Ruling silverlake High

The bad boys ghost

The outstanding balance for Leo’s physical therapy for the next three years—totaling over forty-five thousand dollars—had been paid in full. At the very bottom of the receipt, under the line for the anonymous donor’s signature, was a single, stylized, arrogant letter written in sharp, heavy ink.Z.My breath caught completely in my throat. The paper fluttered in my hands as the realization hit me like a physical blow. Zander hadn't lost to his father. He hadn't been cut off before he could execute the paperwork. He had executed it. He had sacrificed his own freedom, his own cars, and his own place at Silverlake Prep to buy my brother’s health.He had broken his own crown just to keep my world from falling apart.

Then let me speak to his father!" I screamed into the metal mesh of the intercom. "Tell Charles Sterling the diner girl is at his gate!"A long, agonizing minute of silence passed. Just as I was about to throw open my car door and try to climb the iron bars myself, the heavy gates groaned and slowly swung inward. I jammed the car into drive, roaring up the winding, perfectly manicured gravel driveway until I slammed the brakes right in front of the grand white stone steps.I didn't care that I was dripping wet. I didn't care that my canvas sneakers were covered in mud. I pushed through the massive glass front doors, stepping straight onto the pristine white marble foyer.Charles Sterling was standing at the top of the grand curved staircase, a crystal glass of amber liquid in his hand. He looked down at me with the exact same heartless, pale gray eyes as his son, but without a single shred of the humanity Zander tried so hard to hide."You have a remarkable lack of survival instinct, Miss Montgomery," Charles said, his deep, gravelly voice echoing off the high ceilings. He descended the stairs slowly, his leather shoes clicking with terrifying precision. "My security detail should have had you arrested the moment your trash-heap of a vehicle crossed my threshold.""Where is he?" I demanded, marching right to the foot of the stairs, meeting his icy gaze head-on. "Where did you take him?"Charles stopped on the bottom step, looking down his nose at me. A cruel, thin smile touched his lips. "My son made a very foolish, very expensive mistake. He believed he could use his trust fund to play savior to a charity case. He forgot that every cent of that trust is contingent on my authorization. The moment he authorized that medical transfer to your brother's account, he violated the terms of his inheritance."My heart stopped. "What did you do to him?""I stripped him of the Sterling name," Charles whispered, his tone dripping with absolute control. "He has been sent to a strict military academy in the mountains of upstate New York. No phones. No cars. No access to his accounts. He will spend his senior year learning what happens when you rebel against the hand that feeds you. He is gone, Aria. And you will never see him again."The room seemed to spin. The magnitude of Zander's sacrifice crashed down on me all over again. He hadn't just lost his Jeep or his place at the head table. He had lost his entire life. For me. For a girl who had done nothing but spit in his face and click dollar-store pens at him.

You think you broke him," I said, my voice suddenly losing its tremor, turning cold and lethal as I stared at the billionaire. "You think because you locked him away in the mountains, you won."Charles raised his glass to his lips, his expression turning bored. "I didn't think, child. I executed. He is a Sterling. He will break, he will submit, and he will return to take over my empire exactly as I designed him to. You are nothing but a minor glitch in his programming that has now been permanently erased.""You don't know your own son," I shot back, taking a final step forward until I was inches from his polished shoes. "Zander didn't buy my brother's health to rebel against you. He did it because he's twice the man you'll ever be. You can lock him in a cage, but you can't erase what he did. And I promise you, Mr. Sterling... I am going to find him."Without waiting for a response, I turned on my heel and walked out of the mansion, leaving a trail of muddy, wet footprints across his perfect marble floor.As I stepped back out into the freezing rain, I pulled out my phone. I didn't have a scholarship anymore. I didn't have a place at Silverlake High. But I had my brother’s future, a heart full of burning, chaotic fire, and the ghost of a bad boy who had given up everything to keep me safe.The game wasn't over. The King was just off the board, and it was time for the scholarship girl to make her move.