Silver: What?
Cole: End it with Aiden.
It’s her turn to smirk from across the table.
Silver: I won’t. What will you do about it? Fuck me? *yawn emoji*
I narrow my eyes the slightest bit, then decide to push the button she loathes the most.
Cole: Remember that pic you saw on my phone?
Her brow furrows as she reads the text, and when realisation sets in, her fist clenches harder and her manicured nails nearly crack from the way she holds her phone.
Cole: If you don’t do as you’re told, you’ll regret it.
Silver: Screw. You.
As soon as Frederic finishes the section, I stand up. “I’m going to meet the guys.”
Mum smiles. “Ronan’s again?”
“Yeah.”
“Have fun,” Sebastian tells me.
Silver’s eyes widen, but she quickly masks her reaction. She already knows that she messed up real bad.
On my way outside, I type her one last text.
Cole: I will be screwing someone. It just won’t be you.
19
Silver
I lied.
I told Papa and Helen I was going out with Veronica and Summer. Instead, I’m at Ronan’s house.
Okay, Veronica and Summer are here too, so it’s not like it’s a complete lie.
Papa doesn’t like it when I party. He doesn’t say it out loud, but he thinks it’s beneath me.
It’s not like I love it myself. Unlike what everyone believes, I don’t like attention. Or at least, I like it on my terms, and not twenty-four-seven.
The three of us stroll through the entrance. Lars, Ronan’s favourite butler, greets us by name. And yes, when Ronan’s earl father isn’t around, he has his butlers organise the parties for him, and he practically throws them at every chance possible.
He makes any event a reason for celebration.
Summer and Veronica each flip their hair back. I do too, not to announce my arrival, but to boost myself with some confidence — I need every drop that exists.
For that very reason, I wore my short peach-coloured Louis Vuitton dress. It stops above my knees, the slits at the front and the back giving it a provocative view while still saying ‘You can’t afford what’s underneath this shit.’
I pulled my hair up in a ponytail and put on red lipstick, thinking of Mum’s words.
Red kills them, Babydoll.
I finished the look with red nails and heels so high, they make my legs taller and my arse perfect.