Chapter 7

As soon as Ricky left, I wasted no time pulling out Chloe Watson’s diary and began reading through it.

Ricky Shane was far more dangerous than I had imagined. In my previous life, I’d never dealt with someone as insidious as him.

Thinking of danger brought Ethan Clint to mind.

Ethan had a handsome face, but his cold, emotionless demeanor had always made him seem distant. There was something chilling in his eyes, an unfeeling void.

I wondered how he was doing back in Charleston. Had he given me a proper funeral? Without me, his adopted sister, all the inheritance from our late father would be his now.

That massive house—was he living in it all alone now? Did he ever get lonely?

I turned page after page in the diary, and almost all of it was about Ricky Shane.

Chloe’s descriptions painted him as a dark, twisted genius—a brilliant but manipulative psycho, far beyond what she could ever handle.

Ricky had isolated Chloe from everyone, making sure she had no friends. He wouldn’t allow anyone else in her life. He demanded that her entire existence revolve around him.

Just as I was about to close the diary, a girl’s shadow appeared in my peripheral vision.

She rested her hand on my shoulder, her gaze fixated on the notebook in my hands. Startled, I snapped the diary shut and turned to face her.

She seemed a bit taken aback by my reaction, squinting her eyes at me. “What’s so secret in that diary that you’re guarding it so closely?”

I glanced at the name badge pinned to her chest. Rachel Monroe.

This girl didn’t seem like the friendly type.

With Chloe gone, I had to handle this on my own. I put on an indifferent face, stuffing the diary into my bag. “It’s nothing important.”

Rachel’s eyes drifted to the math test still lying on my desk. She pulled up a chair beside me and started talking. “At first, everyone thought you only got into this school because of donations. But then again, you’ve got a brother who’s top of the class. Why haven’t you asked him to help you with your grades? With scores like these, you’re not getting into any college. Are you planning to study abroad? Well, it doesn’t matter, because Ricky Shane seems to take care of you so well. I’m sure he’ll find a way to get you into Harvard. You’d be lost without him.”

Apparently, everyone thought Ricky was being a doting brother, looking after poor Chloe.

I gave a mental thumbs-up.

Ricky Shane, well done. You’ve got everyone fooled, you manipulative little mastermind.

In the back of my mind, I heard Ricky’s cold voice, reminding me about tonight’s “tutoring” session.

The diary had made it clear just how those sessions usually went.

But I wasn’t Chloe Watson.