Page 4 of In Love with a Cruel Billionaire

Pweh!That was the sound of my last spoonful of soup spitting out of my mouth, but even after that horrifying display I still kept on choking.

I heard Aunt Norah snapping, “Couldn’t you have been more subtle than that?”

“I gave her more than five minutes,” Aunt Vilma retorted in the same tone. “In my experience, when a person doesn’t talk in five minutes, it means she never will.”

Aunt Norah started pounding me on the back. “She’snotone of your defendants! She’s your niece!”

“I know,” Aunt Vilma said as she also started pounding me on the back. “That’s why I gave hersevenminutes!”

“Oh for God’s sake!”

“What?”

“STOP!” I didn’t mean to scream, but if I let them continue arguing I’d likely end up black and blue. With a little wince, I inched away from their hands. “I’m, umm, okay now.”Not.I suddenly felt like I had let an elephant massage my back with its hooves.

Aunt Norah’s gaze widened when she saw me wince again. “Oh, dear. I’m sorry. We didn’t realize—-”

“Are you okay?” Aunt Vilma cut her off, concern lining her voice.

She tried reaching for me but I quickly pushed my chair a few inches back again. “I’m okay now,” I said hastily. Seeing them still gazing at me worriedly, knowing what I had to tell them, I decided to play it safe and moved my chair farther away until its back hit the wall.

To my aunts’ credit, they didn’t lose their tempers or even thought I was to blame.

“Does your expulsion have to do something with your shiner?” Aunt Vilma asked.

I was stunned. “You know?”

Aunt Vilma sighed. “Honey, it’s only in the movies that people can get away hiding the fact they’ve gotten punched with sunglasses.”

Before I could answer that, dishonestly but defensively and purely out of pride, Aunt Norah said gently, “Your principal stated in her fax that you’re no longer eligible for admission in their school. I called to know the exact reason but she says it’s classified.”

So Principal Childress had kept her side of the agreement, I thought with cold satisfaction. After flipping the bird at the old witch the way she deserved to, I had told Principal Childress she could expel me and I wouldn’t contest it – but only if she didn’t breathe a single word of her stupid accusations to my aunts or anyone else. If she did, then I was going to have Aunt Vilma sue her for discrimination and slander – and we both knew who would win that case.

“Do you have anything to say about that, Mairi?”

I shrugged, keeping my sunglasses on because it was easier to lie that way. “I got into a fight with another girl in school. A really violent fight. So they expelled me.”

“That’s it?” Aunt Norah sounded doubtful.

“Yup.” I slowly resumed eating, just to convince them I was totally okay with what happened.

“Just tell it to me straight,” Aunt Vilma pleaded. “It’s not because you’re pregnant, is it?”

I spit out another spoonful again.

Aunt Norah added uneasily, “Or on drugs?”

My spoon dropped to my plate. “Aunt Norah! Aunt Vilma!” Were they seriously asking me those questions?

“Well, you can’t blame us! We didn’t raise you to be a hooligan,” Aunt Norah answered defensively.

Silence.

And then Aunt Vilma coughed, and when she did I had to cough, too.

Aunt Norah’s gaze narrowed.

I’m not going to laugh. This is not the time for laughter. Oh my God, Aunt Vilma is so unfair! Why are her shoulders shaking?

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