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Fucking rich kids.
Vivian turned her attention back to me. “Pierre’s a sweet boy. But he’s guillible as hell,” she began. “Leo was the one who reached out to me. Told me your friend would be good for the job, you know, considering he’d been pretty rejected by his best friend multiple times. Especially after her saw that video of you fucking his mortal enemy. I had Luna get in contact with him. He’s basically in love with her now, to some extent, but some is enough to gain his trust. She’s the one who got him to accept this task.”
I listened impatiently, trying not to let the anger show on my face.
“The thing is, the Rosenberg restaurant conglomerate is going under anyway. Felix’s father is in a ton of debt to investors, my parents included. See, Pierre was never going to kill Mr. Rosenberg. He thought he was. Mr. Rosenberg was going to offer Pierre money to help him fake his death, and leave my parents the rest in the will. We would give half to Elliot’s family, and we’d keep the other half. This way, Mr. Rosenberg would be able to have an escape, start over. He wouldn’t need to face the other investors. He could just … go. We offered him this option, and he took it. My parents get their money back, Elliot gets his family back, the Rosenbergs get to run away from their problems, and I get to keep my place here at a university that my family basically runs behind the scenes. I get to do whatever I want, and not do whatever I want, and still end up graduating with a four-year degree. Not bad, if you ask me.”
My jaw almost dropped. Literally. And I thought Elliot was diabolical.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Vivian continued with a casual sigh, as if she had already explained this a hundred times to us before. “I’m insane. Entitled. Sadistic. But you have to respect that this was all my plan. My doing. It’s not easy to coordinate a masterplan when you’re high and trying to have a good time.”
For the first time since I sat down, I slouched back in my chair, suddenly too tired, too in awe, to stay tense any longer. She was right, in a way. I had to respect that amount of effort she had put into this. I could never do it.
It was too messed up for words.
“So, Pierre didn’t go to ‘kill’ Mr. Rosenberg,” Elliot said. “Which means he’s not in hiding. There’s no money.”
“No money for you,” Vivian corrected. “He’s going bankrupt. My family’s still owed something, though not as much as we would’ve gotten had he ‘died.’ Who knows, maybe in the future Mr. Rosenberg will ‘die’ of natural causes. If that happens, we can talk.”
She stood from her chair, and stretched.
“Wait,” Elliot snapped, jumping up from his own seat to face her. “You can’t do this. I’m not just gonna get up and leave without getting what you promised me.”
“You got the truth,” Vivian said, looking to me. Then her eyes moved to him. “And you got a target off your back. You lost nothing. You should be happy.” She stepped past him, leaving Elliot stunned. I was surprised he didn’t lunge at her. She headed toward the door, and was about to open it. But before she turned the knob, Vivian looked back at us, and smiled the most wicked smirk I’d ever seen.
She pure, evil genius, and she knew it.
“I’ll see you all next week,” she said, and then put her hand to her mouth as if she had misspoken. “I mean, you will all see each other. I won’t be here. But, you know, I’ll be here in spirit. Right, Dean?”
“Can’t believe this,” I heard her mutter under her breath.
“Three people minimum, remember?” Vivian called over her shoulder as she swung open the door. “I can count on you three, right Tara? Elliot, Kath-leen.”
With that, she stepped out into the hall with a bounce to her step, and the door squealed shut behind her, leaving us in suffocating, burning silence.
Fuck.
I turned to look at Elliot, and winced at his expression. I’d never seen him look this way—complete disbelief, distress, as if he knew that for the first time in his life, he was a microscopic fish in an ocean that wasn’t his own. Currents he couldn’t control, that, if anything, were forcing him to the bottom.
And for the first time in my life, I truly felt pity for him. His family was falling apart, his two only friends were turned against him, and now he was forced to come to these meetings for God knew how long. To top it off, Vivian had everyone convinced he could be a killer. Or, at least, someone who wanted others to kill for him.
When I looked up, I noticed that everyone had left the room, Tara included. It was just us.
I reached out to grasp Elliot’s hand in mine.
“You have me,” I whispered, turning my body to face his. “I’m on your side.”
After a moment, I felt his hand squeeze mine.
“Yeah,” he muttered, reaching up to wipe the growing moisture from his eyes. “I have you.”
I leaned my head against his shoulder, and just let the moment pass over us. Something had to be done, and we both knew it. We had to set the record straight. Vivian could lord over our lives forever.
She was capable of asinine things, it was obvious. She wouldn’t stop here.
“What do we do?” I said after a few minutes had gone by. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make things right.”
Elliot shook his head.