33. Quinn

33

QUINN

" W hat do you want?" Penelope stared at me, her expression fluctuating between faux sympathy and irritation. Now I knew what to look for, it was easy to see.

This girl had been my friend.

How could she have betrayed me like this?

"What do I want? Let's talk about what you want first. It looks like you got it, doesn't it? You got the boy, the crown, and next week, you'll get the internship. But how did you manage everything?" Lifting my hand, I began ticking off points on my fingers. "Let's see…you stole Roman's hoodie from my room and hid it in your room." I watched the colour drain from her face, her mouth falling open. "But no, wait. That one wasn't to do with the other points, was it? Why did you take it, Pen?"

I could see the moment when she decided to stop lying to me. Her veneer dropped away, and she straightened up, her mouth set in a harsh line. "You didn't deserve it. You didn't deserve the attention of the elites. You especially didn't deserve something so personal."

"Maybe, maybe not." I began to pace up and down in the way I'd seen detectives do in the whodunnit movies my mum liked to watch. "Let's go back earlier than that. The party at Chaceley Rock. Why did you spike Roman's drink?"

It was a complete gamble because I genuinely had no idea how or why she would even be involved.

But. It paid off.

I stilled, hardly daring to breathe as she spat the words.

"I saw you with him. I saw him taking you to the boat. It was clear you were getting close again. Too close. I thought you would've learnt your lesson after last time. Wasn't leaving Hatherley Hall enough?" Her fists clenched. "When he returned to the lighthouse in a panic, mumbling something about you being left on the boat, it was easy enough to slip something into his drink, just to ensure he'd pass out and forget all about you."

"What? How?"

Her hand sliced through the air impatiently. "Confiscating drugs from one of the stupid boys in year twelve. I wasn't sure exactly how it would affect Roman, because I didn't know what the drugs were, but it worked to my advantage."

My mind was reeling. "It was never about Roman, was it?"

"Of course not." She laughed bitterly. "I warned him to stay away from you. Why should you get everything? Why should you get to be with one of the gods? Why should you show back up at Hatherley Hall after all this time and take everything I wanted? You didn't even have to try. You just stole it like it was your right!"

"You didn't want him, though."

"No. But I didn't want you to have him. You two being together would have cemented your status as queen bee." Huffing out a breath, she shook her head. "Look. It wasn't all bad, was it? I didn't breathe a word of it to your parents, even though I could have. It would have only taken one well-placed call from me, and your parents would have been on your case about him, and he would've been expelled in the process."

Now, my pacing was giving me precious seconds to think, events arranging and rearranging themselves in my head. "Why didn't you do that, then?"

"It would have been my last resort." This time, she smiled, and it wasn't a nice smile. "If Roman had been expelled and word had managed to get out that I'd had anything to do with it, then my life would've been over. The elite would've crucified me, and I couldn't let that happen. Instead, I did everything I could to make both of you see that you shouldn't be together. Then tonight…well…I'd been sowing the seeds for a while now, but when I was crowned and Roman danced with me and allowed me to kiss him, then get him alone…I'm sorry, Quinn, but you'd only ever be a meaningless fling for someone like Roman Cavendish."

I had never been so angry in my life, and it took everything I had to push it down. The only thing that mattered was following through with the plan.

I sniffed, hanging my head. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I was only a meaningless fling. What about my history paper? H-how did he fit into that?"

"The paper. That was a bit of a genius move. Restore his damaged reputation by turning you in for plagiarism and at the same time ending things between the two of you for once and for all." She indicated her head towards the part of the library that housed the research journals I'd borrowed. "I saw you both, you know. Heard your little plan of taking the journals, and it was easy enough to come up with a way to remove my competition."

"I worked so hard on that paper, Penelope. Hours and hours of research, endless drafts, trying my hardest to make it the very best paper I possibly could, without resorting to cheating. That could have made a difference to my future. And now—" My breath caught in my throat as it hit me all over again. "Now, you've probably ruined every chance I have at the future I want. You know I'd never plagiarise anything."

"I know that, but the people that count don't, do they? And you know you're not the only one with a dream to become a historian, Quinn. Only one of us could win, and I couldn't let it be you."

"How did you do it?" There was a long pause, and I realised I'd have to goad her into confessing. "How on earth did you, of all people, manage to achieve that?"

"There are advantages to being the head girl," she said, examining her gold-painted nails as if she was bored with the whole conversation. "All it took was accessing Professor Fitzgerald's email, downloading your essay and making a few changes to make it seem as if you'd plagiarised parts, deleting your previous email, and sending the new version from what would appear to be your email. Then all I had to do was to send another email that appeared to be from Roman, and voilà. You lose all chances of winning."

"You really do hate me that much, don't you?"

She laughed. "I don't have enough energy to spare to hate you. No, what I hate is the fact that someone would try to take my rightful place on top during the most important time in my life."

"Okay." I held up my hand again, ticking off the points on my fingers. "You took the hoodie. You spiked Roman's drink with an illegal substance, causing him to black out and for me to remain at sea for an entire night, where anything could've happened. You edited my paper to make it look like I'd plagiarised it, and then you falsified an email from Roman saying I'd plagiarised my own work. Am I missing anything?"

Penelope's gaze was boring into me, and despite what she'd said, her expression was full of pure, unadulterated hate. Her lip curled, and she opened her mouth to speak, but I wasn't finished.

"The ball tonight. You changed the votes, didn't you?"

"What are you talking about?"

I came to a stop right in front of her, looking her dead in the eye. "Don't play dumb with me. I know what the votes were last night, and I know the percentage of students left to vote at that point. The only way you could have been crowned was by tampering with the votes. You did, didn't you?"

Her entire face flushed a deep red, and then she snapped . I was completely unprepared when she lunged for me, sending us both crashing to the floor. She was screaming in my ear, yanking at my hair and scratching at me like someone possessed, her nails raking down my bare arm as I struggled to push her off me. "You didn't deserve to win! The crown was mine! You already had a crown, and you never should have had it!"

Her weight suddenly disappeared, and I blinked up to see Knox holding her struggling body back while Elena held up a phone, angling it towards her face. "Say hi to the students of Hatherley Hall," Knox said with an evil grin.

Elena was obscuring my view of Penelope's face, but the gasp of horror that tore from her throat was unmissable. Elena said something to her, but I missed it because arms were reaching out to me, helping me to my feet and wrapping me up in them.

Safe. Secure.

"I'm so fucking proud of you, baby," Roman murmured, his hands gently stroking up and down my back as everything hit me all at once. The nightmare was over. It was truly over. A sob caught in my throat, and I squeezed my eyes shut, biting down on my lip. Roman kissed my temple so softly. "It's okay. You're okay. I've got you."

I cried into his shirt as he held me, murmuring soft words into my ear, holding me like he'd never let me go. When I finally managed to compose myself, I looked up at him, and he smiled, brushing his thumbs under my eyes, chasing away the last of my tears.

"There's my girl."

"Roman." It was all I could say.

A throat cleared next to us. "I believe this is yours."

I turned to see Elena holding out a golden laurel wreath with a small smile on her face.

"I can't take that. I didn't?—"

"It's yours, Quinn. You won it fair and square. It should have always been yours." Her smile widened. "Put it on, and let's get back to the ball and show everyone the goddess you are."

"But I look…" I trailed off. I'd been more or less attacked and then had a prolonged crying fit.

"Baby." Roman smoothed my hair down. "You look beautiful."

"And I have a few things here that might help," Elena interjected, directing my attention to the table where a small selection of make-up was arranged on the edge—a powder compact, eyeliner, and lipstick.

My brows rose. "Where did all that come from?"

"Knox's pockets." She grinned at me. "I didn't want to bring a bag, and my boyfriend was nice enough to help me out."

It was then that I realised Knox and Penelope had disappeared. "Where is Knox, anyway?"

"Dealing with Penelope." Elena led me to the table, where she fixed my make-up and finger-combed my waves. When that was done, she picked up the laurel wreath. "Roman?"

Roman remained silent, and when I glanced over at him, he was staring at my arm with his jaw clenched and his brows pulled together. I took a step towards him, and he raised his hand, carefully tracing his finger down my arm.

"She hurt you."

Following his gaze, I noticed the red lines where Penelope had scraped her nails down my skin. "They'll fade. She hurt me a lot worse than that, even though the rest wasn't physical," I said honestly, and he growled under his breath, a muscle ticking in his jaw.

"I'm going to do every-fucking-thing I can to make sure she pays for all the ways she hurt you. Every single one."

"I know you will." Reaching up, I slid my hand around the nape of his neck, pressing a kiss to his jaw.

"Starting with going back to the ball and taking your rightful place as one of the goddesses." Elena held the laurel wreath out, and this time, Roman took it.

"What about your parents?"

I shook my head. "I've made my peace with the fact they'll see the video or, at the very least, hear about it. It's been broadcast to the entire school, after all. I think we can spin the narrative so they decide not to take action against you, at the very least. Especially when I tell them how you discovered the evidence of what Penelope was up to. Not to mention the fact that the entire time everything was happening, you were constantly looking out for me and making sure I was okay."

Roman stared at me. "What do you mean, broadcast to the entire school?"

"That was Tristan's idea. Actually, the whole plan was mostly his idea. If he managed to succeed in his part of the plan, which I'm sure he did, he and Aria were going to commandeer the projector and broadcast my confrontation with Penelope to the entire ball as it happened."

"That devious fucker." Roman shook his head, a disbelieving smile curving over his lips. "Fucking hell, Quinn, the pressure you must've been under to get her to confess."

"I know. I didn't even know if I'd be able to pull it off or if she was even involved with the drink spiking, but I had to try. And it worked. It really worked."As Roman lifted the wreath, carefully placing it on my head, I smiled. "I'm not going to rub it in my parents' faces, and I'm not going to purposely piss them off, but I am going to explain what I've been dealing with, and I'm going to make sure they understand just how amazing you are."

His throat worked as his lashes lowered, his gaze meeting mine. Tugging me into his arms, he pressed a kiss to my hair. "You're the amazing one. I don't deserve you."

"You do deserve me, and I hope I deserve you," I whispered.

"How could you even ask that? You deserve everything." We drew apart, and he sighed loudly, although the grin he couldn't bite back ruined the effect he was aiming for. "I guess since Knox isn't here, I'll carry all your make-up shit, Elena."

She laughed, moving behind me to unclip the running belt I'd forgotten I was wearing, smoothing her hand down the back of my dress. "That's sweet of you to offer, but I'll use Quinn's belt. You're both going to be the centre of attention in about five minutes."

I glanced down at my Converse high-tops with a shrug. "I'm not sure these go with the dress, but I'll make it work."

"You make anything work," Roman said.

"You're biased." We smiled at each other.

"Nah, I just have amazing taste."He stepped back, offering his arm first to me and then to Elena. "Alright, let's do this."