“And what did he tell you about me or my mum?”
“Oh, well, he explained that she had passed away suddenly and that you were both looking for a new beginning, deciding to move to Crescentwood. I understand he came on ahead to sort everything out here, while you went back to Northern Ireland to pack up your dorm and have some time to say goodbye to your friends.” He explains, helping me piece together the lie my father has been spouting about my life before Crescentwood.
“It’s such a shame about your mum passing. It can’t have been easy, what with you being away at school. I’m sure you and your father miss her greatly.” Thomas sympathises softly, taking me in with his kind gaze.
From what I have comprehended, my father is telling people that we lived a normal family life before coming here. One where I was away at boarding school most of the year, apparently in Northern Ireland – I guess that would explain my accent to everyone – and that is where I was when my mum died. Plausible, I guess, but Thomas can’t fall for his bullshit, he just can’t. I need him to see how things really are here.
“Thomas, I didn’t know my father before I arrived here.” I try to explain, “My mum only passed away three weeks ago. I lived alone with her until she died, and he appeared out of nowhere, forcing me to come live with him.”
“Oh Sophie, dear, I know it can’t have been easy on you, spending so much time apart from your father. I’m sure it felt like he was never around before your mum passed, and I know he seems to be burying his grief in his work at the minute, but things will get easier, you both need time to work through your grief and learn to live with each other.” His eyes are full of sympathy and understanding as he repeats the same assurances he gave to Robert the other night, destroying any hope I had that he would believe what I had to say and see my father for who he really is.
“Now, I need to get started on my day, and chin up, Sophie, things will get better!” He finishes with a kind smile before walking out of the kitchen, leaving me totally stunned by our conversation.
Why did I expect him to believe me? My dad’s influential and clearly has a gift for manipulating people. The whole town will accept his story over mine. After all, I’m just some grieving teenager who, he will say, is acting out and looking for attention, if I try to dispute what he says.
A feeling of hopelessness comes over me at the situation. I have no power here and no one in my corner.
Mulling over what Thomas said, one thing from that conversation stuck in my mind; Thomas said Robert mentioned a month ago that my mother was dead, but my mother only died three weeks ago. Perhaps Thomas got his timeline wrong. Or…my father was telling people my mum was dead, before she even died. That could only mean one thing, and it’s not a thought I can even comprehend right now.
Chapter 9
PRESTON
Collapsing onto my bed, I lie back and think about those perky, luscious lips and ass that would fit perfectly in my hands.
I know I told Barrett she was too skinny, and she is too skinny, the girl needs to eat a few solid meals, but I was not expecting Sophie to look so - I don't even have a word to describe her. She’s not like any of the girls here – money hungry, half-filled with silicone, and no aspirations beyond marrying the wealthiest guy they can dig their claws into, and popping out perfect little Stepford children.
No, Sophie is real. From her lack of make-up to the Converse she wears to her ‘no fucks given’ attitude, I’ve been unable to keep my eyes off her all week.
I've had Polly, or Penny or whatever her name is, sitting on my lap every day at lunch this week, trying to distract myself from thinking about Sophie's soft curves and how her hair smells of coconut and mango when she walks past or sits in front of me in homeroom. But dammit Polly-Penny just isn’t doing it for me anymore since Sophie showed up. Every time I kiss Penny-Polly I wonder what Sophie’s soft lips and hot tongue would taste like. It’s becoming an unhealthy obsession. I wonder if I could just fuck her out of my system and be done with her.
Even Barrett is affected by her. He went over to her locker on the first day, to do some initial recon, and she speaks some gibberish to him in that hot as fuck accent of hers and he comes back all but swooning like a fucking girl. I’m sure her good looks that set her apart from everyone else here help too.
No! She can't just come into our school, our town, and mess with us. She and her good for nothing father are up to something and I'm going to find out what.
I’ve had the school trying to drive her out all week. I seriously thought, between being ignored by most of the student body and having the one-percenters bully her, she would be at breaking point before long, but she’s barely phased by what we have been doing. She doesn’t seem to care that no one talks to her and that she sits alone in the lunchroom; and she brushes off every attack we have thrown at her. Don’t get me wrong, I watch her cheeks stain red with anger and her fists ball up like she’s going to throw a punch at someone, and shit does that thought not get me hard as fuck, but she just shakes it off and moves on with her day. Makes me wonder what all she has been through, to not only survive what we are doing to her, but to thrive in this environment.
That’s why I knew I had to amp things up before the weekend. Locking her in the shed at school for two hours should have been enough to have her curled up in a ball, bawling her eyes out. Hell, it would have had any girl at CWP in hysterics, just sitting in the dark, surrounded by all that dust and dirt, never mind the spiders and mice.
Once again, Sophie surprised me. We hid in the surrounding forest, watching her, and, damn, she blew out of that shed like a fucking hurricane, with her fists curled and her cheeks flushed in anger, with fire burning in her eyes. I’ve never gotten hard so quickly in my life.
Unfortunately, though, my stunt didn’t have its intended purpose of getting her to leave town. If anything, she looked more determined than ever to fight back.
Trying to forget about Sophie, I climb off my bed and walk over to the desk. I rifle around in the drawer until I find the folder I received last week, re-reading through the same handful of pages I’ve read every other day this week, and can more or less recite by heart at this point.
I started digging into the Montgomerys four weeks ago when I first met Robert Montgomery coming out of my dad’s office. My dad may be wealthy, he is the Governor after all, as well as owning several multi-million-dollar international businesses, but he's a shady fuck who’s only out to line his own pockets. You can't make it to the top and expect to keep your hands clean.
My father has always been a private person, but he has been acting stranger than normal recently. Disappearing for days and weeks on end, and just when things start to settle down, Robert Montgomery shows up, already chummy with my father and with a sob story of his own. It all seems too coincidental to me. Besides if he’s friends with my father then he can’t be the good guy he pretends to be.
So of course, I do my due diligence and gain as much information as I can about the Montgomerys, just like I have with every business partner and acquaintance my father has accrued over the last couple of years. Knowing what a piece of self-serving shit my father is, I’ve had no choice but to keep an eye on what he is up to, who he associates with. He has always been an asshole, but it’s gotten worse since my mother died. Not that he gave a shit about her, but I get the impression her death has cleared his way to increase his power and control.