the amounts of cash the school generated from its students, I seriously doubted that the headmistress would act in the interests of anything else but her bank account.

As soon as the door clicked shut, anxiety wrapped around my lungs and stomach like a constrictor. On legs that wouldn’t stop shaking, I walked to the wooden chair next to the one Bianca occupied and sat. My shoulder bag slipped onto the wooden floor with a thud.

Mrs. Benazir also sat, and Mr. Byrd strode behind the headmistress’s desk, taking up the space usually occupied by Miss Claymore.

“Let’s cut through the preamble.” The man placed his palms on the desk and leaned toward me. “This entire incident has been blown out of proportion. Girls playing pranks on each other is not a matter for the police.”

Rage exploded across my vision, and blood roared in my ears. How dare he trivialize what had happened as a mere prank? “The doctor said I would have died if I hadn’t thrown up the alcohol these girls forced down my throat, and the police agreed that it was sexual assault.”

“Oh?” He folded his arms across his chest. “And which of the girls raped you?”

“That’s why the police conducted the forensic exam,” I said from between clenched teeth.

Bianca sighed. “We keep trying to tell you, Willow. You did it to yourself. The only thing I’m guilty of is confiding in another girl who told the whole school.”

My heart continued to pound like a bass drum, its reverberations thrumming against my ribcage. I deepened my breathing and tried to remain calm. Mr. Byrd was twisting things. An unconscious person wouldn’t know which of the many girls had perpetrated the assault.

As I stared at the patterns of wood grain on the desk, Prakash’s warning seeped into the forefront of my mind. If I didn’t keep my mouth closed, Mr. Byrd would probably argue circles around me until I doubted what had happened.

“I put it to you that you performed sex acts with raw meat in an attempt to insinuate yourself into a group of popular girls.” The man let out a dry chuckle. “When your attempts at social climbing backfired, and you became the mockery of the school, you regretted your actions and fabricated a story of an assault to the police.”

“That’s exactly what happened,” Bianca added.

Without raising my gaze from the surface of the desk, I shook my head and let him ramble on. Bianca didn’t tell her father a precise sequence of events, as I had made my statement on the advice of the doctors hours after I had awoken.

“Perhaps you are trying to garner sympathy from wealthy boys, eh? Garraway and Brunswick are part of the establishment. Maybe your little stunt is your way of securing yourself a lucrative marriage?”