Chapter
Forty-five
A
letter continued…
As
for my ‘snobbish behavior’ towards your family, it was wrong of me. For some
reason you make me want to blurt out the truth as I see things and lay it all
on the table, so to speak, but your sisters are the talk of the school and on
that matter, I should warn you, since I know a lot more about Rys Wickam than
you do.
“Oh!” Paige almost ripped up the paper at
this point, but once again, curiosity forced her to read on…
I
have known Rys since I was six years old. His father and my father were best
friends and for a while, business partners. Rys even came and stayed with my
family when his parents were having trouble with their business (a business my
father partially financed) – a year ago. When the business collapsed, Rys’s
father tried to place the blame with my father; then we found, after an
investigation, that he’d been siphoning off the profits. Basically, he ripped
my father off in the name of friendship. My father has had nothing to do with
him since. Even though the Wickams got away with millions, my father thinks the
money is nothing compared to the loss of a friendship – that is the type of
person my father is – honorable. Wickam and his father, are not. I’m only
writing this because you should know something else that I trust you to keep to
yourself. (FYI: I am sorry for what I
said about you being ‘poor’. There is no shame in not being rich in money. You
are rich in what matters. Most of the peeps at my father’s firm got their money
by ‘fair means or foul’ as my grandfather says.
But getting back to the topic of Rys Wickam…
During the time Rys lived with us in Sydney,
we treated him like one of the family and my sister, who is emotionally fragile
at the best of times, became good friends with him. At least, that’s what I
thought. When she had a relapse of her OCD / depression after Rys left, we
found out there was a cause. Blair was
more than friends with Rys. After Rys left, Blair thought she was pregnant – to
him. Thankfully, she wasn’t, but she has not been the same since her secret
relationship with him ended.
What I’m trying to say is that Rys is a
total player and when I said your sisters are now the talk of the town it
sounded bad, but I meant it as a warning. I wouldn’t want your sisters to get
involved with Rys Wickam.
FYI: You are the best girl debater I’ve
ever seen… and you deserved that scholarship… but I know you won’t need it to succeed,
if you decide not to take it, as I think you might.
“Misogynist!” Paige seethed as she
stuffed the letter in the trash. I quickly pulled it out.
“Just because he can’t take the fact that
a girl could be better than a boy – he can’t just say ‘the best’.
A group of my freshman classmates
were also leaving school then and could be heard gossiping about Sia and Rebel
and how the link to their trashy behavior was supposed to have been uploaded on
the web, but now it had been taken down…
“It probably had something to do with Rys leaving.”
Another young Princess sighed.
“I’m really going to miss him…”
“I heard Darcy paid to have the whole thing deleted. So, he really is a
good guy. It’s only because he was crushing on the older sister – you know, the
nasty B who rejected him…” another one added.
