“No, we can’t,” Kai said. “Are you forgetting what Matthew has on us? One email to the dean could get us expelled.”
“Surely if a judge found Matthew in the wrong, we’d be able to convince the school he tricked us into doing those things.”
“We have to help her,” Daisy insisted. “We can’t let him get away with this.”
“Of course we do,” Kai replied, growing frustrated. “But do you really think she’d win in a legal battle? We can’t just go into this without thinking. We have to protect ourselves.”
“We have to protectLila,” Daisy shot back.
I put up my hands. “Hey, stop. We’ll figure out a way, we just need time.”
Cecily, who had been quiet, looked up. “I have an idea.” Her eyes shimmered with something I thought looked oddly like excitement.
—
I was surprisedto see Lila in Cecily’s room that night, sitting on the couch next to her. The others were quiet and avoided one another’s eyes as if they’d stopped talking right when I entered.
I studied Lila. Her bruises had faded and her jaw had returned to its normal shape. She looked resolute.
“What’s going on?” I asked, unsettled, taking a seat next to Daisy.
Cecily and Kai exchanged a look. “We have a plan,” Kai said.
I glanced around the room, studying each of their faces, waiting for someone to fill me in, but no one said a word. My heart was racing.
After a long silence, Cecily finally looked at me. “Lila accepted the settlement.”
I glanced at Lila, not sure what to say. But she looked neither upset nor angry. She was sitting very still and avoiding my eyes. “Lila can speak for herself,” I said.
I wanted to plead with her. She was giving up. Letting him get away with it. I wanted to convince her there was still time to go to the police, hire a private investigator. Dosomethingto get that man away from Sterling and Greystone.
“Why?” I asked her, struggling to hide my disappointment.
“Don’t worry,” Lila said. “He paid me a fortune for signing theNDA. I don’t want to get the police involved…but we came up with something better.”
Kai revealed a small silver Panasonic camera and set it on the table.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“It’s a wireless security camera, HD, good in low light, local SD card storage. My mom got it for the house,” Kai explained, her tone matter-of-fact. “Lila can’t go to the police because she’s forbidden to discuss the settlement. But with evidence, we can still get him fired. If Matthew admits to hurting her on tape, that’s something we can take to the administration.”
“The Princeis holding the story while the administration investigates,” Lila explained. “But without proof, I think we all know which way the school’s investigation is going to go.”
I looked from the video camera back to them. “A confession.” I laughed at the idea. “How do you plan on making him confess?”
Cecily reached into her pocket, revealing a small amber vial. Upon seeing it, my stomach twisted. I stopped laughing and felt my breathing grow shallow.
“GHB,” she said.
“Roofie him?” I asked, incredulous.
Kai typed something into her laptop and read from the screen. “One dropper full is enough to make a healthy, average-sized adult unable to function. Loss of coordination, blurred vision, low heart rate.”
“We could put a few drops of it into his drink so he loosens up, and then we get him to confess to everything,” Lila added. “The admissions scandal, the assault…”
“You’re going to drug him?” They were staring at me in such an unsettling manner, it made me lightheaded.
“We’regoing to drug him,” Cecily corrected me. She was so close I could see tiny strands of silver in her blue eyes.
