Siobhan had been staring after her but jerked a little at the sight of me.
I eyed her carefully as I passed. “Well. Are you coming or not?”
“I am, but why are you?” she grumbled as she fell into step beside me. “It’s not like you’ll even be here for the formal.”
“Then, no. But I’m still here now,” I reminded her.
And I got more joy than I should have when everyone in the room greeted me enthusiastically and barely acknowledged Siobhan, and still more when a lot of my suggestions were taken despite the fact that I’d be long gone by the time of the actual dance.
I was in control.
Siobhan and her words couldn’t touch me in that room.
“You look tired,” Anna told me quietly once the meeting was over.
I couldn’t exactly tell her that was because, for the fifth time this past week, I’d had one of the old nightmares. It had woken me up at three that morning and I couldn’t get back to sleep.
“Just exhausted. Packing and stuff, you know.”
“I know. Don’t remind me.” Anna wrapped her arm around my waist and pulled me into her. “Did Hayley tell you any more about this guy?”
“A little. And I Googled him.”
Her eyes grew round with curiosity. “What did you find?”
Nothing incriminating. But still something terrifying. “Hayley said he was wealthy. She meant wealthy. This guy is high society. She’s moving me into high society. Me.” I felt the growing panic in my chest, knowing that climbing the social ladder in Boston was going to be near impossible. Being bottom of the social hierarchy was a nightmare. People didn’t notice you down there, and when you were almost invisible there was no one to care if anything bad happened to you. No one to swoop in and stop you from being hurt.
It was a different kind of social ladder altogether in Theodore Robert Fairweather, Esq.’s world. “How am I ever going to fit in there?”
“Not everyone at your school will be wealthy.”
Unfortunately, Anna was wrong. “Most of them will. I’m going to private school.”
She looked as horrified as I felt. “No joke?”
“No joke.”
“Like with a little plaid skirt and stuff?”
“I checked out the school’s website and there doesn’t seem to be an actual uniform, but it’s on a whole other level academically.” Which was good for my application to college, but would mean having to work that little bit harder, and working that little bit harder meant cutting into my plans for social climbing. “The tuition fee is insane. Apparently Theodore got me in without an interview thanks to his name alone.”
Anna wrinkled her nose. “Wow. I can’t believe you’re moving in with Mr. Moneybags and you haven’t even met him. Your mom is such a flake. This is like a TV show.”
I gave a bark of bitter laughter. “My whole life is like a TV show.”
THE HOUSE IN WESTON, Massachusetts, was a mansion. An actual mansion.
I stood on the driveway outside, my neck craning back, and took in the massive redbrick building. It had gray slate tiles on the roof and bright white wood-framed windows. It also went on and on and on.
“Do you like it?”
I swallowed hard and glanced over at Hayley’s fiancé and my soon-to-be StepVader—I mean, stepfather. Theodore Fairweather was in his midforties, tall, athletically built and, I guess, good-looking for an old guy. To top it off he owned a home that could fit our California apartment inside it twenty, thirty times over.
“It’s big,” I said.
Theo laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners. They did that a lot. I supposed that meant he laughed a lot. That didn’t mean he was a kind man, though. Those laughing blue eyes could still be hiding cruelty. People were, after all, masters at deception. “It is big,” he agreed.
“You know I love it.” Hayley laid her head on his shoulder. “I can’t believe we’re finally here.”
“I can’t, either.” He kissed her forehead. “It feels like forever I’ve been waiting for you to show up.”
Theo had picked us up at the airport. We didn’t have a lot of stuff with us because Hayley told me not to pack too many clothes. She said we’d need to go shopping for clothes that would help us fit in better.
Right.
I could tell she was excited at the prospect of spending Theo’s cash. I, on the other hand, didn’t want to owe this guy anything. Unfortunately, I was already into him for thousands in tuition fees at some stuck-up school in Boston.
“Let’s get inside.” Theo strode in through the double front doors. We stepped into a marble entrance hall with two large inner double doors that led into the main hall. A grand staircase swept down toward us in a curve. I stared around wide-eyed at the expensive furnishings.
Growing up I tried my best not to feel like trash. I knew people thought we were trash. But I worked hard to remember that no matter what they said, I wasn’t.
But standing in cheap clothes in that big, expensive house, I suddenly felt this overwhelming fear that I would never find my power here, my control. I felt awkward. Unsophisticated. Uncultured.
I felt like trash.
And if possible I hated Hayley and Theo even more for bringing me here and making me feel that way about myself.
“I’ll show you around and then to your room, India.”
The rest of the house made me sick to my stomach with its beauty. I lost count of how many stunningly decorated and lushly furnished reception rooms Theo led us through. The kitchen was twice the size of our apartment. Finally he led us to the back of the house into a more casual TV room. Three of the walls were made up of floor-to-ceiling glass and a twin set of French doors that led out onto a large patio area. I could see a barbecue, large outdoor dining set, lounge chairs and beyond that in the near distance was a massive swimming pool and a pool house that was a miniversion of the main house.
Sitting around the pool, laughing and talking, were a group of kids about my age.
Theo frowned at the sight but as soon as he became aware of my scrutiny he grinned. The sudden change only reinforced my decision to be wary of his character. “Eloise’s out there with some friends. Why don’t we take you out there and then Eloise can show you to your room later.”
I couldn’t think of anything worse.
Immediately the sick feeling in my gut became a swarm of butterflies.
My feet might as well have been weighted down with anchors as Theo and Hayley forced me outside into the late-September sun.
“Eloise,” Theo called, and a pretty redhead stood up from a lounger. She was wearing a beautiful yellow silk dress that looked great against her pale rose skin and probably cost a fortune.
She stepped forward and beamed at her father. I felt a twinge of something I refused to call jealousy as father and daughter embraced—a tight hug that was so full of feeling they would have to be really freaking great actors for it to be faked—and then smiled into one another’s