—V—
Tuesday, March 8th
I was wrong. So very wrong. Wealthy people never face justice. Men never face justice. We are in this alone.
But I’m not giving up. I won’t give them the satisfaction.
—V—
Saturday, May 21st
Dear Notebook,
I quit school. I’ve decided to go about things a little differently. This can’t wait for me to earn a law degree, and I can’t wait for the slow wheels of justice to turn. I can’t trust the same system that allows—no, HELPS—no, ENSURES these people thrive.
The rules don’t apply to them, and they shouldn’t apply to me either. It’s time to even out the playing field. They go low, I am going to go lower. And lower still if I have to.
I am going back to work on Monday. Someone needs to keep an eye out for Maria and the other girls.
They can do what they want with my body. They will never have my mind. They can’t take that from me. I will learn everything there is to know about Tate Edward Prescott III and his father.
I will learn it all and I will use it to destroy them. To take everything from them. Everything they are so keen to keep to themselves. Till nothing is left…
—V—
Thirty minutes later, the sound of footsteps clomping down the hall had me shoving the notebook under a pillow. I tossed the backpack across the room—there was no use pretending I didn’thave it. Bossman would realize it was missing. And looped my arms back into my restraints just in time for Don-Don to come stomping in.
He looked down at my wrist. I grinned and waved.
I honestly thought it would take a lot longer for him to figure it out. Guess his brain was getting slightly less mushy with all the work the doc had been doing on him.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
BELLATRIX
“Iwanna know whatyou knowabout the tunnels under Briarwood. Because I know you know something.” I pushed my way into Vee’s office, slamming the door behind me before I approached her desk.
The picture frames on the wall bounced and turned cockeyed, and a trinket on one of the bookshelves tipped onto its side. Vee didn’t react, though. She was used to my outbursts so she barely looked up from her computer screen as she pinched the trinket between two fingers and set it right on its feet. She could have been working on something important but she could have just as well have been ignoring me.
“And I want to know where you’ve been for the last forty-eight hours.” Vee calmly closed the laptop and set her hands on the back of the monitor, one over the other, as she finally glanced over. Her mouth pursed and her nostrils flaring each time she took an exasperated breath, clearly aimed at me. “Except you just answered my question, didn’t you?”
Her eyes flicked to the top of my head or rather whatever was stuck to it. And I lifted a hand, feeling around until I pluckeda stray twig from that rat’s nest that was my hair. Must have missed one. I was more concerned with replacing my pump, taking the meds I’d missed over the last few days, and crashing out somewhere warm than I was with looking presentable.
That was nothing new either. Half-dead chic was the vibe I was going for.
I crossed my arms over my chest and fell into the chair opposite her desk. Stretching my neck as I stared up at the ceiling. There were more watermarks than I remembered there being. Then again, this place was a shithole.
“They lead back to that creepy old well. The one everyone said to stay away from because it was haunted. But that’s not why they really wanted us kids to stay away from it, was it?” When Vee didn’t respond, I dropped my chin and quirked a brow. “They just didn’t want us to know what was down there.”
Vee’s lips twisted. It was the only indication that whatever she was about to say next was gonna be a bunch of bullshit. “They wanted you to stay away because it was dangerous. It’s a giant hole in the ground, Bellatrix.”
I shook my head and leaned forward. “Nope. There’s more to it than that. Just being in that house was dangerous. Just being a girl in that house was dangerous. But you know that too.”
“Some of us didn’t have a choice but to be in that house, Bellatrix.”
“Some of us, yes,” I hummed.My mother. Most of the women who worked with her.Me and Allie. The other kids whose parents decided it was better the devil you know than the one on the streets.She said my name again so I said hers. “But not you,Veera. You chose to be there. Why?”
Vee was long gone before my time at Prescott Estates. But not my mother’s and grandmother’s. They worked together. I saw the pictures. I heard the stories. We all did. Vee was educated. She was going to law school. She had options therest of us didn’t. The women employed under Mr. Prescott and the children they brought with them. The children who couldn’t leave until they were old enough to live on their own. Like me. And the children who never made it out. Like Allie. And a few others we didn’t talk about because it was easier to pretend they didn’t exist.
