Chapter 29

Classes were still in session when Adrian reached Northbridge High. Apart from the students having PE, the campus was quiet.

Then the bell rang. Doors opened, voices spilled out, and the school came abruptly to life.

Two girls had just come out of the classroom building when somebody stepped into their path.

“Hi. Could you tell me how to get to the student affairs office?”

His voice was low and a little rough, with a slight lift at the end of the question. Both girls looked up and forgot, for a moment, to answer.

He had tucked his hair beneath a baseball cap, though a few silver strands showed at the edge. A mask and dark glasses covered almost his entire face.

That voice, though. It was gorgeous.

And hadn't they heard it somewhere before?

One girl stared at him. “Straight ahead. Third building, room two-oh-one.”

“Thank you.”

He headed in the direction she had indicated. The other girl waited until he was walking away, then seized her friend's attention with a frantic, silent scream.

“Did you see him?”

“I was standing right next to you. Obviously I saw him. What?”

“That was Adrian Whitmore!”

“What? How could you possibly tell?”

The man had covered practically everything there was to recognize.

“I've been a fan since his debut. I'd know him anywhere!” She pressed her hands to her face. “I was so excited I didn't even ask for an autograph. Why didn't I ask? Oh, my God, I had him right in front of me!”

Within minutes, the news that Adrian Whitmore was at Northbridge High had spread across the school.

It was break, and excited girls followed close behind him toward the third building. They saw him enter the student affairs office and stopped outside. A few of the bolder ones edged right up to the door to listen.

“What's Adrian doing here?”

“What do you think people come to that office for? He's here as somebody's parent.”

“Parent? He's Vivian Whitmore's brother, right? Is he here for her?”

“Probably. Everybody knows how much those four brothers spoil Vivian. Who else would he come for?”

“But Vivian hasn't done anything wrong. Why would she be in there? I heard Elise threw water over a girl in their class. The girl's a good friend of Vivian's. Maybe Vivian stood up for her, and Adrian's come to back Vivian up?”

“Elise was the one whose family got called, though. Adrian posted in her defense last time, remember? Maybe he's here for Elise.”

“I can't keep up. Whatever. Vivian has all four brothers doting on her. Only two spoke up for Elise. Vivian's still the favorite.”

“If I had four brothers spoiling me like that, I could die happy. And one of them is Adrian Whitmore! Have you seen how gorgeous he is?”

“I'm less greedy. Adrian alone would do.”

“Same.”

“I don't know what happened, but my money's on Vivian. That's who he's here for.”

“Mine, too.”

Inside the office, Richard Morris and Monica Morris had gone pale. They inspected the logo again and again, checking every letter until there was no room left for a mistake.

Years in business had made them familiar with quite a few luxury brands. This one was an internationally famous overseas label known for its bags and luggage. It had made women's bags for years; school backpacks were a new line introduced only this year.

The prices were outrageous. Some media coverage had joked that these backpacks belonged on display at home, where people could admire them, rather than on anybody's back.

And here was a girl actually using one for school.

Kayla leaned closer, bewildered by her parents' changing expressions.

“Mom? Dad? What's wrong with the brand?”

Monica recovered enough to shove the backpack back across the space between them. She put rather more force into the movement than necessary.

“Counterfeits are getting very convincing,” she said with a small, scornful sound. “But trying to fool us with one at a time like this is going too far, young lady. We said we'd replace your backpack. That doesn't give you the right to lie about the price.”

Elise looked like an ordinary high-school girl from head to toe. Monica refused to believe she could afford a bag like that.

Even if she could, surely she would keep it at home and bring it out on special occasions to show off. Actually carrying it to school? Did she think they were stupid?

Richard's expression darkened. He addressed Ms. Parker directly.

“You're her teacher, aren't you? You need to get your student under control. First she pours water on my daughter, and now she brings out some cheap knockoff and expects me to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for it. That's fraud.”

Ms. Parker grew serious. Fraud was a very strong accusation. She glanced at Elise, whose expression hadn't changed from the moment she produced the bag.

Taking it, Ms. Parker examined the material. It certainly seemed good, but she didn't recognize the logo.

“How much did you say a bag from this brand costs?” she asked Richard.

“Hundreds of thousands, at least,” Monica answered, looking at Elise with contempt.

As if this backpack could possibly be worth that.

The figure shocked Ms. Parker, too. She knew Elise's brothers were wealthy, but surely there were limits. Hundreds of thousands of dollars for a backpack casually given to their little sister?

“Elise,” she asked hesitantly, “are you sure this backpack... costs that much?”

The family had money. But this much?

Richard's expression eased when he heard her doubt. At last the teacher was seeing sense. He gave Elise a heavy look.

“A child like this needs a trip to the police station. Let them teach her a lesson.”

“Who the fuck are you sending to the police station?”

The voice came from beyond the door, cold enough to stop the conversation.

The door opened. Adrian stepped inside, still wearing his cap, mask, and sunglasses. He took the sunglasses off.

He stood looking at Richard with such open menace that it seemed one more wrong word might earn the man a punch.

Richard rose involuntarily. “I said I'd send... send...”

Monica pinched his arm hard. Useless man.

Standing to one side, Vivian curled her fingers tightly. Adrian had come to school for Elise. He had arrived furious, ready to stand up for her.

He used to love Vivian best.

She lowered her head before anyone could see the jealousy and resentment in her eyes.

Nobody answered Adrian. He looked down at the backpack instead.

He had given it to Elise yesterday. Today, dirty water had left stains that wouldn't wipe away. It barely resembled the gift he'd brought her.

He raised his eyes.

“Who did this?”

Ms. Parker hurried forward. “You're Elise's family? You arrived a little late. We've essentially resolved the incident. Elise found evidence proving that Kayla was at fault first. The school has decided that Kayla will apologize to her and receive a formal disciplinary mark.”

Adrian stopped moving.

He looked at Elise, suddenly at a loss. “Ellie? You found evidence?”

She nodded as if that were the most natural thing in the world. She hadn't expected Adrian to be the family member who came, but yes, she'd found the evidence herself. She'd made the teachers change their decision and decide to give Kayla a formal mark.

She had handled it. Her brother hadn't needed to step in at all.

By the time she'd explained that, the tall man in front of her looked as though he'd been struck by lightning.

Was that hurt in his eyes?

Adrian was, in fact, deeply aggrieved.

When he'd learned that somebody had thrown away his sister's backpack, he'd been furious. As her brother, he was supposed to make the person who bullied her pay.

He had come to show Ellie that her second brother could protect her when she needed him. He had more to offer than a handsome face.

He was supposed to be her hero.

How could she have sorted everything out before he even arrived?

Had somebody given him the wrong script? What had happened to the part where he swept in and saved the day?

“Adrian?” Elise asked cautiously, studying his devastated expression. “What's wrong?”

He collected himself. “Nothing.”

Then he turned a cutting look on the three people responsible. Their fault. They had robbed him of his chance to impress his little sister.

Anybody who bullied Ellie deserved to die.

Even if they'd already died once, he'd make them die again.

He walked slowly up to Kayla.

“You did this?”

Elise had told him everything was fine at school. She'd even made a new friend. He had allowed himself to stop worrying.

And all the while, somebody had hated her enough to throw away her backpack and textbooks.

If he let them get away with it, what would stop them from bullying her again?

His expression frightened Kayla almost as much as his approach did. Her mouth trembled, and she nearly burst into tears.

“No... I mean... yes, I...”

She looked around for help. “But Elise threw water on me, too. I'll apologize, and I'm getting a mark on my record. We're even!”

“Have you settled things with me?” Adrian asked.

Kayla was on the verge of crying. “What do I have to settle with you?”

“I gave Elise that backpack.”

He spoke slowly, every word carrying a threat.

Kayla's eyes widened. “I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't know!”

How could she have known? She couldn't see into the future. Now she was beginning to regret it. All she had meant to do was throw away a backpack. Somehow, she had ended up facing a disciplinary mark and offending Adrian Whitmore himself.

Adrian had millions of fans. Tens of millions. Fans who could be terrifyingly fierce when somebody crossed him.

He turned his cold attention to her parents.

“Pay for it. Full price. Four hundred and ninety thousand dollars.”

Richard and Monica sprang to their feet, disbelief all over their faces.

“Isn't it a fake?”

Adrian raised an eyebrow and looked at them as if they were idiots.

“Who told you that? I specially arranged to have it brought from overseas as a back-to-school gift for my sister. If you don't believe me, you're welcome to take it to one of the brand's boutiques and have it checked.”

Elise gave him a surprised look. He'd said he'd gotten it straight from the brand for almost nothing. Now he was asking them to pay the full price.

Was he trying to scare Kayla's family to make her feel better?

Richard and Monica had gone utterly white.

It was real?

They really had to pay four hundred and ninety thousand dollars?

After all their years in business, everything they owned added up to only about seven hundred thousand. They had no more than seventy thousand in cash available to them. To pay for this backpack, they might have to sell their house.

Kayla stared, stunned.

When she'd taken it out of Elise's desk, she'd thought the design looked a little unusual. That had been all.

Now her family might owe Elise nearly half a million dollars.

She couldn't understand how throwing away one backpack had brought her here. If she'd known, she would never have touched it.

Adrian used to dote on Vivian, but Kayla had never seen him give Vivian anything this expensive. If she'd known he cared this much about Elise, she would never have dared provoke her.

Before she could recover, a slap landed across her face.

Her cheek stung. She turned in disbelief.

Monica pointed at her, her finger shaking.

“Throwing away somebody else's backpack and textbooks! How did we raise somebody so vicious? We spoiled you before, and look what you've become. You think you can do anything you like!”

Kayla's tears spilled over at once. Her mother had always loved her best. Now she'd actually hit her.

Monica was red with anger. They had indulged Kayla. They knew she was willful at school, knew she bullied other students. Those had seemed like little things, and they'd looked the other way.

Now look at the trouble she'd caused.

Four hundred and ninety thousand dollars. She and Richard had worked for most of their lives. Their daughter might have cost them everything.

“Go and apologize to Elise,” Richard ordered, staring grimly at Kayla.

A family with this much money could ruin them with barely an effort. Paying for the backpack was bad enough. What if they were still angry afterward? These were people the Morrises couldn't afford to offend.

Only then did Kayla understand how badly she'd messed up. Her parents couldn't fix it for her this time.

Hurt and regret overwhelmed her. Tears ran down her face. A moment of jealousy, a backpack and some textbooks in a trash can, and now hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay.

If she hadn't thrown them away, none of this would have happened.

Even her parents had stopped taking her side.

She went up to Elise, sobbing.

“I'm... I'm sorry...”

Elise watched her without softening. Kayla had bullied far more people than just her and Nora. Plenty of their classmates had suffered at her hands.

Her tears didn't earn her sympathy.

“Is that the only apology you owe?” Elise asked.

Kayla pressed her lips together, then went to Nora.

“Nora... I'm sorry...”

Nora's face flushed. She clenched her fists.

“I don't forgive you!”

Who said an apology had to earn forgiveness? Kayla had started most of the mockery Nora had endured in class. She had led the others in laughing at her, led them in shutting her out.

Nora wasn't going to forgive her.

Watching Kayla cry until her face was a mess, Adrian finally felt a little of his anger ease.

Outside the door, the listening students could barely contain themselves.

Adrian had come for Elise. He was demanding compensation for her backpack and making the culprit apologize.

“He's here for Elise! Oh, my God!”

“And he's the one who gave her that bag. His little sister gets bullied, and he comes straight in to defend her. What kind of perfect brother is that?”

“That backpack cost that much? Her family is seriously rich.”

“But didn't he used to spoil Vivian? I've never seen her carrying anything so expensive.”

“He seems closer to Elise. He's been in there all this time and hasn't said one word to Vivian.”

“So much for the rumors. Elise is the one they spoil.”

“A gorgeous brother who's a huge star and actually looks after you. I'm so jealous.”

“I want to be friends with Elise. All four of her brothers are ridiculously handsome.”

“If I make friends with her, do you think she'd get me Adrian's autograph?”

“My friend says she wants to be Elise's friend, too.”

“Count me in.”

They were still chattering when Owen Brooks, their class representative, squeezed through the crowd with Grace Miller, the physics representative. They had come to find Ms. Parker.

The two exchanged a puzzled look.

“What are you all doing?”

Everybody tried to explain at once.

During PE, Owen and Grace had been in the teachers' office helping mark assignments. They'd missed everything on the field. Now, from the tangle of accounts, they pieced it together: Kayla had thrown Elise's and Nora's backpacks into a trash can; the two girls had retaliated by pouring water on her. That was why they'd been sent to student affairs, and why their families had been called.

Some of the listeners were indignant.

“Kayla's awful. That's just doing something disgusting to someone because you don't like them.”

“Imagine having her in your class. At least they caught her, and now she has to pay for the backpack. Serves her right.”

Grace gave a derisive laugh.

“Kayla's nasty, but Elise isn't exactly innocent. Throwing away her bag was wrong. That doesn't change the fact that she bullies Vivian at home. You're actually jealous of somebody like that?”

The students around her looked confused.

Owen frowned. He occasionally heard about these things in class, but he rarely paid attention. Elise bullied Vivian at home?

A fresh piece of gossip sent a new wave of excitement through the crowd.

“Seriously?”

Grace pushed her glasses up her nose. She'd been there on the first day, when Vivian had cried about what was happening at home. Just hearing it had made her furious.

“Why do you think Adrian spoke up for Elise?” she asked with a scornful snort. “She turned him against Vivian as soon as she came home. She'd barely been brought back into the Whitmore family before she had those brothers going cold on Vivian and spoiling her instead. Does that sound innocent to you?”

Uncertainty spread across the faces around her.

“People say growing up poor makes you learn fast,” Grace continued. “How is Vivian supposed to compete with tricks like that?”

“So that's why Adrian hasn't even looked at Vivian. Elise turned him against her!”

“Right!” somebody said, suddenly enlightened. “We were wondering how she was clever enough to find the evidence. She stole all of Vivian's brothers the second she came home. Finding a little evidence would be easy for her.”

“Poor Vivian. Everything was fine, and suddenly her brothers don't love her anymore.”

“They're both their biological sisters. How can they be that unfair?”

“I hate families who play favorites.”

“I take it back. Having Kayla in your class is nothing compared to having Elise.”

Inside the office, Kayla was still crying.

Having said his piece, Adrian had returned to stand beside Elise. Every so often he lowered his head to look at her, with much the same expression as a husky waiting to be told he'd been good.

Vivian shot Elise a resentful look. Then she stepped forward and gently put an arm around the sobbing Kayla.

Kayla turned, saw who it was, and cried harder.

“Mr. Dawson, Ms. Parker,” Vivian said. “Kayla was wrong, but she didn't know what the backpack cost. You can't blame her for what she didn't know. It may be expensive, but for a family like ours, it isn't much money. For Kayla's family, paying for one backpack could mean losing everything.”

Hope slowly returned to Richard's and Monica's defeated faces. They looked at her with gratitude.

What a sensible girl.

“Elise,” Vivian went on gently, “making somebody's family lose everything over a backpack is going too far. She's apologized. Why don't you let it go?”

Elise raised an eyebrow. She hadn't intended to bankrupt Kayla's family over it. As far as she knew, Adrian had obtained the backpack for almost nothing. She'd wanted to teach Kayla a real lesson: she couldn't keep doing whatever she liked and expect there to be no consequences.

Now Vivian had made it sound as if Elise had set out to destroy them.

Mr. Dawson and Ms. Parker looked uncomfortable. They hadn't expected such a price, either. But Richard and Monica had confidently promised to pay. Backing out now would mean going back on their own word.

For the first time since entering the office, Adrian really looked at the sister he had doted on for seventeen years in his previous life.

He already knew she was more complicated than she appeared. This was his first chance to see it so clearly for himself.

“If you owe somebody, you pay them,” he said coolly.

The uncertainty left the two educators' faces. Of course. If you damaged somebody's property, you paid for it. That was reasonable enough.