by Sofia Daniel
“He’s inside the house,” I whispered.
“Where are you?”
I was about to repeat my address when I realized she meant to ask where in the house I was located. “In the back room, under the bed.”
“Stay on the line with me until the police arrive,” the operator whispered. “A squad car is on its way. Please remained silent.”
I slowed my breathing to the quietest rasp, but my heart wouldn’t stop thudding.
Heavy footsteps creaked up the stairs at a painfully slow pace. The intruder’s feet hit the middle of the tread, not knowing that tiptoeing on the edges while holding the railing was the stealthy way to ascend. Because of that, I guessed it probably wasn’t Ashley or anyone she had sent to cause me trouble.
He went straight to my room and flung open the curtains. Then a heavy creak of wood filled the air, making me wonder if he had lifted one end of the bed. How did he even know which room was mine?
Next, he searched Ashley’s room then walked into Mom and Dad’s. My entire chest felt like a boom box with my pulse beating so hard. If he lifted the bed and found me hiding here, what the hell would he do?
Sirens blared in the distance, making the man halt his steps. Then the sound filled the house, nearly drowning out my frantic heartbeat. I bit down hard on my lip. If this man reached me before the police got here, there might be just enough time for him to do some severe damage.
A heavy fist pounded on the front door. “Police!”
The man dropped something metallic and bolted down the stairs.
The fist continued banging.
“He might have gone,” I whispered to the operator.
“Don’t chance it,” she murmured back. “The police will walk around the house and come to you through the intruder’s point of entry.”
“Hello,” shouted a voice. “Miss Evergreen?”
Relief washed through my insides, and tears spilled from my eyes. “Y-yes?”
“Stay where you are.”
“O-okay.”
Two pairs of feet rushed up the stairs and entered Mom and Dad’s bedroom. A policeman knelt on the wooden floor and lifted the quilt.
I stared into his dark eyes and whispered, “T-thanks for coming so quickly.”
He held out his large hand. “Let me help you out.”
I sat in the kitchen-diner watching the dark-haired policeman make four mugs of tea, while his colleague and another officer dusted the back door for fingerprints. They had already put the crowbar in an evidence bag and dusted the front door, letterbox, and the beds the intruder had lifted.
Now that the threat had gone, I was relaxed enough to tell the officers what little I knew.
“How do you know it was a man?” asked the policeman.
“Because his tread was heavier than my dad’s,” I replied.
“Did you see the intruder?”
I nodded.
“Out of the window?” The officer placed a mug in front of me.
“Thanks. I saw the man from the first floor. He wore a balaclava, so I couldn’t make out his face.”
“Is there a possibility it could have been a tall woman?”
I shook my head. Ashley was five-ten, but this person was taller and with a heavier, more athletic build. Then realization slapped me upside the head. “Actually, the person was about the size of my deputy headmistress.”
The entire story spilled from my lips. I told them I believed Miss Claymore had knocked me out and dumped me in a cave, and before that, put me in a car that had fallen down the side of the mountain. By the time I brought up the poisoning, all three officers gaped at me as though I had made everything up.
One of them disappeared, and I hoped it was to corroborate all my claims.
“I can’t stay here.”
The two officers exchanged glances. Right now, even foster care was preferable to staying at home where someone had been trying to get to me. The worst part was that the intruder was no burglar. He hadn’t gone into the living room to take the TV or opened any drawers to check for valuables. He or she had looked at all the places a person might hide themselves during a burglary, and they had known I’d been expelled.
“Is there anywhere we can drive you?”
“Flat twelve Highland Gardens.” I gulped. Would going there bring trouble to Uncle Trevor and his family? “I’d better not. Is there anything I can do to secure the house?”
The police officers kindly boarded up the back door, making it difficult for an intruder to enter, and advised me to call on a locksmith in the morning to have bolts fitted. When they left, I huddled behind the door of Mom and Dad’s room with my eyes open and alert for any strange movements.
Every noise made my heart skip several beats, and every flare of light caused a breath to catch in the back of my throat. Until whoever was trying to kill me had been captured and imprisoned, I wouldn’t sleep here alone.
Around nine-thirty, the phone rang, jolting me awake. I picked up the cordless phone and pressed the answer button. “Hello?”
“Miss Evergreen?” asked a sharp voice at the other end of the line. “I’ve just received your letter of resignation, and quite frankly, I’m appalled that you would leave us in the middle of the academic year.”
“Ummm…” I chewed my bottom lip. “Mrs. Benazir?”
“Return to Brittas Academy immediately to explain yourself. If I don’t hear from you by the end of the day, your uncle will be immediately responsible for repaying the bursary!”
With a click, the phone line went dead, and I spent the next few minutes staring at the receiver.
Mrs. Benazir didn’t realize that Miss Claymore had forced me to resign. Or she had covered up her real reason for letting me go and told the headmistress that I’d quit because of the nude pictures.
I pulled myself to my feet and dusted myself off. If Mrs. Benazir wanted me back so badly, she’d need to make a few concessions. And I would need Sebastian’s help in securing my demands.
Chapter 17
As the taxi pulled in front of the entrance of Brittas Academy, I spotted Sebastian standing alone at the double doors. His features were drawn, his posture slumped, and the confidence he usually radiated dimmed. He swiped a hand through the dark brown hair hanging over his brow, and a lump formed in my throat.
How could I possibly hold a grudge over someone who had wanted to protect the woman he believed he had wronged? Although I still felt Miss Claymore should have been able to resist a thirteen-year-old, I had to take Sebastian’s word for it that he pursued her relentlessly.
He walked forward, slipped the driver a fifty-pound note, and told him to keep the change. Swallowing hard, I stepped out of the car and faced Sebastian.
“You’re alone.”
“I asked the others not to come,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion.
The car drove off, leaving us staring into each other’s eyes. My heart fluttered with the ache of anticipation, combined with both heartbreak and need. Part of me hurt because he still had feelings for Miss Claymore, but I yearned for him to say that he cared for me.
I parted my lips to break the silence, but he spoke first.
“I’m so sorry.” Sebastian wrapped his arms around my shoulders, engulfing me with his masculine sandalwood and cedar scent. “If I had known she would go that far to keep us apart, I would have stopped her. I…”
He audibly swallowed. “The feelings I have for you are so intense, I needed to back off and sort a few things out in my head.”
My heart swelled. “Feelings?”
I haven’t been with a girl since…” He shook his head. “She was a woman. But you’re the first girl my age I’ve been close to in any way. When you rejected me that night—”
“What?” my brows drew together.
“When you found me in bed with Wend—Miss Claymore. You pushed me away and told me to leave you alone. I did, and you ended up on the side of a mountain. When I discovered the accident, all tho
se old feelings tumbled back from the plane crash.” His jaw tightened, and he paused before saying, “I blamed myself for your injury.”
My eyes filled with tears. “Is that why you kept your distance?”
“That, and the thoughts that I wasn’t good for you. I’d already ruined one woman’s life, and I didn’t want to ruin yours.” He placed his hands on my shoulders.
His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, and his eyes glistened with sorrow. “Until that business with the cave, I didn’t believe Leo’s constant digs about Miss Claymore having the means, opportunity, and motive to kill you.”
“But you do, now?” I stared into his green eyes.
“Who else might have wanted you dead so badly?”
I bowed my head. Mr. Byrd was capable of those attacks, but he only made his presence known after the police wanted genetic samples from Bianca. And even then, he cared more about keeping the abuse of his daughter a secret than anything else. I doubted that he was responsible for putting me in Mom’s car and down the mountain.
Ashley and Bianca were both contenders, but neither would be able to move me without help and the risk of their murderous secret being betrayed by an accomplice.
Sebastian cupped the side of my face. “I’m so sorry.”
I leaned into his broad shoulder and wrapped my arms around his middle. “Stop apologizing for doing what you thought was right.”
“But she—”
“You already said you didn’t think she was capable of going that far. I believe you.” Stepping out of his embrace, I raised my hands and pressed them on both sides of his cheeks. “But it’s time to stop her.”
Instead of walking into the building, we waited for the next part of my plan to arrive. Sebastian and I stood on those stone steps, pressed together in a warm embrace. The cold wind swirled around our joined bodies, but nothing, not even the faintest breeze would get between us again.
I rested my head on Sebastian’s shoulder and sighed. The worst part of this entire situation was that I had seen Miss Claymore as a protector and had felt utterly secure in her company. Knowing that she had been the one behind the attacks was a blow, but nothing would ever compare to Ashley’s betrayal.
Several minutes later, a squad car pulled into the courtyard, and a male sergeant stepped out. Woman Police Constable Karen Dobson also emerged from the other side of the vehicle, which lightened my heart. She had taken my statement before the forensic exams and had been extremely sympathetic.
“Willow?” The policewoman’s eyes softened. “Sorry to have to see you again. Sergeant Modal and I both read up on the complaints you’ve made in the past few weeks, and we admire your determination to seek justice.”
I glanced at the sergeant, who gave me an encouraging smile. The tension in my stomach relaxed, and I smiled back. Maybe things would start changing for me, and people would take my complaints seriously.
“Thanks for coming,” I said. “This is Sebastian Garraway, and he’s here to make a statement.”
“Is there an empty classroom we can use?” asked WPC Dobson.
“I’ve already set up a meeting with the headmistress,” I said.
She smiled. “Lead the way, then.”
Pupils milled around the hallways, and many of the boys who had greeted me with jeers and groping backed away. Partially because of the presence of the police officers, but I suspected that they still remembered the beatings they had received at Sebastian and the other kings’ fists.
Raising my chin, I straightened my spine and pulled back my shoulders. Mrs. Benazir would have to take our complaint seriously if she didn’t want her cash cow to wither and die. When we reached her office, I knocked on her door.
“Enter,” she said from the depths of her room.
I pushed the door open and glowered into her eyes.
“Miss Ever—” Mrs. Benazir’s face fell. “What on earth are the police doing here?”
“Sebastian’s going to give a statement before we discuss the terms of my return, and I’ll explain.”
The older woman dropped back in her seat. “Mr. Garraway?”
The headmistress’s secretary scurried inside with two extra chairs, which she set at either side of the wooden seat in front of the headmistress’s desk.
Sebastian sat and cleared his throat. “I wish to report a sexual relationship between myself and a member of staff that started when I was thirteen.”
Mrs. Benazir hissed through her teeth. “Why did you wait until you were in the sixth form to report it?”
“I believe this woman to be victimizing Willow because of our relationship.”
The headmistress shook her head. “If a member of my staff were molesting a student, I would know all about it!”
I turned around and shot WPC Dobson a see-what-I’m-having-to-deal-with raise of the eyebrow. The policewoman pursed her lips. “Why don’t we take Sebastian’s statement and discuss school policies later?”
Mrs. Benazir’s mouth clicked shut.
Without going into too many details, Sebastian outlined an account of daring himself to sleep with Miss Claymore. He described how he would deliberately talk in class to get detention and then start up conversations about books he noticed on her shelves.
As he spoke, my insides twisted into knots. Swap the subject matter of books for bereavement, and he described how he and I had gotten close. The only difference between Miss Claymore and me was that she spent months resisting his advances, and I had caved after a ride home in his jeep.
I slid down in my seat and focussed on Mrs. Benazir’s reactions. Her mouth widened an inch with each scandalous revelation: their first kiss, his first handjob, the day she unbuttoned her blouse and let him suck her nipples, and the day she drove him to a cabin he had built, and they’d finally had sex.
“Do you have an approximate date for when intercourse took place?”
“The Saturday after term ended.”
The police officers turned to Mrs. Benazir, who looked up the date. “Saturday, the twenty-fifth of June.” Her lips moved. “But do you have proof of your allegations?”
He pulled out a large envelope from the inside pocket of his blazer. “This is a sample of the love letters she sent. I also have underwear and some digital photos of us together.”
Mrs. Benazir winced. “But it was only the one time?”
Sebastian cringed. “The next academic year, a girl confided in her that she had been in a relationship with a friend, only to be told by two girls that she was the victim of the pull-a-pig game.”
“Sorry.” Sergeant Modal tilted his head to the side. “Pull a pig?”
Mrs. Benazir explained the game, which made WPC Dobson’s nostrils flare. I’ll bet she wanted to know why the headmistress hadn’t stamped it out.
Sebastian continued. “She made my life difficult for me in my fourth year until I gave in to her demands for a peaceful life.”
“Sexual demands?” asked the sergeant.
He bowed his head. “Yes.”
My brows drew together, and I no longer felt any affinity with Miss Claymore. She should have backed off once she knew about the game, not stalk him for years.
“When was the last time Miss Claymore harassed you for intercourse?”
Sebastian wiped his brow. “Monday, the tenth of December.” After a pause, he added, “Two-thousand and nineteen.”
“Thank you,” said the sergeant. “That was very brave. We’ll do everything we can to bring your case to the Crown Prosecution Service. May we have your parents’ contact details?”
Sebastian’s face paled. “It’s just my grandfather, and I don’t want to get him involved.”
Sergeant Modal glanced at his colleague, then at Sebastian. “Would you be willing to testify against Miss Claymore in court?”
“Only if it’s needed to secure a conviction for attempted murder,” Sebastian said.
“I see…” the detective said in a tone that meant he didn’t.
&nbs
p; I turned to WPC Dobson. “Miss Claymore is still obsessed with Sebastian. Now that Sebastian has chosen me to be his girlfriend, she’s been trying to get rid of me with all the recent attacks.”
The sergeant flipped open his notepad. “I see a number of incidents you’ve reported. Are you suggesting they’re all related to Wendy Claymore?”
“Not the first one.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “At least not to my knowledge.”
“Well, thank you very much.” He stood. “Where can we find Miss Claymore?”
“Same room, but directly upstairs.” Mrs. Benazir sounded both exhausted and defeated.
Sebastian stood and gestured to the door. “I’ll show you the way.”
He and the police officers stepped into the hallway. As soon as the door clicked shut, I turned to Mrs. Benazir.
“You asked me to return, but you didn’t divulge anything about the bullying until after I had signed the contract. What do you think the Elite Register will say about that?”
Her eyes narrowed. “What do you want?”
“I want to feel safe while studying here.”
She nodded. “I suppose you have a list of demands.”
“Fire Miss Claymore.”
“I already planned to do that when I heard Mr. Garraway’s statement and his evidence. If that’s all—”
“I want my room swept for recording devices, the locks changed, and Mr. Byrd Banned from the premises.”
Mrs. Benazir’s mouth flapped open. “But he’s a governor.”
“I can always get in contact with Mrs. Brunswick and explain how one of the board members snuck into the residential wings to grab a student from behind and threaten her.”
“There’s no need.” She rubbed at her temples. “Anything else?”
“Geraldine Hill and Bianca Byrd. They’re—”
Mrs. Benazir raised her hand. “I will not expel two fee-paying students who have yet to be proven guilty.”
I ground my teeth. It shouldn’t have surprised me that she wouldn’t let go of nearly two-hundred thousand pounds worth of tuition fees. “If they attack me, I’ll fight back with equal force.”