“That’s strange, right?” I said, tilting my head to the side. “The fact that he went to college right here, but he never mentioned it to you or yoursiblings.”
“Yeah, it’s a bit weird. And what the hell is this quote next to his picture?” heasked.
“I didn’t read it. What isit?”
He scooted over to me and put the book in front of us so we could both see it at the same time. “Perhaps now you will ask how much you are worth,” he said, running his finger beneath his dad’s chosen yearbook quote. “That’s all it says.Then there’s this number after it.9.”
I sat back, brows rising. “That quote sounds so familiar to me,” Isaid.
“Itdoes?”
I nodded. “I swear I read that exact line somewhere not so long ago. But I have no idea where. I’ve read so many bookslately.”
“Let’s Google it.” He pulled out his phone and looked up the quote. “Hm. Looks like it’s from JaneEyre.”
My eyes widened. “That’s where I know it from! We have that English test on Jane Eyre coming up soon, so I reread itrecently.”
Hunter was silent, staring down at his phone with a pinchedexpression.
“Are you okay?” Iasked.
“Look at this,” he said, handing me thephone.
On the screen, there was an online copy of the page that the line came from. When I saw it in its full context, I understood the look on Hunter’sface.
“I thought Medusa had looked at you, and that you were turning to stone—perhaps now you will ask how much you are worth?”I read outloud.
“Do you think it’s just a coincidence that it mentions Medusa?” he asked in a tentative voice. “I mean… it’s my dad. He couldn’t be involved in this Network-Medusa shit, couldhe?”
I bit my bottom lip. Now that I was thinking about it, it actually made total sense that his father was a Network member. He was rich as sin and very influential in this town—and the state—and I’d directly witnessed one of the so-called Medusa parties at his house when I waitressed for his alumni event a few monthsago.
Shit…
I sighed inwardly at my own foolishness. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t made that connection about Charles and the society until now. Ofcoursehe was involved. It wasn’t like the Network and the Medusa girls had just discovered the secret room in the Connery mansion by themselves and held their wild party in it behind hisback.
He knew. He hadto.
I’d also seen Charles at RFA on a number of occasions, claiming he had a meeting with Sanders, or something similar. But the first time I saw him on campus was directly after my first meeting with the Medusa girls several weeks ago. He was headed in the direction of their clubroom, too. That was why I bumped into him in the hall when I got distracted by my ownthoughts.
He was probably going to visit them that day to see how our meeting went. See if they’d convinced me to join them yet. I hadn’t thought anything about seeing him in that hall when it happened, but now that I knew he was probably connected to the Network, I knew it couldn’t be acoincidence.
Hindsight was a realbitch.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly to Hunter, after I’d explained what I saw at his house all those months ago and right here on the RFA campus just a few weeks ago. “I think your dadisamember.”
He scrubbed a hand across his face. “Jesus,” he muttered. “I can’t believeit.”
“I’m sorry. I know how fucked up it is when you find out one of your parents isn’t who you thought they were,” I said, putting my hand on hisarm.
He sighed bitterly. “I know he’s a bit of a dick sometimes, and he has a bad temper. Butthis?” He shook his head. “I never suspected anything like this. There has to be some sort of explanation,right?”
“Let’s keep looking through the books,” I said, putting my hand on his arm. I didn’t want to let him spiral into a dark place now that he’d discovered that his father might be involved in something terrible. We didn’t have enough proof yet, and the hunt for more could be a decent distraction forhim.
He drew in a deep breath. “Yeah. You’re right,” he said. “If his quote is meant to be a hint or reference for other members, then we need to figure out the rest of it. That number 9 has to meansomething.”
I turned the page, lips twisting. “Hey, look,” I said, pointing to another photo of a male senior. “This guy has the same quote, but there’s a different number after his name.2.”
“That’s weird,” Hunter said, forehead creasing. “Let’s see if there’smore.”