Page 152 of Depraved Boys

My heart quickened. This was the moment I’d been waiting for. Miss Claymore had all but admitted to having sex with an underage boy. If I could get her to talk about how she’d tried to kill me, I’d be able to hand the recording to the police.

“You love Sebastian, and you don’t want anyone else to have him,” I murmured. “Is that why you put me in a car and made it look like an accident?”

She reared back. “What are you talking about?”

Doubt flashed across my mind. She hadn’t acted this surprised when I’d told her I knew about her affair with Sebastian, but a mere five minutes ago, she had also denied sleeping with him. I shook off those thoughts and focussed on the smartphone in my pocket. One slip-up on her part and I might be able to convince the police to bring her in for questioning.

“You were supposed to be there for the meeting in Mrs. Benazir’s office, yet someone hit me over the head.”

Her nostrils flared. “Is that an accusation?”

“Who else knew I would be in that room?” I spat.

“Miss Evergreen.” She side-stepped around the desk.

My heart leaped into action, pumping blood to my limbs. If Miss Claymore could throw Sebastian around, she could probably snap my neck in a second. “Stay where you are!”

The deputy headmistress raised both palms. “All right,” she said in the tone a dog whisperer might employ to soothe a rabid and confused Rottweiler. “Please remain calm. I don’t know how you ended up in that cave. As for the incident with your mother’s car, even the police don’t believe anyone staged a murder.”

“You did it because you wanted Sebastian for yourself.”

Her eyelids fluttered closed, and she let out a long, weary breath through her nostrils. “I’m very concerned about your state of mind.”

“D-don’t gaslight me.” I slapped my hand on my chest. “It’s not madness or paranoia if someone hits you over the head and you wake up miles away in a cave. A-and I didn’t sleepwalk there, either!”

Miss Claymore shook her head, and rage exploded through my chest and into my veins. The wretched, two-faced woman would say anything to keep her job and stay out of prison.

“I’m sick of people telling me things aren’t real. Bianca and Geraldine pulled me out of bed, forced alcohol down my throat and put pork ribs into my body, but now they and Mr. Byrd are saying I did it to myself.”

She furrowed her brow. “Miss Ever—”

“And the day after I caught you half-naked in bed with Sebastian, I woke up in hospital, having been put into a car with another abnormally high blood-alcohol level!”

Miss Claymore pursed her lips and scowled. Because she knew I was right.

I waved my finger at her, hoping to provoke her into saying something, anything the police might use to secure her arrest. “All those times you punished Sebastian, it was because he was flirting with me!”

Her pale cheeks flushed a delicate pink. “It was because I worried that Sebastian was playing that terrible pull-a-pig game with you! No woman, young or old, should ever be falsely pursued. None should have her ever reservation melted away by sweet words and gestures, and none should fall for someone only to hear that it had all been a trick!”

My stomach dropped, and I took a step back. “You love him.”

“I was protecting you,” she said through clenched teeth.

“Then why were you in his room, wearing a black negligée?”

“Miss Evergreen, I’m warning you… One more offensive comment and you will be expelled!”

“Maybe you planted those naked pictures in the prospectuses to make me look bad in front of the board.”

“That’s it!” Miss Claymore yanked open a drawer.

I stiffened, hoping she wouldn’t pull out a gun. “Sebastian’s behind the door, listening. If you do anything weird, he’ll charge inside.”

“Then let him listen to this,” Miss Claymore snarled. “From this moment, you are expelled. Expelled to preserve your sanity. Brittas Academy has twisted your mind in ways that no young woman should experience.”

She pulled out a packet of ginger mints and pushed them across the table. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to protect you.”

I stared at the innocuous tube of candies. They had been a symbol of our camaraderie, but now, all I saw was a cheap bribe she’d used to appear as though she’d cared.