Cruel Legacy (Cruel 3)

“What the hell happened?” I gasped. “Camden tore out of here like he’d seen a ghost or something.”

Penn frowned. “Let’s talk about it later.”

“Why is she wearing your jacket?” I asked instead.

“She was cold,” he said calmly. “Come on. Let’s go back to the party. Katherine is going to go home.”

I narrowed my eyes at the pair of them. “What exactly were you doing that made Camden tear out of here?”

Katherine finally looked up at me. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and her makeup was messy. Her liquid dress was now wrinkled. She looked beaten down. She looked like she’d lost everything. Just like I’d wanted. So, why wasn’t I celebrating at the sight?

“He didn’t like seeing Penn and me together,” she said with hate in her dark eyes. “You might be familiar with the emotion—if you have any left.”

“Katherine,” Penn pleaded. “Don’t do this right now. Just go home.”

“Come on. We should leave,” Lark cajoled.

But Katherine barreled on. “She can stand there like a fucking innocent fairy princess after ruining my life, and I should just walk away?” She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“I ruined your life?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “Looks like everyone was tired of putting up with your shit.”

“It would look like that. That’s exactly what you wanted.” Katherine stepped closer to me. “It’s amazing. I never thought the mirror would show me with fake Hollywood silver hair, but it seems to be so.”

I snorted. “I can’t help it if Karma is a bitch.”

“If she is, then your ass is next.”

“Katherine. Natalie. Could we not?” Penn asked. “There are a lot of people here. You don’t want to cause a scene. This is an important night.”

“You’re still defending her?” Katherine asked. “Just ask her, Penn. Ask her about the shit that she’s pulled. About stealing Elizabeth Cunningham and my designer clothes and my ticket to Fashion Week. About how she stole my friends and my status and turned everyone against me.”

“I didn’t have to turn anyone against you. Everyone already hated you,” I snapped.

“Natalie,” Penn growled.

“Oh god,” Lark whispered.

“It’s true,” I said, stepping into Katherine’s personal space. “You ruin lives and play god. You pick and choose who is in and who is out. You treat everyone as if they’re beneath you. You destroy their lives without a second thought, and no one has ever held you accountable. No one has stood up to you and put you in your place. Welcome to a taste of your own medicine.”

Katherine laughed softly. “Fine, Natalie. Take my throne. Let me just tell you it’s cold, hard, and lonely up there on that pedestal. So, fucking take it. I can’t even deal with you anymore. You won. Is that what you wanted to hear? Does it make you feel good?” She looked me up and down, and when I didn’t respond, she sighed. “I didn’t think so.”

Then she brushed past me, passed Penn back his jacket, and strode out of the club with Lark on her tail. Somehow, Katherine still got the last word. Even when she was the broken one leaving in disgrace.

Penn was aghast. “Natalie, what were you thinking?”

“What was I thinking?” I asked. “Katherine has done nothing but torment me since I came to New York.”

“Yes, and while part of that is my fault, it doesn’t mean that you have to kick her when she’s down.”

“Why not? She does it to everyone else,” I reminded him.

He blinked as if something was finally settling into place and he didn’t want to see it. “Did you do it all on purpose?”

“All what?”

“This, Natalie,” he bit out. “Did you take Elizabeth from Katherine along with her socialite status and her friends? Did you invite people she’s hurt to this party? Did you do it all to hurt her?”

“I, uh…” I muttered, seeing his anger boil up that he usually kept on a short leash. “Yes. I mean, I couldn’t let her get away with hurting me. You knew that, Penn. You knew that I wanted her to pay for what she’d done to me.”

“So, you hurt her instead?” He gritted his teeth. “And I knew that you wanted to survive here, Natalie. I didn’t know you were going to ruin her life.”

“She deserved it,” I snapped before I thought better of it.

“Jesus Christ,” he growled low. “I saw what was happening. I saw your growing popularity and your new friends and all the time party-planning. I saw it, but I didn’t open my eyes at all. I swear, it says something about what my own sense of normal is that I didn’t realize how fucking far you had fallen.”

“Penn,” I muttered.

But he didn’t stop. “You’re charming. Everyone likes you. Honestly, even Katherine liked you when she first met you until she realized you were a threat. I just thought that, once you got in with the right crowd, you’d rise quickly. That you needed to stay away from the crew and find your own people here. Man, was I wrong.”