Chapter 40 Chapter 40
Hailey’s POV
I sat on my bed for what felt like hours, staring at that text message until the words blurred together.
“I hope you can live through this.”
Sophia’s words rang in my head.
Part of me wanted to storm into her room and confront her, to demand she explain what she meant by that message. Another part wanted to show Damien, to let him know his daughter was actively threatening me.
But what would that accomplish? It would only create more tension, more drama, more reasons for Isabella to look at me with contempt and call me a troublemaker.
No. I decided after much thought that I wouldn’t give Sophia the satisfaction of knowing she’d gotten to me. I wouldn’t play her twisted games.
That evening, there was a soft knock on my door.
“Come in,” I called, expecting it to be staff bringing dinner.
Instead, Benita slipped inside, her face still pale and drawn from our encounter with the gunman earlier.
“Hey,” she said softly, closing the door behind her. “How are you holding up?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” I replied, patting the bed beside me.
She sat down, and for a moment we just sat in silence, two friends who’d been through too much in too short a time.
“I’m scared,” Benita finally admitted, her voice small. “Really scared. I keep seeing that gun pointed at me, keep hearing those shots. And I’m terrified to leave this house, terrified to go back to school.”
“I know,” I said quietly, taking her hand. “I’m scared too.”
“But we have to go back,” she continued, her voice getting stronger. “Don’t we? Semester exams are getting closer. If we miss too much class, we’ll fail everything.”
I nodded slowly. “You’re right. We can’t let this destroy our futures completely.”
“Easy to say,” Benita said with a weak laugh. “Harder to actually do.”
“We’ll have guards,” I reminded her. “Marco will be with you. And apparently Damien’s doubling my security too.”
Before Benita could respond, we heard footsteps in the hallway, light and quick. Then Sophia appeared in my open doorway, dressed to kill in a skintight dress and heels that could be weapons.
She paused when she saw us, a slow, mischievous smile spreading across her face.
“Two best friend” she said, her eyes landing on Benita. “I have to say, Benita, you have great style. That top is absolutely stunning on you.”
The compliment was so unexpected, so seemingly genuine, that Benita blinked in confusion. “Um, thanks?”
“Have fun tonight, ladies,” Sophia said with a little wave, then clicked away down the hallway, presumably heading out to whatever party she was attending.
Benita and I stared at each other in bewilderment.
“Did she just…” Benita started.
“Compliment you?” I finished. “Yeah, she did.”
“That was weird, right? Like, really weird?”
“Extremely weird,” I agreed.
“Does she not have any fear?” Benita asked, shaking her head. “We were literally held at gunpoint this morning. People are trying to kill us. And she’s going out to party like nothing happened?”
“She lives in this world,” I said quietly. “Maybe she’s used to the danger. Or maybe she just doesn’t care.”
Or maybe, I thought but didn’t say, she knows something we don’t.
The next morning came too early.
I woke to the sound of my phone buzzing repeatedly on the nightstand. Still half-asleep, I reached out and turned it face-down, ignoring whatever notifications were coming in.
I didn’t have the energy to deal with whatever it was. Probably more spam or random messages.
I got dressed slowly, my body still aching from yesterday’s stress, and made my way downstairs where Benita was already waiting.
“Ready?” she asked, though neither of us looked ready for anything.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I muttered.
When Damien appeared, he immediately started talking about security arrangements.
“I’ve doubled your security detail,” he said. “You’ll have four guards with you at all times on campus.”
“Four?” I protested. “Damien, that’s going to draw so much attention. People are going to stare and ask questions…”
“I don’t care about attention,” he said firmly. “I care about keeping you safe.”
“But everyone will notice,” I argued. “It’ll make things worse at school. They’ll know something’s going on….”
“Damien, dear.”
We both turned to see Isabella entering the room, perfectly put together even at this early hour. Her expression was cold as always when she looked at me.
“We need to discuss something," she said to Damien, completely ignoring my presence.
Our argument about security was forced to stop as Damien followed his mother out of the room, leaving Benita and me standing there.
The drive to campus was tense. True to his word, Damien had sent four guards with us. Marco drove, with another guard in the passenger seat, while two more followed in a second vehicle.
The moment we pulled up to campus, I knew it was going to be bad.
Students stopped and stared as we got out of the vehicles, the guards immediately flanking us on all sides.
“Oh God,” Benita whispered. “Everyone’s looking.”
She was right. Eyes were on us from every direction. And with those stares came the whispers, hushed but audible enough to make my skin crawl.
“Is that her?”
“Why does she have bodyguards?”
“Look at all that security. Who does she think she is?”
I kept my head down, my good arm wrapped around my books, trying to make myself invisible despite the very visible security detail surrounding me.
Just as I’d predicted, Damien’s increased security had made things infinitely worse.
We made it to our first class, the guards positioning themselves outside the door, and I thought maybe, just maybe, things would calm down once we were inside.
But then between classes, as Benita and I walked through the hallway toward our next lecture, someone stepped directly into my path.
A girl I vaguely recognized from one of my classes.
She stopped right in front of me, blocking my way, her arms crossed over her chest.
And then, loud enough for everyone in the hallway to hear, she asked.
“Is it true? Are you really a pregnant, shameless slut?”