Page 282 of Depraved Boys

When his lawyer used the defense of diminished responsibility, Prakash hadn’t wanted Cormac to languish in a state mental facility and paid for him to be sent to Springfield Manor.

“You came,” Cormac said in a voice full of wonder. He stood and gestured for me to sit opposite.

“I was curious.” I nodded to the two male nurses at the door leading to the gardens and walked around to the table.

Cormac’s eyes glistened as he watched me sit. I wondered if he remembered happier times when we sat together in the scholars’ common room, or if he even remembered all the torment he had inflicted on me in the name of avenging the suicide he had helped Corrine to commit.

“Did you read the letters I sent you?” he picked up a plastic pot of tea and raised his brows in question.

I offered him my plastic teacup. “Yes. I’m glad the medical team here have been so supportive.”

As Cormac poured the tea, no steam billowed out of the spout. Springfield Manor was careful that its inmates didn’t hurt themselves or others, no matter their level of recovery. Cormac filled my cup three-quarters-full and then picked up the milk jug.

With a smile, I let him pour an excessive amount of white liquid into my cup. Cormac grinned, but I didn’t fall into our usual banter about the preparation of tea.

Six years had passed, I’d moved on from Brittas Academy, and hadn’t allowed myself to dwell on the time I’d spent with Cormac. My life was already full, and it was about to become even more occupied.

Cormac’s face fell, but he smoothed out the disappointment and prepared himself a cup of cold tea. “It’s been good here. I realize now that Kashaayah was a scapegoat for everything that went wrong in Corrine’s life. Our problems started long before we joined Brittas Academy.”

I turned to one of the cameras in the corner of the room and shot it an I-told-you-so look.

Cormac scrubbed his hands through his hair. “Corrine finally thought she’d found love, and—”

“I get it.”

He blinked away his hurt expression and said, “MIT has offered me a scholarship in the States. It’s a bloody fortune compared to what we were offered at Brittas.”

I brought the plastic cup to my lips. “Congratulations.”

“My recruiter mentioned what happened to the academy in my interview, but I didn’t know what he was talking about. Were you there for the trial?”

With a nod, I explained to Cormac that Mr. Riley had joined forces with Mr. and Mrs. Wilmington to sue Brittas Academy for corporate manslaughter.

Miss Claymore had already resigned and left the country the week after Cormac had tried to abduct me, leaving Mrs. Benazir and the school governors to face the full wrath of the court. Several students gave evidence via video, but I chose to take the stand and explain to the court how those in charge of Brittas Academy had failed to take care of their students and gotten three killed and three subject to brutal attacks.

Mr. Byrd hadn’t been available for the trial due to serving a twenty-year sentence based on the testimony of Bianca and his younger daughter.

The three-million pound fine was the largest paid in the history of corporate manslaughter, and Mrs. Benazir was sentenced to two years in prison for criminal negligence under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Although the board employed alternative headteachers, a group of parents took the school to the civil courts and won a lawsuit for negligence.

Cormac shook his head as he listened to me recount the downfall and subsequent bankruptcy of Brittas Academy. A year after I had graduated and joined Cambridge University to study mathematics, the board of governors had to close it down and transfer the students to an academy in Mercia, which already had enough empty buildings to accommodate all the students.

“I wanted to apologize to you before I left,” he dipped his head and stared at the cupcakes on his plate.

A lump formed in my throat. Two years ago, Cormac wrote to say he had discovered the identity of his parents. His father was a notorious British serial killer, famous for consuming his victims’ body parts, and his mother had been rescued just before the murderer had finished his act.

The discovery had set back his recovery several months and had led to Cormac opening up about the abuse he and his sister had suffered in foster care. I set down my cup and tried to meet his eyes.

Cormac’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “Of all the people I hurt, you were the only one who was completely innocent. Not that Bianca deserved to end up in a wheelchair for the rest of her life and Geraldine deserved what I did to her face, but—”

“It’s alright,” I murmured. Both girls had also graduated from university and were getting on with their lives.

His shoulders drew up to his ears. “If you’d joined a year earlier, you would have made a great friend to Corrine. Maybe even talked some sense into her.”

“Thanks.” The old me might have reached out across the table to hold his hand, but I’d just come to help give Cormac closure.

We sat in silence for a few more minutes. I sipped my cold, milky tea and nibbled on a cupcake, the way I did whenever I attended the tea-parties of Prakash’s little nieces.

“Did you ever visit Ashley in prison?” asked Cormac.