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Unsurprisingly, she’s good at words. It must be the hundreds of books she reads every year.
My job consists of picking up a lot of coffee and answering many emails, but I also get a couple of manuscripts to read, from the dozens that I print up and bind for her. She generally gives me the ones she’s not interested in, but if I tell her they’re worth a look, she reads them—andshe also gives me the credit during staff meetings.
Ivy found this. Ivy recommended that to me. Ivy pointed out the author has a history of great reviews. Ivy said the synopsis was weak, but the book was worth a read, and she’sright.
In a way, Marion makes me think of Bella. Just because she has a huge amount of power doesn’t mean she abuses it.
“But hey, I do get paid for the extra, so yay?”
Bella snorts. “You don’t need the money, Ivy.”
Except I do. I’m determined to make it on my own—more or less. My parents are paying for my flat, and gave me an allowance while I was studying, but I want to learn to be independent. It’s not like I have a viscount to marry in a few years. Bella’s future is completely set, but I turned my back on that nightmare. Counting on my parents for much longer would feel wrong. I’m twenty-two, in the first year of my master's degree. And I’m determined to stop accepting my parents’ help by the time I graduate.
“I still like having it,” I say, skirting around the point.
I don’t want her to pity me. I know she never understood why I broke things off with Alessandro, and she doesn’t quite grasp that she and I are taking very different paths in life.
I’m quick to change the subject. “As for my roommate, you’ll be happy to know that she moved in with her boyfriend. Finally. No more sex fests at three in the morning.”
She’d beenloud.
“No?” Bella probes innocently, batting her lashes. “What about your own sex feasts?”
I roll my eyes. “I value my beauty sleep, Bels. Only monsters fuck at that time.”
“But you do get some action, don’t you?” she insists.
I feel myself flushing, but I hide it. “How old are you again?”
“Old enough to feel sorry for your clit, because the answer is clearly no.”
I redirect my eyes on her, frowning a little.
She’s been in a relationship with Nic for most of her life. Is she saying what I think she’s saying? I look at her, and see the gorgeous little woman again. I decide not to ask. She’s seventeen. He’s nineteen.Of coursethey’re doing it.
It’s not like I can talk. I definitely had sex at her age.
My nose wrinkles at the memory.
Yeah, you did. And it’s not like you had any choice about it.
“That’s our plane!” Bella gushes as we approach a large window with a view of a small, luxurious jet bearing a coat of arms I haven’t seen in years.
My heart beats at a thousand miles an hour.
Oh, no.
A crowned horse. Two daggers. A serpent encircling the lot, biting its own tail.
The Valmont sigil.
What am I doing here?
THREE
Ivy
I watch it speechlessly, confused.
