Chapter 93

When Claire kept quiet, Cindy started to get nervous. Had Lance stepped in to help or not? She honestly never wanted to bring any of this up with him. But at lunch, Lance had called to say he forgot to top up her meal card and told her to eat with Claire instead. Claire’s card was always loaded, five thousand bucks every month from her family. Or so everyone thought.

The truth was, Lance had forgotten it was just the start of January and the James family hadn’t put any money in Claire’s account. In fact, they never would again.

Cindy accidentally let it slip that Claire had gotten into a fight in the cafeteria. When she tried to break it up, Claire wouldn’t even listen. She made it sound like Claire was just being difficult, rebellious, refusing to accept anyone’s kindness.

Lance, of course, believed Cindy. He already thought Claire was too stubborn for her own good. Ever since she found out she wasn’t really a James, Claire’s reaction had been nothing like what Lance expected. He started to wonder if maybe he’d made the wrong choice, but it was too late to change anything now.

“I get it. I’ll take care of this. You don’t need to worry about her,” Lance said.

Hearing that, Cindy felt a little bitter. Sure, Lance complained about Claire, but he still couldn’t stand watching her get in trouble. Even something as serious as a fight, he was willing to let slide.

“But what if the school decides to expel her?” Cindy pressed.

Lance remembered how the principal always treated Claire and tried to calm Cindy down. “That’s not going to happen, trust me p>

“Cindy, you’re too soft-hearted. If you were the one in trouble at school, Claire wouldn’t care if you disappeared forever. Yet here you are, still worried about her p>

Cindy knew Lance had it all wrong, but there was no way she could explain what she was really thinking. All she could do was go along with him. “That’s not true. Claire just talks tough p>

Lance didn’t buy it.

“You’re going to help her, aren’t you, Lance?” Cindy pushed. After all,

they’d grown up together for eighteen years. No matter how- much Dance tried to act like he w on Cindy’s side, deep down his heart still leaned toward Claire. The thought made Cindy ache with jealousy. She wanted all the love for herself, from her parents and from Lance.

“If she comes to me and asks for help, maybe consider it,” Lance said. It wasn’t hard to figure out what he meant. He wanted Cindy tell Claire that all she had to do was swallow her pride and ask, and everything would be fine.

But Claire sorted out the whole thing before Cindy even had a chance to get involved.

“I told you, I’m not being stubborn. Stop thinking everyone else is just like you,” Claire said, her voice cool and steady. “One man’s meat is another man’s poison p>

And with that, she ignored Cindy completely.

Cindy could only turn away, her smile fading. She hated to admit it, but she’d never even heard that saying before and had no clue what it meant. She made a mental note to look it up on her computer later.

Claire didn’t know Cindy was that clueless. She just put her head down on her desk and tried to get some sleep.

Meanwhile, thanks to Cindy running to him, Lance waited, expecting Claire to come to him for help. But as afternoon classes at Silverpeak rolled around, his phone still hadn’t rung.

Lance picked up his phone, scrolled

through for Claire’s homeroom. teacher’s number and hesitated He dialed, hung up, then tried again. He repeated this a few times before finally letting the call go through.

On the other end, Darcey, Claire’s homeroom teacher, had already seen the missed

calls popping up over and over, since Lance didn’t always hang up in time.

Darcey finally answered. “Hello, who’s this p>

Lance cleared his throat. “Hi, Ms. Darcey. This is Lance, Claire’s brother p>