Two. Sick people don’t always look like monsters. They are often beautiful, and rich, and educated, and adored.
Three. It’s a lot easier to buy into evil than you think.
I learned this first hand—I knew it was fake.
I knew we were setting them up.
I knew it was temporary.
And still… I was buying in to it.
It was all planned and everything I did was all part of that plan.
I could lie to myself and live with that.
I didn’t do anything too out of character.
I always remembered who I was and what we were doing.
But if it had gone on much longer. If, for instance, I had made it to the end of my freshman year, then I can’t say for sure that it would’ve still been fake.
And the really sick thing about that is… I wasn’t really getting anything out of it. They didn’t give me millions of dollars. They didn’t give me a house, or a husband—or even the promise of either.
They told me, to my face, that I was there to serve them.
And I just nodded my head and went along.
The path of least resistance.
This is the real reason why I didn’t look at the stuff about my parents in that box.
I know they were part of it.
I feel it in my heart.
They bred me for Fang and Feather and I didn’t want to see the proof.
I didn’t need to see proof.
Because I knew.
And there is nothing in this world—no explanation, no excuse, no justification—that could ever absolve them from this sin.
They were evil.
I was nothing to them.
And I have learned to live with that.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE - COOPER
After he left me standing there in the driveway in front of our burning house, I didn’t see my father again for almost a year.
I was coming out of our apartment and noticed a limo parked in the alley. I didn’t think much of it. The building we lived in was nice, so it wasn’t uncommon to have limos parked in the alley waiting for people.
But the window rolled down and my father poked his head out.
He said, in a very calm voice, “Can I speak to you for a moment, Cooper?”
What was I gonna do? Say no?
I got in and we had a short conversation. Half of it was about why he was in this limo and not in like… jail, since that’s was where he was supposed to be. The other half was about… well… the future, I guess.
I learned two new things about my father during that conversation.
One. He is far more powerful than I ever realized.
And two. He has more integrity than I could’ve ever imagined.
When I asked him how he got out of jail he simply said, “I can do anything I want. And I wanted to have a talk with you today, so here I am.”
“Then why not just leave? Don’t go back.”
“Because someone needs to pay for what we did. And I was in charge so… it’s just the right thing to do. You have always known right from wrong, Cooper. Not only that, you are strong too. Strong enough to say no when Jack gave you that ultimatum.”
“I can’t imagine a version of myself where I could ruin one girl to save two others. That’s just… not how right and wrong work.”
“No,” he agreed. “You never were as ruthless as people made you out to be. I… on the other hand.” He shook his head. “I was mean. It came naturally. Being mean is easy. It requires very little effort. But compassion, Cooper. Compassion is the definition of strength. I want to pay for my sins. I want people to know that I am sorry. But most of all I want to send a message to the others. I’m not the last evil man on earth. The monsters are still out there and I want them to know that they are not safe.”
I didn’t want to ask what that meant. I didn’t want to know who he was talking about.
“Did you find the money, Cooper?”
I sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “I did.”
“Did you spend it?”
“No. I’m giving it away. It’s gonna take a long time—it’s a lot of money—but I’m sure I’m up for the challenge.
I looked at him. Trying to read his mind. Waiting for him to ask me the next logical question.
But he asked me a different question instead. “Can I give you one more piece of advice before I leave and never see you again, Cooper?”
“If you’re going back, I’ll see you in court, Dad. I’m the prosecution’s star witness, remember?”
He just smiled at me. “Do you want to hear my advice or not?”
I nodded.
“You have never been an inconsiderate little prick who thinks that this good life I provided for you was a right instead of a privilege. You are not greedy. You are not lazy. You are not stupid. And there wasn’t a chance in hell you would never amount to anything. You are going to leave your mark on this world and that mark will be deep. It will last long after all the Valcourts are dead and gone. But while you’re doing all that, don’t forget to live. Do ordinary things, Cooper. Eat good food. Go pretty places. Love a nice girl. Work hard, be grateful, and don’t take any of it for granted.”
I got a little emotional. But I told him I would.
Then the driver opened my door and we said goodbye with a handshake.
I did see him in the courtroom a year later for the first day of his trial.
But I never did get to testify.
And I left before they could lead him out in chains.
CHAPTER FORTY - CADEE
A week later, two days before classes start, I decide I will burn that box of evidence and never think of it again. So I hunt down the secrets hidden inside my house. Isabella had gotten tired of looking at it when we first arrived and had stuck it somewhere. I didn’t know where, and I didn’t ask. But it wasn’t hard to find, once I went looking.
This house is small, but it has a proper third-floor attic with an actual staircase and not the kind of stairs that you pull down from the ceiling.
But when I walk up and flick on the light, I don’t find a box.
I find… a story.
The walls are filled with photographs and newspaper clippings. There are brightly colored strings connected people, and places, and events together. They crisscross each other, forming a web of evil and lies.
One wall is nothing but original paper documents preserved inside plastic covers.
The timeline starts here in 1795 with the marriage announcement of William Valcourt and Mary Monroe. That whole wall is mostly aging articles that piece together a family tree. But three quarters of the way through, the school is built. The next wall includes some pictures. Illustrations at first, then real photographs. And it’s weird to see the lake as it was. When the mansions were young and small, like the children.
There is mention of Fang and Feather too. A society dedicated to ‘enlightenment’.
What a joke. Because there is enough documented depraved behavior on these walls to condemn every lake-mansion family to eternal Hell, if it exists.
And clearly, they think it does. Because they pray to the ultimate Bully King.
Aside from Valcourt and Monroe, every other name I know is here.
Bettington, Legosi, Blanchard, Gottsworth, Warning, Cruz, Huntington—they are all here.