Page 11 of Wild Elite

After amassing their wealth during the nineteenth century via oil and petroleum businesses, they possessed the largest private fortune in the world. They weren’t part of the one percent, they were part of the point-zero-zero-one percent. More money than God. The fortune was divided among various descendants, and they had a piece of nearly every pie you could think of—financial services, real estate, mining, energy, farming, and pharmaceuticals.

Even though everyone knew of the family’s existence, they tended to shy away from media attention as much as they could, so I suppose it wasn’t completely abnormal that I’d never seen Elias before the other night. But to someone like Mellie, who came from a mega-rich family herself, it probably seemed rather odd, hence her confusion.

“He can be a bit of a jerk,” Mellie said, rolling her eyes. “Elias, I mean.”

“Yeah, I know. He practically glared at me for that entire party. No idea why.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Weird. Was that Willa Van der Veer’s party?”

“Uh-huh. You know her?” Probably a dumb question. Of course she did. All of the elite families here knew each other.

She nodded. “Willa and I went to prep school together. I was busy on the night of the masquerade, but I heard it was wild.” She lowered her voice. “Is it true someone tried to kill everyone? And someone got shot?”

“Not exactly.”

I told her the real story, not counting the weird stuff I’d seen upstairs before all the drama happened. I was happy to keep that juicy tidbit to myself for now.

“So Elias helped you? That’s sweet. I guess he’s not always a jerk.”

“Hm. Sweet isn’t the word I’d use to describe the way it went down,” I mumbled, remembering the vicious expression on his face when he stared at me down on the floor.

It made so much sense that he was a King. The arrogance, the self-assuredness, the way he behaved as if he owned the whole world. His family practically did own it. Unlike me, he had every possible advantage: wealth beyond belief, a name that could open any door, striking looks, impeccable taste that only a lifetime of luxury could instill in a man, and all the networks and connections a person could dream of. He held all of that privilege in one perfect hand.

Compared to him, I was nothing. No one.

I frowned and briefly shook my head, trying to stop myself from going down that pity-party road again. Mellie was right earlier. People like her and Elias were simply lucky to be born into the particular families they ended up in. Just because they subsequently had more than me didn’t mean they were better than me.

So screw Elias King and his strange, shitty attitude toward me. He didn’t even knowme.

I turned and looked over my shoulder for a second. He was still watching me, his features arranged in a disdainful scowl. I rolled my eyes, not caring anymore, and I swept away with Mellie, trying to ignore the faint prickling on my skin as I felt his eyes on my back.

My dreams were going to come true at Roden, and nothing, no one, could take that away.

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