Chapter 3
The crowd cheered. Then their eyes found me, and every face turned contemptuous.
They whispered to each other, loud enough for me to hear every word.
"Can you believe the nerve? She crashes at Erin's place and then hires security to throw Erin out."
"I heard Erin gives her hand-me-downs. Otherwise, with how polished she looks, I'd have thought she came from money too."
"Right? Who refuses to admit her own mother is her mother? What kind of person does that?"
"Erin has a good heart. She lets it slide and still gives that girl a comfortable life."
So that was the story Erin had been telling after she got thrown out.
I laughed. "Has it occurred to any of you that the house is mine, and Erin's the one crashing at my place?"
Panic flickered across Erin's face. "Vivian, my mom and I take care of you every day. How can you say something like that?"
The others all turned to look at me.
"Vivian, Erin has lived in that house for years. We hung out there before you ever showed up. You think two bodyguards let you claim the place?"
"Erin told us everything. Don't play heiress because she slips you and your mom a little extra. Aren't you tired of the act?"
"What a parasite. She eats Erin's food, she uses Erin's things, and she never says thank you."
Some of them had probably wondered whether I was telling the truth. But Erin was the one picking up every check and handing out favors.
Erin smiled, all graciousness. "Guys, go easy on her. It's a little vanity, that's all. Come on, let's eat."
The crowd cheered again and swept Erin into the restaurant. On the way in, someone shoulder-checked me hard enough to make a point.
"Out of the way. Erin doesn't need to look at you," he sneered.
I looked up and clamped down on his hand. "Apologize."
He pulled and twisted and got nowhere. In the end, he mumbled an apology and hurried off.
That black card looked familiar. Pieces started clicking into place, and I pulled out my phone and messaged the family's Head Steward.
Vivian: [Send me every irregular charge Cameron and Erin have run at the house over the years.]
Under a minute later, the full accounting landed on my phone. He had flagged the strange charges on the card long before and warned me about them.
I had wanted a quiet, ordinary year on campus, so I buried it and planned to sit Cameron down later. That plan was dead now, and what the two of them had done was past anything I would tolerate.
They were out of chances.
At first, Erin only lived in the house with her mother and wore the spare clothes I left there each year. Her friends saw her coming and going from an expensive address, always well dressed, and decided she was rich.
She never corrected them. She brought classmates over, dropped vague hints about the size of her family's business, and said her parents traveled year-round and left the nanny to raise her.
Once she saw that nobody was watching, she got bolder and started throwing parties there whenever she felt like it.
Cameron, meanwhile, skimmed a little off the household expenses, careful about it every time.
After I moved in, both of them went quiet for a while. Once they saw how little attention I paid to the house, they went right back to it.
Their greed broke open after my parents handed Cameron a supplementary card with a high limit, to make buying things for the house easier.
With Erin pushing her, Cameron passed the card along, and Erin spent on it in small pieces under the cover of household shopping: luxury goods, dinners, parties. It came to over $100,000.
They took more than money. Some of the couture and jewelry I had brought into the closet quietly ended up theirs.
On my money and my things, Erin had built herself into a socialite. Now, she wanted me cast as the nanny's daughter living off her charity.
I let out a short laugh and called the Steward. "Freeze the card. Now."