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“Ay, dios.” The pretty girl makes the sign of the cross.
Well, that makes me feel better.
“What does ay, dios mean?” I ask.
“Oh, God.” She frowns and pulls me away from the men. I glance back at them and see the blond one raise his icy gaze to watch me. His hair is bleached and scruffy, the roots a shade darker, and he has a ring through the septum of his nose. I feel his gaze on my back the entire time I walk down the corridor with the girl.
“I’m Camile,” the girl says as we round the corner.
“Mackenzie,” I reply with a smile.
She seems friendly, and if there’s one thing I’m going to need here, it’s a friend. I have no one else. I have my mom, but it’s not the same. Besides, she knows what I did, and if I’m ever going to feel anything like normal again, I need people around me who will treat me like one of the girls.
Domenic is clearly an utter asshole. I imagine most of the students here will be. I know what rich kids are like. They’re vipers. Ruthlessness is embedded in many of the offspring of the rich from a young age, so they can compete in the cutthroat world they’ll enter as adults. I know girls as young as fifteen who were given nose jobs by their parents. God forbid they didn’t look perfect.
I’d found my own group, though. My friends were wealthy, sure, but the girls I’d hung around with weren’t cruel or ultra-competitive. I was seen as a snob, ironically, by some because I didn’t join in with the majority, but I’m not a snob. I’m just quiet. Reserved, I suppose. Or at least I was before my dad was killed and everything changed.
I wonder what my old friends will make of me vanishing like this. No one knows about my relationship with the professor, but will they make the connection when his body shows up and they realize I’ve gone, too? My mom made me destroy my old SIM card and we bought a burner. Mom doesn’t want me to contact anyone, but I’ll text one of my best friends, Lola, with the number once we get settled, and make up some kind of excuse for our abrupt departure. I won’t be able to tell her where we’ve gone or promise to see her again soon.
Camile seems warm and friendly, but you never know how a person truly is until you get to know them. I wonder what she’d make of me if she knew who I really was—what I was capable of.
“Word got around pretty fast about you and your mother coming here. I didn’t know who you were until you said Dom was your stepbrother-to-be, but people have been talking about a new girl joining us.”
I frown. “Who has been talking about it?”
“Verity, she’s the queen bee and always hanging around the Devils. She thinks he’s wonderful.”
“Oh,” I say. Great, so the rumor mill will already have been in full swing about me. I hate the idea that before I’d even stepped foot in this place, people would have been talking about me. Judging me. Thinking they know me.
They have no idea.
“What are people saying?” I ask.
“Not much. Just that a new girl is starting, and her mother is engaged to the dean. That’s about it. But you must be the reason Dom has been walking around scowling.”
I sigh. “I don’t want to get on the wrong side of anyone,” I say. “I get it must be a change to his life having a new stepsister, but I don’t want to start off on the wrong foot with him.”
She shakes her head. “Trust me, there is no right foot with Domenic or any of those three. They don’t call them diablos for nothing. Be careful. He’s still angry about his mother’s death, and I would hate for you to become the focus of that anger.” She chews her lip and glances down the corridor, and then checks her watch. “I have to go. I’ve got a class in five minutes.”
I nod. “I’m glad I met you. Hopefully see you around.”
She smiles at me and rushes off, leaving me alone. I realize I don’t know where the hell I am or how to get back to my room.
Sighing, I retrace my steps as best I can. When I reach the sweeping staircase that rises from the grand entrance hall, I recall that my room is up one flight and follow the stairs.
I find the corridor that leads to the section where my mother and I will be living and walk down it, grateful there is no one around. I’m struggling to keep my emotions in, and need my room so I can let them out and have a good cry.
Voices drift down the corridor, and I freeze when I recognize my mother’s. She sounds in pain.
“Of course I understand, Nataniele. I won’t mess this up. It’s too important for all of us.” There’s a pause and the deep rumble of Nataniele’s voice, but I can’t make out what he’s saying.
“Yes, I promise,” Mom says.
I sneak closer, taking care for my footsteps not to echo on the polished wood floor. When I reach the door my mother went into with Nataniele, I pause. It stands ajar, and I peer through the gap.
What I see has me automatically taking one step back. My mother is against a dresser, and the dean of this institution, a supposedly upstanding citizen, I would have believed if I didn’t know better, has her wrist in a tight grip.
“So long as we understand one another, darling,” he says before letting go.
