Chapter Thirty-One
Amelie
Saturday morning, crack of dawn, sees me leaving my room for the first time all week.
I’m dressed in my workout gear, needing to run before my detention starts.
After being sent to my dorm Monday morning and being told to stay there all day, I cried myself to sleep.
I woke up later that afternoon with a killer migraine which seems to have brought on a full-blown cold.
I knew it was only a matter of time before the dismal weather in this godforsaken country made me ill.
Elsie has visited me all week, bringing me schoolwork and meals, homework and gossip.
The Knox boys have not. I guess that says it all.
They really were fucking with me. I refused to ask her about them, and she refused to mention them.
So we danced around the elephant in the room.
I begin stretching when I reach the oval, the first one here. I’ve even beat Onyx to his run, unless he's changed his schedule to avoid me. I try not to care, and start running.
By the time I’m done, my legs are jelly. I hobble over to where the other students in detention are gathered.
“Amelie, you’re late,” Sawyer snaps, even though at the start of the week he was kissing me. Even though I’m clearly not late, I just got started before everyone else. “Right, guys, start running. When you hear my whistle, return… Amelie, Slate, you sit this one out. Off you go!”
“Sir, I can run!” I tell him. I don’t want special treatment, I don’t want to be singled out.
“No. You’ve done enough today,” he tells me softly, meeting my gaze when everyone has gone. “You can barely stand.”
“It doesn’t matter. I can run,” I insist. Truthfully, I can’t. I have no idea why I’m pushing this so hard. It’s stupid.
“Sit down, Amelie, before you fall down. I’m going to keep an eye on them. We have a few characters in detention today. Slate? Watch her and make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.”
I glance up to see Slate scowling at his brother, clearly not happy at being stuck with me either. Sawyer disappears and Slate refuses to meet my eye for several minutes, so I drop to the floor to recover. I lay on my back, arm flung over my eyes, shutting out the world.
“Heard what you did,” Slate says after a moment. His voice is distant, but not as cold as it was towards me in the past. He sounds as unhappy as I feel.
“Yeah, and?”
“You’re stupid if you think my dad would keep anything of value in a school full of criminals.”
“You’re a criminal too,” is all I say. I remove my arm from my face and sit up.
Slate has surprised me by moving closer.
He's standing over me now, looking down at me from two black eyes. Bruises and cuts actually cover every inch of his face and I can tell from the stiff way he’s holding himself that it’s not just his face that’s taken a beating.
His nose is busted too but I’m pretty sure that’s from me. What the hell happened after I left?
I smirk at him.
“Damn. Look at the state of you. With that nose, I’m back to being unable to tell you and Onyx apart.” It’s petty, bitchy even, but it makes me feel better.
“If it helps refresh your memory, Onyx is the only one of us not sporting your claw marks on our back.” Bastard.
I flip him off and he chuckles and walks away.
“Where are you going?” I call after him. “Sawyer said you have to watch me.”
“Fuck off, Amelie, I don’t have to do shit.” There’s real venom in his voice when he speaks. What the fuck? Since when did I become the bad guy here? I mean sure, I broke his nose, but he deserved it. And worse, if he and Onyx carried out their little plan to initiate me into the family.
“Fuck you, Slate! I thought-” I choke on a sob and run away, not wanting to cry in front of him.
It makes me glad that I spent the week in bed, I’m still not ready to see and interact with the Knox brothers.
I skip my detention, confident that Sawyer will cover for me.
I did my detention time anyway by running earlier, and with Laura cancelling my family visit, I don’t see how anything can get any worse for me if I decide to leave without permission.
Only, Monty’s threats fill my mind. I need to find out if that is true. Who should I ask? Elsie? Baxter?
Speaking of Baxter, I need to find a way to get back into Monty’s house. No doubt I will be expected to show up tomorrow like a diligent little daughter, but the house will be too full and too busy to get away and search his home office.
Baxter isn’t hard to find, he is skulking around as usual. I’m not even sure the guy even goes to class or attends classes here. He’s always on the outside looking in, watching. It’s a bit weird, but no one ever accused him of being normal.
“Still hell bent on leaving?” he asks, in his usual pose leaning against a tree.
“Yes, I have a plan.”
“I hope it’s better than breaking into my bestie’s office.” I laugh, maybe that wasn’t the best idea, but hell I didn’t have many other options.
“Monty has to keep his files at his home office. I plan to go bond with the incubator, call a truce. She’s shallow enough to believe it, but a distraction at some point would be good. Buy me some time to look around.”
“Would it help if I told you where the files are?” he asks.
“Why didn’t you tell me you knew where they would be?”
“You didn’t ask. He keeps them on a USB in a safe in his home office.”
“How will I get into a safe, Baxter? I can pick a door lock, but not a safe.”
“I have the combination,” he says matter of factly.
“So why not get it yourself?”
“Because, they wouldn’t let me into their house and I figure you want to dig yourself a hole. So it’s win win.”
This guy is infuriating. He could have told me all of this when he caught me in Monty’s office and yet he waits until now.
“I will buy you a ten-minute window tonight. Be ready, you will need to copy the files to your laptop and put the stick back.” I nod and he agrees to give me a lift to go see Laura.
I hope some of Elsie’s acting lessons rub off on me so Laura believes I actually give a shit about wanting to mend bridges.
Baxter drops me at the gate. I take in a deep breath and make my trek up the driveway. An obnoxiously long driveway, it’s like a sign of the wealthy: I have money, look at the driveway. Makes zero sense to me.
“Laura,” I call out after letting myself in. I find her in the kitchen talking to a lady who is writing something down. I still find it hard to see her like this. All put together.
“Hey, honey, I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I just thought it would be nice if we spent the day together, I haven’t really made an effort since being here.” I see her swallow hard.
“I think you have everything you need,” she says to the woman before dismissing her. Once the lady leaves Laura turns back to me.
“I’m so glad, I knew you would come around,” she gushes.
“Amelie, I wasn’t aware you would be visiting today,” Monty says walking into the room, giving Laura a kiss on the cheek.
“I had some time on my hands to reflect and realised I haven’t made things easy. Since I will be here awhile, I should make more of an effort.” He eyes me warily. He wasn’t born yesterday. But he doesn’t verbalise his thoughts.
“Why don’t you girls have a day getting pampered?” he says and Laura’s eyes light up. Oh God. I was hoping to put in a minimal amount of effort, maybe watch a sappy romance movie.
“Oh my God, Monty, that would be amazing. I will make some calls.” Laura rushes from the room and I’m left with Monty’s pointed glare.
“What?” I snap.
“Nothing...I’m just trying to work out what angle you’re playing at.”
“No angle. I just had a long hard look at myself this past week. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I’m sure Laura and I can find some mutual ground.”
“I’m happy to hear that. Have you spoken to my sons this week?”
“No,” I snort. “We have had a...falling out and I think it’s time we keep it like that. I’ll stick with my family only and just see yours on Sundays.”
“What about Baxter?” he questions, surprising me. I need to lie. I don’t want him looking into anything to do with Baxter.
“That didn’t exactly work out. He isn’t who I thought he was. Maybe you were right. I need to stay away from him.”
We are interrupted by Laura flitting back into the room.
“Good news, we have appointments but must leave now.”
I refrain from rolling my eyes. The last thing I wanted was to not be in the house.
Laura has us out of the house and on our way into town before I can protest. I just hope Baxter has eyes on me.
Six hours. Six damn hours of hair, make up, nails and clothes. I look ridiculous. Laura prattles on and on about how beautiful I look. I might consider slitting my wrists if I have to endure anymore of this, but lucky for me her mood sours after she checks her phone.
“What’s wrong?” I ask. She is seconds from tears but reigns it in.
“Oh it’s nothing. I’m so glad we spent time together today.”
“Me too.” Lie.
As the car pulls up to let us out, Laura instructs the driver to take our bags to our rooms. She excuses herself and storms into the house, the click clack of her shoes echoes throughout the entry.
I follow behind to see where she has disappeared to. Upstairs. I tip toe up the stairs.
“What the hell is this?” she screeches.
“Calm down,” Monty soothes.
“Calm down? Calm down!”