Ruthless Empire (Royal Elite #6)(14)

“Mais bien s?r.” Ronan points at himself. “I’m number one, of course — no need for applause — then Xan, and then Cole with the bombshell Miss Goldman, and the loser Aiden is last.”

Silver pauses opening a container, her fingers freezing on the handle.

Fuck.

The change in her demeanour is short, but it’s there. Her eyes are cast downwards, so I can’t see the look in them. However, she purses her lips for the briefest second before she goes back to normal, and by normal, I mean the mask she wears every time she gets up in the morning.

Silver Queens is the most popular girl at school.

A piano prodigy.

The school’s queen B.

And fake.

She’s so fake, I can taste the bitterness of it on my tongue.

“You guys are pigs,” she says with her haughty attitude, but there’s a slight tremble in her voice at the end.

“You insult me.” Ronan grabs her by the shoulder, speaking in a dramatic voice. “Pigs don’t have my package, love.”

“Thank God for that.” She slips from underneath his hold. “I’m going home. Papa’s waiting.”

“And we can have all the crisps?” Xander asks.

She waves a dismissive hand at him as she strolls into our area to pick up her backpack.

Aiden stands, giving me a sideways smirk. “Can your driver drop me off?”

No, thanks. She’ll say, no, thanks. That’s what she tells Aiden every fucking time.

“Sure.” She grabs her backpack with stiff fingers.

“Drop me off, too.” I stand.

For some reason, I feel that if she walks out with him through that door, everything will be screwed up, and it won’t be the chaos I love so much.

It’ll be chaos I can’t control, like when I was a kid, standing at the edge of the pool.

She snaps her head, finally looking at me. I wish she hadn’t. I’ve never seen that look in her eyes — malice mixed with hurt and disappointment and something else I can’t put my finger on.

Something so deep and raw, it’s almost like the time she pinned me to the bench and soaked my cheeks with her glitter tears because she couldn’t hold them in.

She’s not crying now, though, and that’s way fucking worse.

“You can go to hell,” she tells me as Aiden steps to her side.

She leans in to whisper, “You don’t know what I’m feeling right now, but I’m going to make you regret it.”

I reach out a hand for her, but all it finds is air.

The moment the door closes behind her and Aiden, something inside me slams shut too.





6





Silver





Aiden and I are at the back of Papa’s car, sitting side by side.

The moment Derek drives away from the Meet Up, my breathing turns faster and harsher, as if I’ve been running.

As if I’m climbing a mountain and have no way to get down. Then I’m falling and there’s no landing in sight. It’s a fatal fall, the type that crushes your skull and destroys your body.

I stare out the window and focus on the empty road to not think about what I’ve just learnt.

The distraction doesn’t help. The inhaling and exhaling don’t help either.

There’s a weight on my chest that won’t go the hell away. It’s suffocating me the more I gulp air into my lungs.

All I want to do is scream until my voice turns hoarse and I can’t scream anymore.

I retrieve my phone and pretend I’m scrolling through my vain chat room with Veronica and Summer. It’s all about gossip and the latest makeup and fashion trends. The stupidity itself should somehow cool my head.

It doesn’t.

The only image going on in my mind on a freaking loop is Cole having sex with our head nurse. He was having sex with her.

As in they were naked and he kissed her.

Tears fight to spill free, but I turn away from Aiden and widen my eyes so they stay there. I won’t cry. I’m not going to cry because of that arsehole.

So what if he has sex? I don’t care. Why should I care?

Cole can go to hell for all I care.

I hate him. The one good thing about him is that he’s Helen’s son. That’s it.

That’s all.

Since that day he kissed me, I knew Cole wasn’t for me. I just knew it. The moment he compared me to others, blatantly declaring I was only one of his conquests, I decided I would be the conquest he’d never win.

He might make me lose at studies and piano and sports, but he’ll never make me lose at this game.

And I meant what I said. I’ll make him regret it.

My firsts?

Screw him. He lost the right to those the moment he didn’t save his firsts for me.

Cole might act like I’m a fly in his vicinity, but he gets unnecessarily aggressive when he knows Aiden and I have spent time together behind his back. We only do it because Papa and Uncle Jonathan are close friends and we’re often invited as a set.

And by unnecessarily aggressive, I mean he’ll accept Aiden’s challenges, even when he usually doesn’t. He makes sure to win every time too.

Cole doesn’t just win. He crushes. Then he walks all over you as if you never existed.