Chapter 10: Maya’s Proposition
The rain continued to lash against the tall gothic windows of St. Jude’s Academy through the entire weekend, trapping students indoors and turning the campus into a quiet, introspective prison. On Sunday afternoon, Clara sat cross-legged on her bed, staring blankly at the blank white wall across the room while Maya paced back and forth near the window with a look of intense concentration.
Maya had spent the last two hours listening to Clara recount the entire harrowing story—the confrontation in the kitchen, the basement raid, the stolen journal, and Helen’s ruthless obsession with burying the past.
“Let me get this straight,” Maya stopped pacing, turning to face Clara with her green eyes wide. “Your legal guardian—who is actually your step-aunt and a convicted embezzler in hiding—murdered your parents by tampering with their car brakes, stole their real estate fortune, and has been psychologically torturing you for a decade just to ensure you never uncover the truth?”
“When you say it all out loud like that, it sounds completely insane,” Clara muttered, rubbing her temples with her fingertips. “And yet, every word of it is documented in my mother’s journal. The problem is, a handwritten diary from fifteen years ago isn't legally admissible as primary evidence in a criminal court. Without the original bank ledgers and the unedited police accident report from that night, the authorities won't even look at the case. They’ll just dismiss it as a family dispute.”
“Then we need to get those documents,” Maya said matter-of-factly, walking over and leaning against the foot of Clara’s bed.
Clara looked up, startled. “Get them? How? They’re locked inside that steel box in Helen’s basement, two hundred miles away from here!”
“We break in,” Maya said with a cool, confident grin.
“Are you out of your mind?” Clara scoffed, shaking her head. “Helen is a paranoid control freak who never leaves the house for more than an hour at a time, and she keeps that box locked up tighter than a federal reserve bank.”
“People who think they’ve won are always the most careless,” Maya countered, her expression turning serious. “Think about it, Clara. She sent you away to boarding school precisely because she thought she had neutralized the threat. She believes you’re trapped here, isolated, and powerless. That means her guard is down. She’s not expecting a counter-attack.”
“And how exactly are we supposed to travel two hundred miles back to my house without money, a car, or permission to leave campus?” Clara asked, crossing her arms defensively.
“My older brother, Leo, is a junior at the local university twenty minutes down the road,” Maya explained smoothly, pulling her smartphone out from beneath her pillow—a smuggled device she kept hidden in her hollowed-out dictionary. “He has a car, he hates authority figures with a passion, and he owes me a massive favor after I covered for him during our family’s thanksgiving disaster last year. All we have to do is sneak out of the dorm after lights-out on Friday, meet him at the north perimeter fence, and we’re on our way.”
Clara stared at her roommate in stunned silence. The plan was reckless, impulsive, and carried enormous risks. If they were caught by the academy proctors, expulsion would be the least of their worries; Helen would be notified immediately, and Clara would likely be shipped off to an even more remote, inescapable facility.
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Yet, looking at Maya’s unwavering determination, Clara felt a spark of hope ignite in her chest for the first time in days. She had spent her entire life cowering in fear of Helen’s wrath, letting herself be manipulated and silenced. If she wanted her life back—if she wanted justice for her parents—she couldn't wait for someone else to save her.
“Okay,” Clara said quietly, her voice firm and resolute. “Let’s do it.”
