Good Girls Never Rise: A Dark Boarding School Romance

“What happened after that?” His eyes squinted as he zoomed in the photo on my phone.

“I got out to take some photos for Dad and told Gemma to slide into the driver's seat, just as a precaution. You never know what you’re going to get with Bain involved. And then…”

“And then what?” he snapped, gripping my phone so hard I almost leaned forward to pry it out of his hand.

“And then someone started to chase me.” I paused, not wanting to say the next words. “With a gun. So I made a run for it, and Gemma and I sped off. She wrecked because, apparently, she’s never driven before.” I held back a tight laugh even though it was more sad than anything. “Something I was not aware of until we were in a very compromising situation.”

Silence encased the room as my uncle glared down at the screen. It had long since grown dim and eventually shut off. The second the screen was black, his eyes snapped to mine. “That was an incredibly dangerous and stupid thing you did by taking her with you.”

“I know,” I bit out, not even attempting to deny it.

His hand slapped down onto the desk, but I didn’t flinch. I wasn’t afraid of my uncle or his temper tantrums. He wasn't my father, by any means. “No. You don’t understand.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “The man in that photo is Judge Stallard.”

I stopped breathing. My heart seized for a moment, and then the anger came rushing in. “Wait.” Judge Stallard. The room suddenly seemed colder.

My uncle’s hoarse voice scratched at my confusion. “Tell me he didn’t see her with you.”

“No. There is no way. He was with Bain when I was spotted by someone. My guess is the Covens’ security.”

He seemed to relax a little before asking, “Did she see him?”

“No. She saw nothing. She did know we were following Bain, but I haven’t given her much more than that. I don’t want to drag her into this.”

“But you have, Isaiah. By taking her with you. What were you thinking?” His expression showed a small amount of pity, and I looked away. “Have you learned nothing from what happened to your mother?”

Anger began to rise again, and I clenched my hands down onto the arms of the chair. “Of course I fucking have! I was there!”

“Then, why are you being so careless?” His voice boomed throughout the room as he stood up and rounded his desk. I didn’t dare move in my seat. I didn’t even look up at him. If I did, I was too afraid I’d lose the hold on my emotions and start breaking things like a child. I was feeling more and more lately, and I fucking hated it. The numbness I usually felt was gone. Instead, frustration, anger, and maybe even fear were working inside my stomach, and I fought to keep my breathing controlled.

“I thought you and her were just friends—well, that was until I saw the latest blog post. Something about you two and a party? Sneaking away? Was that when you left and followed Bain?” He shook his head. “Don’t tell me…”

That stupid fucking blog. I ignored the alert I got this morning, too eager to get to my uncle’s office.

I snapped my attention to him. “Don’t tell you what?”

“Is that why she agreed to help you? To be your tutor? Are you making her think she’s someone special to you? That you care for her?” He scoffed, pinching the bridge of his nose again. “Let me guess, you’re fucking her...goddamnit. I told you not to mess with her, Isaiah!”

I inhaled a deep breath and glanced down at my shoes. Even if I wanted to explain things to him, I wouldn’t know how. It wasn’t why she agreed to help me, and I wouldn’t tell him why she had, but there was a blinding light in front of my eyes that almost pushed me to tell him that I did care for her.

After a few more deep breaths from me, I took my eyes off my shoes and placed my stoic expression back on my uncle, only to pause. “Why the fuck are you looking at me like that?” My brows pinched as he clasped both hands and leaned back onto his desk. “Unless…”

“Unless what?” I snapped, leaning forward.

“You do care for her.” He hummed out a sound as my sharp glare caught the framed map behind him. I do, but fuck, I shouldn’t. I couldn’t. The admission was there in my mind, but I wouldn’t say it out loud. If I said it out loud, then I couldn’t take it back and act as if it never happened when our time came to an end. Because it would.

“Gemma is fragile, and there is a lot to her that we aren’t aware of. You shouldn’t be messing around with her, whether you care for her or not.”

“She is not as fragile as you think, Uncle Tate.” She wasn’t. There was definitely a lot she was hiding underneath her shyness and rosy cheeks, but being fragile wasn’t one of them. And she was smart. And courageous. Little did he know, Gemma had a plan. A plan that was full of strength and bravery. Some could say that running away was cowardly, but that was not what this was. Gemma was running away because she knew that going forward was better than going backward. And it wasn’t like it was with Jacobi. He ran away and left me behind, along with Jack. There was nothing holding Gemma back, and I fucking envied that.

I moved past the discussion of Gemma, needing to get back to the real reason I came here versus the therapy session that my uncle thought this was. “What was Judge Stallard doing at the Covens in the first place?” Never mind the fact that Bain was selling him illegal firearms.

“My only guess is that he is connected to the Covens in some way, and that makes a lot of sense with what I’ve uncovered in the last week.”

Now that got my attention. “What do you know?”

“What do I know?” He raised an eyebrow as he walked over to his desk and plopped down in his seat. He pulled out the same file that had Gemma’s name stamped on it like before. “That he is a far worse man than I thought.”

Something ticked inside of me right along with Gemma’s confession Saturday night. The thought of her being with someone that she felt the need to run from set an ice-cold feeling straight through my veins. “You knew him before Gemma came here, correct?”