Page 73 of The Silent Note

My hand falls listlessly to my side.

I choke on the feeling of helplessness that crawls over me like black sludge.

I’ve been the family screw-up long enough that it doesn’t bother me anymore, but this isn’t about me or my brothers.

This is about Grey.

I’d die if it meant keeping all my promises to her.

But this… this is a really bad start.

Finn snaps the phone from me and pulls it close, his eyes narrowing to slits. “Is this?—”

“Yeah.”

“He’s really?—”

“My contact wouldn’t joke about something like that.”

The ebb and flow of a migraine pulses in my head. I hold my breath, wishing I could pass out and miraculously start this long, never-ending day all over again.

The first thing I’d change? Staying in town. I’d grab plane tickets and whisk Grey and I off to a distant, tropical paradise with awful cell reception.

Finn drops into a bar stool, his face pale.

I slouch into the chair beside him. “How am I going to tell Grey that…”

Finn grunts, “Slavno is…”

We glance at each other.

“Dead.”

Chapter Seventeen

GREY

I don’t know which is more disconcerting—Redwood Prep thinking I’m sleeping with a student (which is now true) or the school thinking I murdered Harris (which is not true).

At least the first allegation had legs.

From the moment Zane Cross returned from tour, he’s been inappropriate with me and I’ve been unable to keep my cool around him. Had I been in the students’ shoes, I would have raised an eyebrow at our interactions as well.

The question I need answered is: who offed Harris and covered the tracks?

I know that’s what happened, even if the police closed the case and wrote it off as a suicide. To them, Harris was a hopeless man who gave up after losing his career.

That’s what Redwood Prep thinks too.

The truth is funny that way. Put into a different context, what really happened is way less relevant than whatlookslike it happened.

Beverly S. Harless said, ‘every life is a story’. If Principal Harris became the victim in his story, guess who just became his villain?

Dark stares follow me on my way to the teacher’s lounge.

I grip my books tighter and walk with my head held high, despite the shaking in my legs. The hallway parts for me, as it has since rumors of my relationship with Zane broke out.

The students at Redwood both fear and revere The Kings. The merehintof an alliance with them is enough to ‘other’ someone. To bring them closer to royalty. Deserved or no.

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