Chapter Thirty-Three
THIRTY-THREE
An hour later, Maddox and I are in Theo’s room. Maddox crosses the room. I collapse backward onto the bed, and Theo sits on the edge and strokes my hair.
“You look exhausted, Lil,” Theo says. “I suppose you’re too tired to hear what I found out about the Janus Society.”
I sit up fast, and he smiles.
“I thought that might work,” he says. “So, I haven’t been pulling my weight with this investigation, because I’m no detective. I realized I could do one thing, though—confront my uncle about the Janus Society, now that I know enough to ask the right questions.”
I inhale sharply. “Was that safe?”
Theo gives me a look. “I am Hollywood royalty. I can act.” He pauses.
“I also know how to commit blackmail. Not sure where that came from. Anyway, as you may have noticed at the gala, I have dirt on dear Uncle Charlie. So I used that and said I’d stumbled on something about the Janus Society, with his name attached.
” He lifts his phone. “I recorded the conversation. Yes, yes, that’s illegal. Whatever.”
Theo scrubs forward on the recording. “I’ll bypass the part where he pretends to know nothing until I pull out the blackmail card.”
He hits Play, and when Charles Dubois’s voice comes on, I need to suppress a shiver, thrown back to that hallway in the gala. He sounds different, though. Sober, I guess.
“You’re such a child, Theodore,” Charles says. “Keep sticking your fingers where they don’t belong and you’re going to get a nasty shock. I’m growing very tired of this particular threat.”
“Then let’s end it. You tell me what I want, and I will never mention it again.”
A pause. Then a long sigh. “I hate giving into you, brat, but in this case, you’re giving up your blackmail cheap. Fine. I was part of the Janus Society, back when there was a Janus Society.”
“There isn’t anymore?”
“Hasn’t been in maybe six, seven years.”
“How come?”
“You kids got soft. You all say you want power, but you won’t get your hands dirty to get it. That’s what Janus was about. Getting our hands dirty to earn our own kind of power. Your dad and his Optimas think they’re in charge, but the Janus Society were the kingmakers.”
“They shaped the competition,” Theo says.
“ ‘Shaped’ is one way of saying it. ‘Weeded out the undesirables’ is another.”
“You say the society disbanded years ago, but a student died two years back. You’re telling me that wasn’t Janus.”
“Died?” Charles snorts. “You’ve been watching too many of your dad’s shitty movies. The Janus Society didn’t kill anyone. Why would we? There are lots of ways to push someone out of the race.” A pause. “You’d know all about that, I hear.”
“Yes, I was pushed out. But you’re telling me that wasn’t Janus.”
“Janus is gone. Over. I’m guessing the Optimas are doing the work themselves these days, with the help of their dogs.”
“Dogs? Someone they hire instead of using Janus?”
“The dogs have been there from the start. A very special brand of pup.” He laughs as he emphasizes brand.
“Who—?”
“This conversation is over, brat. I gave you what you wanted. Now fuck off.”
The recording ends, as if Charles disconnected the call.
“Okay,” I say carefully. “He seems certain that the Janus Society was disbanded. I think he’s telling the truth about not killing anyone, but maybe that was a secret sect within the society? The extreme solution, for those they decided didn’t matter, like Annette.”
I turn to Maddox, who’s across the room plugging in our phones. He’s staring down at mine. Before I can ask what he thinks, he lifts my phone.
“You’ve got a message,” Maddox says to me. “It’s from Isolde. Looks like it’s been there a while, so you might be ignoring it after what Allegra said.”
“I didn’t see it.”
I reach out, and he passes over the phone. I can see Isolde sent a video, but I must have missed the notification.
I glance at the guys. “I’m going to put in my earbuds, okay? No offense, but if Isolde’s high on pain meds, she might not appreciate me sharing this.”
Maddox passes over my earbud case. I pop them in and hit Play, and as soon as I do, I’m really glad I took the precaution. Isolde isn’t just buzzed. She’s also crying.
“Lili? I’m so sorry. So, so sorry. I’m a horrible friend, and I’ll understand if you never want to talk to me again.
I didn’t mean to hurt Theo. I just…I did as I was told.
He said it was for the best, that Theo didn’t need to be in the Optimas.
He’s already Theo Dubois. He has everything, and you’re new to all this, and you deserve it, and you’ll be a better Optima anyway, and I wanted you to have it. ”
She stops to breathe, each inhalation ragged. “I told myself it was okay, but I know it wasn’t.” She makes a face, her hand going to where she was stabbed. “It was just supposed to be a cut, and he says he slipped, but he didn’t.” Her tears fall fresh. “He did this on purpose.”
She blinks fast. “But this is about you, not me. I think the attack was about more than knocking Theo out of the race. I’m afraid…” She swallows. “I’m afraid if Maddox hadn’t shown up, you wouldn’t have walked away from it. Be really, really careful, Lili, and—”
Her head jerks up as she seems to hear something in the hall. Then she relaxes. “Whatever you do, be careful and stay with someone at all times. Someone you trust.”
Another glance toward the hall before she turns back, voice lowered. “We’ll talk tomorrow. Come see me.”
I play the video twice. Then I look up. Theo is in the bathroom, brushing his teeth. Maddox is at the foot of the bed, flipping through his phone.
“I think I need to play this,” I say, and my voice is shaky enough that Maddox looks up sharply. “Theo? You need to see it, too.”
—
We’ve played the video twice. Theo looks like someone punched him in the gut, and Maddox’s jaw is clenched so hard I fear for his teeth.
“Isolde set you both up,” Maddox says. “No one made her attacker look like Theo. It was all arranged.”
“It makes sense,” I say, my voice strained. “I didn’t see it because I never considered that Isolde would lie.”
“Because she got hurt,” Maddox says. “That’s why no one questioned it. She was the victim.”
Theo squeezes the bridge of his nose. “Walk me through this, please. I’m having trouble understanding.”
“The whole thing was a setup,” I say. “I chose to join her on the dance floor, but she’s the one who moved us deeper into the crowd and then suggested cutting through the back halls. She took charge there.”
“After notifying whoever she was with,” Maddox mutters.
“Presumably. Then someone turned out the hall light. I saw a figure. Isolde ran for the exit. When I followed to stop her, our attacker shoved me out. According to this video, he was supposed to just give her a scratch, enough to make it seem she’d been in danger. But he actually stabbed her.”
“And she knows who he is,” Maddox adds. “She knows her attacker. He really stabbed her and probably always intended to.”
I nod. “He wanted it to look real, and she certainly wouldn’t have agreed to be actually stabbed. Afterward, she was supposed to blame Theo, which she did.”
“But then she rescinded it,” Theo says. “Because Lil realized I didn’t have any blood on me?”
“No,” I say. “The police realized that, too. You were never supposed to be honestly blamed. All they needed was the accusation. Like with my dad and Annette. Both stories would have fallen apart. It was all about the accusation.”
“And the rest?” Maddox says. “I’m furious about what she did to Theo, but it’s the rest I’m focused on right now.”
Theo asks for my phone, and he replays the last bit. “She doesn’t think you were supposed to walk away, Lil. That you were…” He swallows hard. “Fuck.”
“But I could have walked away,” I say. “I had a chance to escape.”
“No,” Maddox says. “It only seemed as if he was focused on Isolde. If you’d run, he could have grabbed you, but I think he was hoping you’d do what you did—try to protect Isolde.”
Theo nods. “And then you’d be…” He struggles for the next word. “You’d be hurt, and it’d look like you were protecting your friend. Like you weren’t the actual target.”
“Not hurt,” Maddox says, his voice a near growl. “I don’t think ‘hurt’ is the word you want.”
I rub down goosebumps on my arms, and Theo pulls me to him, hugging me tight and whispering that I’m okay, that everything is going to be okay.
“You could have been killed when Jayden pushed you down the stairs,” Maddox says. “And you didn’t like how Natalia reacted. You said she seemed genuinely shocked and insisted she hadn’t told Jayden to do it.”
“If it wasn’t Natalia,” I say, “then who arranged it? That’s the question, right?
Jayden didn’t do it on his own. He’d have no reason to.
” I pull back to look at Theo. “Your uncle thinks the Janus Society disbanded, but what if that’s just the official line?
What if your uncle Charlie believes it, but it’s not true. ”
“And Jayden is part of Janus?” Maddox says. “But does that make sense? Knock you and Theo out of the race? Leaving Cosmo? He’s perfectly fine, but he’s not…” He shrugs. “He’s not really anybody. You’d make the better Optima.”
“Maybe Isolde’s wrong,” Theo says. “Allegra said she’s high on drugs.”
“Lili?” Maddox walks over, getting my full attention. “Tell me what happened on the way to Westdale. Before you arrived.”
“What?”
“Cecilia went from being mildly concerned to locking you down here and telling me to be on full alert. You mentioned something about a truck? A rock?”
I tell him what happened.
“Cecilia thought someone shot at you,” he says.
“I don’t—”
“Lili?” He bends down in front of me. “I know you don’t want to seem paranoid. I want you to be paranoid. Pretend it’s a mystery for you to solve. What could have happened?”
I think it through. Then I say, falteringly, “The truck was covered in dirt. There was no way to see the plate, if it even had one. Tinted windows. We couldn’t see a driver.
It whipped by so fast.” I look up. “But if someone shot at me, they would have needed to know I was…” I trail off.
“Cecilia notified the school that we were coming. Sent all the information so we’d get through the front gates. ”
“Someone knew when and how you’d be arriving,” Maddox says. “We could be looking at a security leak or a phone hack. Anything else?”
I know he means is there anything else about that incident, but I blurt, “At the gala,” and I tell them what happened in the back hall.
When they both stare at me, I throw up my hands. “I thought it was Theo’s uncle. I ran into him right after that—he appeared behind me—so it seemed to be the same person, but it’s also possible he’d just come down the hall I passed.”
“But even if you thought it was him,” Theo says, “why didn’t you tell me he grabbed you?”
I squirm. “You were upset enough. I handled it.”
Theo sighs. “Okay, but I do wish I’d known. It still could have been Charlie. He was in the Janus Society.”
“I don’t know who grabbed me or what their intention was,” I say. “Maybe nothing. Same as that stone might have really been a stone and Natalia really might have been behind the stairs thing and Isolde could be wrong about the attack in the alley.”
“Yeah,” Maddox says. “I’ll grant that one—maybe two—of those could be explained away, but not all four.”
“Someone’s trying to hurt Lil,” Theo says, and then his voice drops. “Maybe even kill her.”
“Why?” I say. “Getting me out of the Optima race to let Cosmo win?”
Maddox shakes his head. “Way too much trouble. And remember, it seems as if the only contender who actually died was Annette—a scholarship student. Otherwise, from what we can tell, they’re just knocked out of the race, like Theo.
Possibly injured—like Taylor—but not killed.
If someone is trying to kill you—and I don’t think we can discount that—then it must be about something else, and the obvious answer is your inheritance.
We need to look at who inherits the Chamberlain money if you die.
For all these years, someone has expected to inherit an absolute fortune, and then you popped up. ”
Theo nods. “Of the four possible attempts on your life, only one happened at Westdale, and that could have just been Natalia and Jayden. The others were all off-site.”
“I asked Cecilia this right away,” I say. “Who was the backup heir? The answer is no one. The money all went to charities.”
“Are you sure?” Maddox says. “Maybe most of it went to charities and part went to a person. We’re talking about billionaires. Even a bequeath of one percent—one tiny percent—is ten million dollars.”
“I’ve seen the list of charities.” When they look confused, I say, “I worried that me reappearing meant a lot of worthwhile causes lost future revenue they were counting on, so I told Cecilia I wanted to donate to all of them. She says I can’t until I turn eighteen next month, but she did pass me the list. There are no individuals on it.
The biggest recipient, not surprisingly, is the Chamberlain Foundation, which is the company’s philanthropy arm.
Then there’s a bunch of other foundations and trusts. ”
“So…” Theo clears his throat. “Stop me if you know this, Lil, because I’m presuming you don’t, growing up where trust funds aren’t a thing.
A trust is a trust fund. Like I have. Like Maddox has.
That’s probably what you get next month.
It’s a way of passing money to heirs before someone dies.
If there are trusts in that will, there’s a good chance that money is going to people.
Not charities. Even foundations can be”—he waggles his hand—“tax dodges.”
“Er, right.” My cheeks heat. “I should have known that.”
“No reason for you to.”
“But I do know what a trust fund is. You’re right—that’s what I get access to when I turn eighteen. My mom’s trust fund passes to me. I just didn’t make the connection.”
“Can we see that list?” Maddox asks.
“I have it right here.”