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PROLOGUE
ELENA
The interior of the car was deathly silent. Every now and then, the taxi driver’s gaze would flick towards the back seat, where my mother and I sat on opposite sides with her small handbag between us, and his brow would crease as if he were concerned. The cab’s boot contained a total of two duffel bags—one for me and one for my mother—all that we owned in the world now after everything else had gone.
We’d had no choice but to sell the meagre possessions we had. Every single penny counted now, had done for the past year, in fact.
Ever since it had happened.
One event had bled into the next, a relentless nightmare that we could never wake up from. Never escape.
As the sign for the small town of Nottswood came into view, my mother sucked in a breath. Her hands were folded in her lap, but it didn’t hide the tremble of her fingers.
Not for the first time, doubts entered my mind. “Are you completely sure you want to do this?” I broke the silence, speaking low in the hope that the driver wouldn’t pick up on my words.
My mother glanced across at me, and her expression was resolute. She nodded once, sharply. “Yes. They’re gone, and he needs to pay for his part in it. If it hadn’t been for him, we’d still have a life. We’d still have them both.”
A tear slipped down my cheek, and I angrily whisked it away. Now wasn’t the time for sadness—I’d done enough crying over the past year. I was strong. I’d had to be. My defences were in place, ready for what we had to do.
“You’re right.” With a sigh, I let my head fall back against the headrest.
The wheels of the taxi rumbled over the tarmac, the headlights cutting a swathe of light through the darkness, illuminating a set of black wrought-iron gates that stood open. Welcoming us in.
Beyond the gates stood a house, bigger than any I’d ever seen up close. A mansion, in fact. Tall, pale gold stone, with white trim and a black front door. Trailing ivy curled up the sides, and soft lights illuminated the sash windows.
It was beautiful.
I hated it on principle.
“Here we are, ladies.” The driver came to a stop close to the front door. He tried for a smile, but it came out more like a grimace, thanks to the suffocating tension inside the car. “The Ashcroft residence.”
I ran through the names again in my mind, names that had been burned there ever since my mother came up with this plan.
Anthony Ashcroft.Maria Ashcroft.Josephine Ashcroft.
And the name I hated the most. The person I’d been instructed to play my part with. The person that I’d had to study on social media and gossip sites, building up a picture of a spoiled, arrogant, lacrosse-playing rich boy.
Knox Ashcroft.
My mother paid the driver, and I exited the car on autopilot, my battered trainers crunching across the gravel as I moved around to the boot to collect my duffel bag. Squaring my shoulders, I turned to face the house and made a silent promise to myself.
Whatever waited for me inside, I would face it, and I would be the one to come out on top. Justice would be served.
And if Knox Ashcroft tried to get in my way, I’d make sure he’d regret it.
1
KNOX
As I stood in front of the mirror, a slow smile curved across my lips as I ran a hand through my hair, tousling it just the way I liked it. I was feeling on top of the world. And why wouldn’t I be? I had everything. I was one of the elite students at Hatherley Hall—an exclusive boarding school in the Cotswolds that you had to be rich as fuck and have the right connections to attend. I was popular, hot—and that wasn’t me being arrogant; it was a fact—had a guaranteed job in my dad’s law firm after I’d toed the line and finished my years of education, and more money than I knew what to do with.
Then there were my two best mates, Roman Cavendish and Tristan Smith-Chamberlain. Together, the three of us made up the pinnacle of the elite of Hatherley Hall. The gods, as some referred to us as, and I didn’t mind the nickname.
This year was my final year at Hatherley Hall, and it was going to bemyyear. Instead of living with my parents, I’d persuaded them to let me board with my fellow students for the first time. I’d attended as a day student up until now because my family lived so close, but fucking finally, I was going to be on-site twenty-four-seven. Roman, Tristan, and I had already worked out a plan, and with the secret place I’d discovered at the end of last term, I was so fucking ready for this year to begin.
Deep underground, through the hidden passageways no one knew about or remembered, was my domain.The crypts. My lair. My exclusive place that I could control and only those I invited would ever get to see.
The one place that was mine and mine alone.
