The thought makes me smile.
“Miss Ryan,” Marron barks. “This is a serious accusation being leveled your way, so I suggest you meet it with a modicum of sobriety.”
I wipe the smugness off my face.
“She’s not part of crew,” Willow adds, “and since Falyn and I were on our way to training, we thought it prudent that we follow her.”
Marron acknowledges Willow’s point. Of course he does, since she’s his freaking daughter. “Very true, dear. This school, when unfamiliar with its layout, can be rather dangerous, especially in the dark.” Marron turns a dry look my way. “It’s why we keep the doors locked.”
“Yes, sir,” Falyn simpers. “Didn’t you know, Callie, about the hidden entrances and corridors at Briarcliff? The Briar brothers designed this academy with an eccentric millionaire’s flair, I’m afraid.”
A shiver crawls along my spine. That’s how they got into the chem lab without me noticing.
“Now, now,” Marron chastises. “Let’s not speak of unfounded architectural rumors and get to the point, shall we?”
“Callie vandalized the chem lab.”
Addisyn blurts it so abruptly, all heads twist to her.
“I did what now?” I ask.
“We were incredibly disappointed to open the school this morning and find the chemistry room so wholly violated,” Marron says, his gaze steady on mine. “And these witnesses have kindly come forward to tell me that it was you that destroyed all the supplies, poured chemicals over the countertops, and good Lord, drew entirely inappropriate and obscene diagrams on the whiteboard at the front of the class.”
I burst forward, my chest threatening to unleash a boisterous laugh at the absurdity of a single girl—me—doing all that to a classroom, for no reason whatsoever. Luckily, my brain wins out. “Are you kidding? Headmaster Marron, they’re lying. I did not—”
“Is there a reason we’re here?”
The placid calm of Tempest’s voice eats through my words like the silent work of termites. He quiets the room yet lifts his hand to check his cuticles as if this is all another day in the life of Tempest Callahan.
“Now that you’ve brought it up,” Marron says stiffly, “Yes. Due to the … tenuous nature of Miss Ryan’s relationship with these girls, Willow has assured me that you two were also witnesses to Miss Ryan’s unwarranted outburst. Is this true?”
Absurdity gives way to outrage. I stand in the middle of the room, my face hot and my fists clenched to my sides. Even my uniform skirt trembles with the brewing rage inside my body. But, at Marron’s words, I force a ribbon of calm over my skin.
There’s no way Chase or Tempest would back up these lies. Tempest wasn’t even there, and Chase saw me flinging myself out of that room like the gates of hell were in there.
That’s not a girl who draws “obscene diagrams” on whiteboards.
But then, oh then, Chase shatters my world. “Yes.”
I whip around to face him, my face going numb with blood loss. “What? Chase!”
He won’t look at me.
“I caught her as she was leaving,” he continues. “And she admitted what she did. Tempest heard it, too. Right, T?”
Tempest nods right as a whoosh of air leaves my body and shrivels my lungs. I whisper brokenly to Tempest, “You’ve had my back all week, swearing you were there to protect me, and now you’re lying for them? Why?” I direct another question to Chase. “Why are you doing this?”
It looks like it pains him, but Chase meets my eye, his jaw grinding. “You need to stop with your delusions, Callie. It’s gone too far.”
My stomach twists in knots. I feel truly lost, and the words I screamed at Emma last night are the only ones I can find.
…maybe this school won’t be so bad if I just enjoy my life and look forward to Winter Formal or Prom—basic, regular, high school yearbook shit…
This academy will always be bad, because of the students they enlist, the broken societies they nurture, and the twisted minds they let rule the school.
I face Marron head-on, and say, in the steadiest voice I can conjure, “I was in the chem lab before school hours because I wanted to go through a damaged book I found. I needed the necessary tools.” I throw a long stare in Tempest’s direction, since he should know. He read it on my laptop, using it to figure out I’d need supplies, and potentially told these bitches to wait until I skipped along the path, after hours, into their waiting clutches.
And I fell for it. Was drawn to his niceties like the lonely, disenchanted girl he knew I was.
Marron shakes his head. “Regardless of your intentions, you broke into a classroom after hours—”
I cut in, “I’ll admit that much. But when I was finishing up and cleaning the small mess I made, I was attacked.”
Marron’s brows shoot up. “Excuse me?”
“Look at my face!” I yell, then point to my cheek. “And look at Falyn’s! You think we got those wounds separately? She jumped me, and had her friends help. Addisyn tried to knock me unconscious a whole shitload of times, and Willow—”
The words are out before I can reel them back in, and Marron’s expression darkens with rage. “Listen here, Miss Ryan, it is one thing to defend your actions. It is a complete other aggravation to involve my daughter in your concocted story—”
Warning laces his tone. And still, I can’t stop. “What makes you think I’m the liar? These girls, your daughter, call themselves Virtues, but—”
Chairs scraping against hardwood halt the flow of my words. First, Addisyn rises, then Falyn, then Willow, using their height as a helpful tactic to stare me down.
“Haven’t I been through enough?” Addisyn seethes, her fresh tears becoming dew drops in her eyes. “My sister’s dead, my boyfriend’s in custody, and now you’re accusing me of wanting to hurt you?” Addisyn gulps in a dramatic breath. “I’m not violent, but I’m forced to think of it every day. I’m trying to heal, but you want me to suffer!”
“Oh, come on,” I say.
Falyn speaks before Marron can scold me further. “We’re trying, as best we can, to take you at face value and not bring up your past, but you’re making that super difficult, Callie.”
“Last week you humiliated Addisyn in the new library. And now, what, she passed your initiation by trying to kill me with a Bunsen burner?” I back up on instinct, and when I knock into Chase’s back, I recoil. He’s staring at a spot past Marron’s head, his jaw muscles so tense, they’re almost bursting through his skin. Yet he still won’t look at me. Tempest eyes it all through his lashes, but he won’t lift a finger.
“Listen to her, Daddy. She’s clearly disturbed.” Willow shifts her gaze to me. “First, you steal a book from Daniel Stone’s study. An honored alumnus at this school. Then, you burn it. Thankfully, you second-guessed yourself and saved it from the fire—the whole senior class saw that insanity—but instead of returning it to its rightful owner, you invade the Stones’ privacy while breaking into a classroom you have no permission to be in, and now you’re saying we beat you for it? Do you take us for barbarians, or are you just confusing us with your stepfather?”
I suck in a breath, my fist reeling back from my waist to punch her in her too-white veneers, but Chase grabs hold of my hand and bends it against my lower back, my muscles aching and trembling beneath his grip.
No one else has witnessed the exchange, and nothing in Chase’s expression gives away his battle over my will, but I wish, with all my might, that I had longer nails so I could cut him as deeply as he’s cut me.
“Girls, thank you for your input. Gentlemen, you too. I’d like to speak with Miss Ryan alone.”
I must imagine the quick squeeze Chase gives before he releases my hand, because he leaves without a glance or a word, Tempest following behind.
I glare at both of them, but I might as well be staring down river rocks.
Addisyn leads the way for Falyn, Willow, and Violet, but she casts an evil, villainess gri
n my way, mouthing, fool me once…
So, the writings of Howard Mason really were a prop. The Virtues thought I had something else more important. More dangerous.
I ignore Falyn’s idiotic malice behind Addisyn, instead directing a heavy-lidded glare at Violet. Violet, who never says anything and pretends to be good.
“You’re just like them,” I hiss in her ear as she passes, and she shrinks against my words.
“Miss Ryan, please sit.”
I take Addisyn’s vacant seat, as instructed, my continued submissiveness to authority becoming more questionable by the second, but I can’t help but believe that adults will look into the facts. Marron will discover the truth through his responsibility and power, and the proper students will be punished.
That’s how a headmaster works, right?
Wrong. Willow is his daughter. He more than likely is aware of what crawls under the baseboards of this school.
Marron steeples his hands under his chin. “I’ve spoken with your parents.”
I respond by keeping straight-backed and tight-lipped in the seat across from him.
After a deep sigh, Marron continues, “I had every intention of suspending you for at least two weeks, but your father has made me aware of your past … issues.”
My teeth clench so hard, they ache, but I don’t blink away from him.
“He explained, at length, the troubles you’ve experienced since losing your mother. The paranoid delusions and obsessive-compulsive disorder that drives you, sometimes unreasonably, and has you taking drastic action against your health and well-being unless proper intervention comes in time.”
I can’t stay silent anymore. “That’s … that’s an incredibly clinical way to apply my mom’s murder to the rest of my life.”
“Don’t you understand, dear? What you do has ripple effects.”
“I’ve apologized to my dad.” I wring my hands where Marron can’t see. “I was wrong, and maybe a bit unstable after she died, but I’m better now. I swear I am.”
Marron lifts a brow. “That is where we differ. But I’m not trying to argue with you. What I’m trying to say is, I’m willing to take your mental struggles into account and will assign you a month’s detention, assisting with dining hall and grounds clean-up at the end of your classes every day.”
What? I’d rather take a week’s suspension like Chase. Throwing parties and basically taking a vacation from this gloriously terrible school.
“Headmaster, I—”
“Consider yourself lucky. Your father should be calling you shortly regarding the ways we can make your stay more comfortable here. For everybody involved.”
My brows furrow. “I don’t understand.”
Marron leans back in his seat. “I have a close relationship with your father’s wife, Lynda Meyer. It’s due to her conviction that you belong here that I’m amiable to your continued schooling with us. But you are on a short leash, Miss Ryan. I have zero tolerance toward any more acts of aggression coming from you. Keep your head down, pay attention to your studies, and you should get by just fine. Do I make myself clear?”
I stop chewing on my cheek to implore, “No matter how many times I tell you I didn’t do it, you’re not going to believe me, are you?”
“You’re on camera entering school grounds, and I have visuals of you in the chemistry lab, Miss Ryan. Please don’t argue with solid evidence.”
“But the camera goes black, doesn’t it?” I sit straighter in my seat. “All you witness is me doing exactly as I said.”
“Reading the book you had no rights to?”
I persist, “Chase lent me—”
“He assures me he did not.”
My shoulders slump. Of course.
“You don’t see me vandalizing anything,” I say. “In fact, that camera shows me packing up before it shuts off—”
“Do you recall what I said about ripple effects?” Marron leans forward, folding his arms across his desk. “You’re lucky Mr. Stone is not going to his father about the stolen work, though I’m predisposed to do it myself. Continue along this path, Miss Ryan, and I’ll be forced to do just that.”
“Why are you doing this?” I ask. Pointlessly. Stupidly. “All you have as proof is the bias of a handful of popular kids who are known for their bullying.”
Marron goes quiet. As much as I don’t want to, I squirm under his study.
“I suggest you leave my office, Miss Ryan, before you say something I cannot dismiss.”
More disturbed than I am shaken, I push to my feet, despite the urge to keep arguing, keep convincing this man that he’s wrong.
But, the defeatist in me has never strangled my voice harder.
“Attend your last period before lunch,” Marron says as I walk stiffly to the door. “After it is completed, report directly to our housekeeper, Moira, and she will give you the supplies needed to clean up that godforsaken mess in the chemistry lab before afternoon classes.”
“Yes, sir,” I say quietly, before stepping out of his office, and into a punishment I swear, by all I believe in, I will prove I do not deserve.
20
My phone buzzes against the back of my arm as I head to calc, and I realize I’d forgotten to put it in my locker this morning.
I slide my bag to my front and dig into the side pocket, revealing three missed calls, two voicemails, and a slew of text messages from both Dad and Lynda.
One eye scrunches before the rest of my face follows with a cringe, questioning whether I want to deal with this now, or later.
A quick scroll through the messages…
Dad: Call me. Now.
Dad: Though your actions tell me otherwise, if you have any will to keep your social life and phone active, you better pick up your phone, Cal.
Lynda: Honey, this sounds serious. Call us, please. We’re so worried.
Dad: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??????
… tells me I should bite the bullet.
The school’s foyer is wonderfully silent when I leave the West Wing and stop under the chandelier. I glance toward the staircase, and, without another thought, take them up into the Wolf’s Den.
The space is deserted, like I’d hoped, and I perch on one of the stools surrounding the high tops toward the back, the stained-glass Briarcliff crest creating broken patterns of rainbow beams across the wood.
I wriggle in my seat until I’m comfortable, and, after a deep breath, call my stepdad.
“Jesus Christ!” he says after half a ring.
I startle, despite the clues telling me they’d be watching his phone like a couple of cats ready to pounce at the phone’s slightest vibration, but exhale enough to tentatively say, “Hi.”
“What the hell, Cal?”
“It wasn’t me.”
Dad blows out a breath that rattles my ear drum. “Not a good lead-in, Cal.”
Lynda bursts onto the line. “Honey, are you all right?”
A tentative flutter, like a butterfly landing on the base of my heart, tickles my chest at her caring question. “I’m a little beat up, but I’ll be okay.”
“Beat up?” she asks. “What—”
“Calla Lily Ryan, explain yourself,” Dad interrupts. “And do not do it by appealing to my wife’s sweet nature. You tell us the truth, and you do it now, or else I’m seriously going to question the logic in putting you back in school. Maybe you should’ve stayed at the hospital longer.”
I hiss in a breath. “Dad—”
“That’s what you’ve lowered me to, honey,” he says, but he honestly sounds upset. “I don’t want to do it. You understand? I don’t want to put you in an institution or send you to the city’s answer to wayward girls, but this is the line of thinking you’ve turned me to. Why did you destroy school property?”
I pop my lower lip from my teeth. “First of all, ‘destroy’ is a very strong word, and I didn’t do what they’re saying I did.”
“Marron tells us there’s video footage.”
&n
bsp; “Well, that part’s true,” I admit, “But it doesn’t catch me vandalizing anything. I was there for personal reasons, reading an old book that’d been damaged—”
“Another lie.” Dad sighs. “You stole that book from a prominent figure. Cal, I can’t tell you how much of a disappointment you’ve become.”
The barb digs and twists at the very spot a butterfly gave me hope only seconds ago. But how can I recover? I can’t tell him about the writings of Howard Mason I discovered in the Stone family’s library. I can’t admit I’ve been sniffing out Briarcliff’s secret society because I think they’re involved in Piper’s death, even if they weren’t the ones that pushed her. And I absolutely cannot confess about my sexual relationship with said prominent figure’s spawn and my suspicions that both he and his father are responsible for protecting the secrets of the Nobles & Virtues.
Aw, man. Even in my head, this sounds insane.
“Dad, I’m sorry.” The apology comes out more shredded than intended. “But everything I’m being accused of came from good intentions. Can you believe that much?”
Static answers me back. I can picture my dad, holding the phone in a shaking hand, him and Lynda leaning over it as my voice comes from the speaker.
My accusation toward him came with good intentions, too. I wanted to avenge my mother, gain closure, do something to stop the demon gnawing on my soul and ripping my heart into its chum.
They’d fought before she died, he and my mom. They were fighting a lot, and during the very last argument, when they thought I wasn’t there, I’d heard the slap.
The thump of my mother’s back hitting a wall.
The crash of a vase being thrown near her head.
I’m aware of the last part because of her autopsy results. She’d had cuts across her cheekbone from spraying shards matching the pieces of the vase broken at her feet.
I hadn’t acted, then. I’d stayed in my room, crumpled into a ball on the other side of my bed, in case Dad decided to unleash his anger on me next.
Virtue (Briarcliff Secret Society Series Book 2) Page 13