Chapter Forty-One Maya

Chapter Forty-One

Maya

February 2012

It had been three weeks since we took Lila to the hospital. The snow finally thawed and I spent my afternoons in Chancellor Green Library, a textbook open on my lap, watching students and faculty outside the window.

But the fear did not fade. It pulsed in the back of my skull, like a tightly coiled spring. Knowing that the man who held so many of our futures in his hands had a temper like that, knowing that he knew that we’d seen him assault Lila that night…I was constantly on edge, waiting for what was inevitably coming for us.

I loved that library. It felt like a cocoon—its octagonal rotunda a giant birdcage of chestnut wood and iron railing. Bookshelves fanned out around the edges like spokes on a wheel, rays of light dancing through stained glass, washing the room in a pale golden glow.

On Tuesday after lunch, I was curled up on one side with my legs tucked under me, reading the poem “Annabel Lee,” when a familiar voice made me look up. Lila. I hadn’t seen her since that night. Assumed she’d gone home to her parents’ to recover.

But there she was, holding Austin’s hand as they made their way to a sheltered area of the library. And—oddly—she was smiling.

It was strange to see her like this when the last time I saw her she’d looked close to death as a nurse threaded an IV into her limp arm. It was good to see her happy.

Lila had dropped out of Greystone—we were notified via an email to the Society’s email discussion list. Everyone had known it was coming. But it was brave. No one left Greystone. Ever. Not without knowing they’d be blocked from getting a job at every major company in Manhattan.

Rumors flew about why she was leaving. Some said she’d gotten too high, needed to go to rehab. Others whispered about an affair with Professor DuPont. Cecily said Lila was actually suing Matthew and had to drop out to make her case stick.

—

“We have to find a way to help her,” I told Cecily that evening as we walked to Sterling for dinner. “She doesn’t deserve any of this.”

“But how do we do that without turning all of Sterling against us too?” Cecily asked.

Most everyone had already turned against Lila. The members were shutting her out one by one, and pretty soon, Lila would be completely cut off.

—

We joined Daisy and Kai at the dinner table. Daisy was aggressively shaking vinegar and salt on a salad as Kai gave her order to a waiter. Unable to eat, I sat staring at the flickering candle on the table instead.

I was disgusted. Ashamed. It felt like I was sinking into a pit of tar, feet stuck, viscous black seeping over my skin.

I jumped when Cecily’s phone buzzed on the table. Her eyes flicked down and she froze.

“What is it?” I asked.

Her eyes met mine, filled with indecision. “He’s offering Lila a settlement.” She turned the phone so we could read it.

Lila had sent her a screenshot of a text message from Professor DuPont: Have your attorney reach out to mine. Let’s put this behind us.

As if it were that easy for her to forget. “She’s not going to take it, though, right?” I asked, suddenly furious. DuPont was trying to quiet her with a check. No amount of money would make what he’d done to her okay, and it certainly wasn’t going to make her forget. I hoped Lila’s attorney was going to take him for all he was worth.

Cecily shook her head. “She hasn’t decided.”

“She could go to court,” I suggested. “We could be her witnesses.”

“No, we can’t,” Kai said. “Are you forgetting what Matthew has on us? One email to the dean could get us expelled.”

“Surely if a judge found Matthew in the wrong, we’d be able to convince the school he tricked us into doing those things.”

“We have to help her,” Daisy insisted. “We can’t let him get away with this.”

“Of course we do,” Kai replied, growing frustrated. “But do you really think she’d win in a legal battle? We can’t just go into this without thinking. We have to protect ourselves.”

“We have to protect Lila, ” Daisy shot back.

I put up my hands. “Hey, stop. We’ll figure out a way, we just need time.”

Cecily, who had been quiet, looked up. “I have an idea.” Her eyes shimmered with something I thought looked oddly like excitement.

—

I was surprised to see Lila in Cecily’s room that night, sitting on the couch next to her. The others were quiet and avoided one another’s eyes as if they’d stopped talking right when I entered.

I studied Lila. Her bruises had faded and her jaw had returned to its normal shape. She looked resolute.

“What’s going on?” I asked, unsettled, taking a seat next to Daisy.

Cecily and Kai exchanged a look. “We have a plan,” Kai said.

I glanced around the room, studying each of their faces, waiting for someone to fill me in, but no one said a word. My heart was racing.

After a long silence, Cecily finally looked at me. “Lila accepted the settlement.”

I glanced at Lila, not sure what to say. But she looked neither upset nor angry. She was sitting very still and avoiding my eyes. “Lila can speak for herself,” I said.

I wanted to plead with her. She was giving up. Letting him get away with it. I wanted to convince her there was still time to go to the police, hire a private investigator. Do something to get that man away from Sterling and Greystone.

“Why?” I asked her, struggling to hide my disappointment.

“Don’t worry,” Lila said. “He paid me a fortune for signing the NDA. I don’t want to get the police involved…but we came up with something better.”

Kai revealed a small silver Panasonic camera and set it on the table.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s a wireless security camera, HD, good in low light, local SD card storage. My mom got it for the house,” Kai explained, her tone matter-of-fact. “Lila can’t go to the police because she’s forbidden to discuss the settlement. But with evidence, we can still get him fired. If Matthew admits to hurting her on tape, that’s something we can take to the administration.”

“ The Prince is holding the story while the administration investigates,” Lila explained. “But without proof, I think we all know which way the school’s investigation is going to go.”

I looked from the video camera back to them. “A confession.” I laughed at the idea. “How do you plan on making him confess?”

Cecily reached into her pocket, revealing a small amber vial. Upon seeing it, my stomach twisted. I stopped laughing and felt my breathing grow shallow.

“GHB,” she said.

“Roofie him?” I asked, incredulous.

Kai typed something into her laptop and read from the screen. “One dropper full is enough to make a healthy, average-sized adult unable to function. Loss of coordination, blurred vision, low heart rate.”

“We could put a few drops of it into his drink so he loosens up, and then we get him to confess to everything,” Lila added. “The admissions scandal, the assault…”

“You’re going to drug him?” They were staring at me in such an unsettling manner, it made me lightheaded.

“ We’re going to drug him,” Cecily corrected me. She was so close I could see tiny strands of silver in her blue eyes.

I took a deep breath. Cecily and Kai had been going out to Manhattan clubs since they were sixteen. But intentionally drugging someone—and a professor on top of that—was insane. Not to mention illegal.

Daisy raised her eyebrows. “So what do you think?”

They all stared at me, waiting for me to answer. The air suddenly felt very still. As my pulse raced, I remembered that I’d allowed this to happen. I’d seen Lila’s bruise and didn’t say anything. Maybe they were right. We couldn’t go to the police. But we also couldn’t do nothing. If we couldn’t get him arrested, this was the next-best option.

I swallowed. “So once we get the confession, we’ll take it to the administration?”

Daisy looked to Cecily, who nodded. “Of course.”

After inhaling a shaky breath, I locked eyes with her. I didn’t see another way. “Okay, I’m in.”