Page 19 of Heartless Legacy

He thanks us for all coming, like we had a choice, then launches into the history and tradition of our school and organized activities on campus. It’s all shit we can learn about on the school’s website or in Founder’s Hall. He drones on because he loves the sound of his voice.

Pax, Finn and I have each mastered the art of zoning out while looking like we’re paying attention, but today, Pax isn’t even pretending. His head is down, his hand scanning over apiece of paper and he’s checking something on his phone. Every few minutes, he scribbles something on the paper, then goes back to scrolling.

Eloise and the dean notices too. We’re in the third row center directly in the line of sight of the dean. She leans over and whispers, “Pax.”

He looks up, sees the dean looking at him and folds his papers in half, giving Dean Gibson a look that says continue. For the rest of the meeting, his eyes are focused on the stage, but his thumb taps against the armrest of his chair. Something in those papers has him worked up.

When the meeting ends, he springs from his seat, hopping over the chair behind him to get to the aisle faster. By the time Finn and I make it outside, he’s standing by a trashcan, dropping ripped up pieces of paper in it. Then he takes off towards the parking lot.

Finn draws my attention away from Pax and tells me he’ll catch up with me later. I watch him walk in the opposite direction. This moment is symbolic of our current circumstances. We’re all moving in opposite directions. I take the path that leads to the dorms. Worrying about my friends can wait. Right now I want to lose myself in something I can control, and that’s getting a jump on next week’s homework assignments.

I get a Prospectus alert as I’m walking into my room. The message reads:

38195

Reality is an illusion. How far will you go? What are you willing to risk? To see the truth.

The hacker from the summer now has a Prospectus account. Interesting, but I’m still not interested in joining their cause. Imove to delete the message, just in case the words are actually a code that’s trying to snake its way into my contact list or steal my data, but it deletes itself, leaving me staring at a blank screen.

Chapter 13

Pax

I’m waiting outside my dad’s office when he returns from work, clutching a copy of two different patient rosters in my hand. His face shows how thrilled he is to see me.

“How long?” I ask as he gets closer. The first list has a patient named Georgeanne Delbosque, age forty-six, on it. Nanna George was my nanny until my mother fired her for fucking my father. It’s unlikely she was a patient at Rockridge. Her hefty severance check and the moving truck transported her and her belongings far away from here. Her name doesn’t appear on the second list, which is the most recent patient roster filed in The Tomb’s archives.

He sneers at me, and I see red. I grab the lapels of his jacket, shoving him against the door, repeating my question. “How. Long?”

“Three months.”

Three months? Thea’s been missing from Rockridge for three months? That means she wasn’t in his custody for long. All this time I’ve been miserable. Doing what he ordered. He breaks my hold, his fist slams into my face. I barely feel the punch. My brain is still processing the news that Thea’snotat Rockridge.

“Don’t go getting all brave on me now.” He snarls as I drag my hand across my split lip. “That slip of paper you hold changes nothing. Do you really think I’d be stupid enough to leave a paper-trail that could link her disappearance back to me? And just in case you’re stupid enough to think the Laurent bitch is my only play to get what I want, she’s not, and never was.”

“It changes everything! I only agreed to go along with this because you said-”

“I said if you didn’t, your friends would deal with unfriendly circumstances.”

He walks into his office and over to the bar cart, pouring himself a drink before taking a seat behind his desk. “That they will die and all evidence will point to you as the one who orchestrated their demise.” He says, before taking a drink.

“You’ll spend your life behind bars. I’ll still need another heir, which we both know I’ve already taken steps towards making happen, and your grandfather will be deposed. Not to mention, there will be no more heirs left in the other legacy Trium lines, which paves the way for me to create my own.”

It all comes back to the same thing. He wants to be the most powerful person on the board. I should have known there was more to his plans. Thea’s just one disposable piece of his puzzle. If killing Holden and Finn and framing me is his ace in the hole, then why is it so important for me to marry Eloise? He’s staring at me. Letting his words sink in. The why doesn’t matter. Not when the reality of it all is that my friend’s lives are in my hands.

He chuckles. “I told you emotional attachments make you vulnerable. You should have listened.” His smile slips. “My rules remain the same. You’ll marry Eloise and keep your goddamn mouth shut about what you think you know. Now get the fuck out of my office, you worthless use of sperm.”

“Shouldn’t you take it easy?” Eloise sniffs as I take another drink.

“Shouldn’t you shut the fuck up?” I retort.

All she does is nag, nag,fucking nag, and we’re not even married yet. To make matters worse, I can’t even get a blow job or pussy for my trouble. Not that I’d want her mouth on me. Fighting with Eloise doesn’t bring me the same thrill that it does with Thea.

Thea.My mind strays back to the patient rosters. I got lucky. They hadn’t been locked away yet, and I made a copy without anyone in the archives noticing. I don’t know whether to believe the data or my father’s words. Did he simply remove the name he stashed Thea under to cover his tracks, or is she one of the missing?

Missing.That’s a joke. The FBI’s involvement makes more sense after overhearing a couple of fourth year prospects talking. The FBI spokesperson gave a press conference and suggested the patients are dead and the hospital is defrauding the health insurance companies. However, the bureau is treating the case as a human trafficking investigation.

Thea’s circumstances just keep getting shittier and shittier. The lesser of the two evils is my father holding her captive, tryingto knock her up. That way, there’s a chance I’ll see her again. She’d be the mother of my half-sibling, but she’d be alive.

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