Chapter Thirty-Seven #2
“But not everyone at Westdale is equally valuable,” Maddox says. “Not in their books, anyway.”
Cecilia nods slowly, catching on. “Annette was a scholarship kid. Taylor was the kind of kid who organized protests and marches. Very liberal in their politics, eat the rich and all that. Me? I’m the Black girl who got into Westdale because her Chamberlain-heiress BFF wanted her there.
It didn’t matter if I had the grades and a daddy who could easily pay my tuition. I’d never be one of them.”
“That’s why Mom warned you,” I say. “She was afraid, once she was gone, that you might run for Optima.”
“And it might not go well for me. Sure, they have a few outsiders for diversity’s sake…” She trails off and winces before looking at Maddox. “Sorry. That was glib.”
“If you mean my mother, she’s Spanish. That makes a difference to some people. She’s also from old money. And her views are…moderate at best.”
“And Maddox’s mom is powerful,” I say. “She brings a lot to the table, and I think that’s what’s really important to the Optimas. What each new person brings.”
I bring her up to date on everything connected to the Janus Society: the secret room, the burned pages, the symbol, how that symbol also appeared in the staff yearbook and on Charles Dubois’s arm, and how it also resembles the Obsidian logo.
“Isolde said she had to do as she was told,” I say.
I play the video Isolde sent. When it’s done, I explain how I thought the “he” she mentions was Cosmo.
“But that doesn’t quite work,” I say.
Cecilia raises a hand. “Slow down and let the old lady think, guys. The burned papers suggest that this Janus Society knocked Louis Ralston from the race in 1956. They were looking at his daily schedule and things he liked because they wanted a way to get to him. They chose the scotch.”
I nod. “Maybe he drank too much on his own, but I think he had help. He brought the bottle to the bedroom bash, so no one suspected foul play. We’re theorizing that the Optima race can be rigged in years when the wrong person might win.
Sometimes, the students themselves knock people out of the running—like Cosmo tried doing to me, twice.
But other times it goes deeper and higher.
Charles Dubois told Theo that the Janus Society were the real kingmakers.
Fixing the race. I don’t think they were ever a fifth society, per se.
They were a separate thing. A truly secret society. ”
I pause. “No one’s saying this is definitely the answer. We need to keep digging.”
Cecilia shakes her head. “This needs to be investigated carefully, by a professional, who is me. Right now, Lili, I need to take you to a safe location.”
When I don’t respond, she peers at me. “You’re not going to argue?”
“I’m fine with leaving as long as Theo and Maddox are with me.”
She sighs. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“You’re not going to argue?” I say, parroting her words.
“I think you need all the protection you can get while we dig into this. I can tell Ms. Dimitriou that you three need to get away and grieve after Isolde’s death. I just need to make some calls first.”
—
Maddox and I take a walk in the small forest while Cecilia makes her calls.
I have no idea what she’s doing, but apparently she needed privacy for it.
We’re walking in silence, treading a well-worn trail, when he says, “You understand why I don’t want you going anywhere without me, right?
Because I’m worried about you. Because I want to watch your back.
Not because I’m being controlling, keeping you in my sight. ”
I tug his hand so I can move in front, facing him. “I know that, and I appreciate it.”
“But it could still seem…” He rolls his shoulders, gaze sliding away. “Like you can’t get away from me, even if you wanted to.”
I tilt my head. “Where’s this coming from, Maddox?”
“I just want to be sure we’re okay.”
“We are. Have I said or done anything to suggest otherwise?”
He rocks back, hands still in mine. “I’m just…off-balance. Finding Isolde dead and seeing you with that blood on your hands and thinking of Theo being framed. And then catching Cosmo actually trying to frame you?”
He shifts his weight. “It’s Jenna, too. I said I only wanted answers, and I have some, but I guess I wanted…” His hand tightens on mine and he swallows hard. “Jenna did so much for me, and Mom couldn’t even be bothered questioning how she died, and I wanted to do that, for her.”
“You did. And I know you hoped to find out exactly what happened at that party, but I don’t think we can.
What matters is that you confirmed what you always knew.
That your sister was an amazing person. She’d have wanted you to know that—and to question the official story—more than she’d have wanted you to find out exactly what happened to her. ”
“She would. It’s just hard. I have answers, but they don’t bring her back. You have answers about your parents, but they don’t bring them back and—”
He drops my hands, runs his fingers through his hair and groans.
“I have no idea what I’m saying. I’m a mess, Lili.
You get that, right? Maybe this isn’t what you want, and if it’s not, you can say so.
Maybe you’ve started to realize Theo is just so much easier to be with, but you’re afraid to admit that and upset me when I’m not exactly a model of fucking stability. ”
I catch his hands. “Maddox? Come back.”
He exhales and looks at me.
“Wherever you’re going?” I say, meeting his gaze. “Come back. I’m not there. I’m here.”
Another long sigh, his gaze sliding away again.
“I mean it,” I say. “You’re putting me over there, in some place where a fictional version of me is having second thoughts, which I absolutely am not. If that’s where you are—having second thoughts—then you need to tell me.”
He looks me in the eye. “I’m not.”
“But you can.”
“I know. I just…” He swallows. “You heard what happened with me and Theo after Jenna died. It was rough going and that was on me. I just didn’t give a shit.
He had to do all the heavy lifting, and I’m so glad he did, but at the time, I just wanted to be left alone, and sometimes I think of how easy it’d have been for him to walk away. ”
“He wouldn’t have.”
“Maybe, but now I’m asking you to do the same. To put up with my shit, when you shouldn’t need to, and I’m afraid…” He inhales sharply. “I’m fucking terrified…”
His hands tighten on mine. “I don’t want to lose you, and it scares me that I care as much as I do, that I absolutely lose it when you’re in danger, and I’m afraid I’ll frighten you off and I’m also afraid I’ll start being the asshole who pretends he doesn’t care as much as he does because he’s scared to admit it.
” Another breath. “Does that make any sense?”
I step closer, hands dropping his and rising to his face, cupping it. “It makes perfect sense.” I rise on my tiptoes to kiss him.
When we pull away, he says, “You need to be clear with Cecilia that you think your life is in danger, and that it may be because of the inheritance.”
“I know. I just…” I nibble my lip.
“You suspect it could be connected to Westdale and Dimitriou, and you don’t think Cecilia will believe that.”
“It makes sense that Westdale would receive a chunk of the inheritance. At first it seemed weird, but I wasn’t thinking of it as donating to your alma mater.
So I don’t know who’s trying to kill me—if anyone.
But I think the force behind the Janus Society, working with the Brandts and Obsidian, was Westdale itself. Not a subsect of the Optimas.”
“Okay.”
“Think about it,” I say. “Does your mom really care whether each Optima winner is from an old and powerful family? Whether it brings something to the table that can help her career?”
He lifts a brow. “Uh, no one can help my mom’s career, Lili.
She doesn’t need…Fuck. Okay, I get it. The Optimas might be the ultimate networking group, but from what I understand, they mostly shoot the shit and moan about their champagne problems. Like group therapy for the ultra-rich.
They can help new members, and they like doing it, mostly to show off, but the established members are beyond being ‘helped’ themselves. ”
“For them, picking an Optima is mostly for show. They might consider what kind of personality they’d like to join their little group, and they have standards—best of the best—but do they actually care whether the new member is a Chamberlain heiress or a brilliant scholarship student?”
“Dimitriou’s family would care,” he says. “Scholarship students like Annette and idealists like Taylor and no-connection artists like Louis and even third-generation Hollywood types like Theo aren’t going to help them.”
“Right. It’d be in their interest to shape the Optima race.
Then they can share that inside information with the Brandts, who never became Optimas themselves.
All the while Ms. Dimitriou is rolling her eyes at the societies and joking about the Optimas as if they’re cute little rich-people games and—”
Both our phones buzz.
I take mine out.
Theo
You need to get out of there now. Both of you.
Maddox and I both text back question marks.
Theo
Are you together? Is Cecilia there?
Maddox motions for me to take over the conversation.
Me
We’re together, but we left Cecilia in the car, making calls.
Theo
Get someplace safe.
I’m coming to you.
Me
What’s going on?
Theo
I’ve been identifying those twenty foundations and trusts. The ones who inherit if you die before your eighteenth birthday. One of them is Cecilia.
Me
What???
Theo
It’s a trust fund her parents set up for her when she was born. CAER Trust 1987.
Cecilia Abilene Estelle Robbins. Born in 1987.
Theo
I’m not saying Cecilia is behind this, but I don’t like it, and I need you both to get out of there. Where are you?
I put my fingers to the keyboard to answer and then Maddox says.
“Lili?”
“Hmm?”
“Have you had any contact with your grandparents?” Maddox asks.
I frown over at him.
He presses on, his expression barely concealed worry. “Have you talked to them? Seen them on video? Anything that proves…Well, that proves they brought you to Westdale. That they know you exist?”
I go still. I don’t. Cecilia is the one who talks to them and who set up everything—
I’m flying through the air. Maddox is knocking me to the ground and dropping onto me, and there is still not a split second where I think he’s hurting me. Something’s happening, and my mouth opens and—
The world shatters in a gunshot.