Page 187 of A University of Betrayal

Bump.

Pearson Specter Litt

Christopher Tyng

I bounced back and stared at the stern female features of the person in front of me. She was elegant, certainly attractive to the men out there in the wide world... Until she opened her mouth.

“Julie Westcode!”

“Blair,”I corrected her a little more sharply than I intended.

“Blair...” co-director Harlow sighed mockingly and grabbed my arm – which I hadn’t expected – and pulled me through a hallway that was filling up with countless students, up a huge spiral staircase, all the way to the director’s hallway. But she led me past his office.

Another sigh escaped her, she looked around, not letting go of my arm, then pulled me through a door that led us up to another door, and finally into the dark but luxuriously furnished tower room.

Bronze and black, from the seating to the curtains that hung in front of the second largest window in the entire building.

Professor Copeland had managed to banish Gloria's closest Council member to one of the smaller corner towers.

Rebecca Harlow let go of my arm and I stumbled back, only now realizing how woozy I actually felt. She had dragged me here, and I hadn’t really realized it until now.

What was wrong with me?

“You seem paler than usual, wandering around like a stray cat.” Her voice sounded sharp as she wandered around the desk to sit down. As she did so, she arched her back strangely. She was the cat. “You and Grace both seem more distant since...well,the incident.”

It was clear what she meant bythe incident.In fact, no one talked about it. It was just as much a taboo subject ashewas. On top of that, all the Quatura on campus were staring at me, and I would have loved to freeze them all into pillars of ice.

That thought was cold-hearted. But maybe that was just me. I had managed to block Erik out. I only read our chat history every night, clicked through his blog in my spare time, which had been inactive since we’ve met, and my heart was like a ticking time bomb every time I heard my phone vibrate, only to be sobered by the realization that it wasn’t him, but Grace or Amara.

I should throw my phone away. I didn’t deserve his understanding messages, and I would never be able to get in touch with him again.

Damn it,I was carrying his baby inside me.

A bitter ache shot through my chest, and the thought that this something inside me was a part of Erik that I was now carrying made my knees shake.

How was I supposed to let something go that reminded me of the only person in my life who had made me feel wanted?

I forbade myself to think about it any further.

Actually, I had to let him forget, but the risk of losing my emotional control if I met him again was too high. He knew too little about me, and that should be to my advantage. He would forget me at some point. He had to...

My heart tightened.

What had I done?

I felt like an immature teenager who no longer had her life under control. Basically, I was nothing more than that. I wasn’t even nineteen yet and already pregnant by someone I’d only met once before.

“Sit down.”

Harlow’s voice sounded demanding, and I sat down immediately, my eyes on my wrist because I felt pain. Her fingernails had clawed deep into my skin when she’d dragged me here, leaving red half-moons between the pale scars on my skin, just below the fresh cut from a few hours ago.

“You’re probably wondering what I want from you.”

I looked up.

“Well, what can I say? You’ve caught Gloria’s interest.”

My heart tightened, except in a completely different way compared to the Erik pain.