The Heiress Club

Chapter 11: Complicit

CW: mentions of SA

It bothers me, the thing with Nandika.

It shouldn't, because that's just the kind of place Arbourne is, but that bothers me more. I knew what Arbourne was like before I came here. It's a playground for rich kids to do what they will. When you have money, you only settle for the best in life. You don't even talk to those beneath you.

And even within money, there are divides. I've seen it in classes, in the hallways, behind closed doors.

Scholarships aren't actually looked down upon that much, surprisingly enough. Everyone knows they're a hell of a lot smarter than any of us are so we respect them for that. But it's just that—respect. Scholarships aren't going to go to our parties and hang out in our clubs and, heavens forbid, date us. They're smart and cute, like well-trained puppies.

Then there's the new money group. If your parents are movie stars. If they work in Silicon Valley, if their parents weren't born with the wealth that is now passed down to their children. If you come to school with an American accent or a west-coast tan, you're done for. People like that are only slightly richer dogs, and my group makes sure they know their place.

My group is the group that has never wanted nor cared for anything. Our fathers are statesmen, or mothers nobles. It doesn't matter how we make our money so long as we have it. The others will vacation in the Maldives and fly to L.A. for the summers, while we lounge around in our palatial estates and pretend like we're bored of being rich and powerful.

Nobody can really be old money, but we're all trying to seem like we are. Seung-jun's chaebol has been passed down for generations; Diamond's tech money is new but her great-grandparents also made a fortune in the roaring twenties; Cyra's parents claim descent from the Iranian royal family; Manon's family were french nobles before the revolution; Teddy's ancestors were Spanish conquistadors; Cahyono's great-great-great-great-great-or-something-grandparents studied in Amsterdam during colonisation; Mikhail's family lost their titles in the revolution but everyone knows anyways; and Jasper, most blue-blooded of them all, traces his lineage back to nobles and even the English royal family. Nandika's consciously separate from them. Oh, she tries to hide it, but you can see it in the way she walks, talks, and acts.

I've had Cyra privately confide in me that she only keeps Nandika around because she's entertaining, like having a pet.

I wonder if that's what her attacker thought of her too.

It bothers me so much that I try to find out who it is. Being rich and powerful can get you out of some consequences, but not all. And I bring nothing if not justice.

She said 'he', so that automatically strikes half the school population. She mentioned it was a friend of Jaspers, which means they're in our group.

It can't be Seung-jun. He passed out shortly before I drowned myself in shots and stayed at Jasper's house. That leaves three—Teddy, Cahyono, Mikhail.

I ask around a bit. Nothing too obvious. Nandika made me promise not to tell anyone and I'm not about to do that. But I'm slowly and surely prying into the details of what happened that night. It's easy to pretend that I'm asking about myself as much as her—I don't remember jack shit.

I learn that Mikhail took Cyra, Diamond, and Es back in his car. Manon, responsible enough not to drink-drive, took a taxi back with Cahyono.

I notice that four people are distinctly missing from this equation. Jasper—but I already know what happened with him and his little brush with jail. Nandika—and I know exactly what happened to her. Me. And ...