Bittersweet Legacy (The Patricians Book 1) Read online

  “I see…” I muttered, taking hold of the dress. It was pretty, I couldn’t deny that, but it was not me. No, it wasn't Esme Danvers, but it was Esmeralda Forbes I thought bitterly.

  At 8pm Sophia came to fetch me for dinner.

  “The boys are already downstairs, but I thought it would be better to come for you.” She linked our arms together.

  “Thank you,” I confirmed. It did help to know I had somebody on my side.

  “You look very pretty,” she commented, squeezing my arm as we walked down the stairs.

  I hadn’t done much except pull my long wavy hair into a high ponytail and a put on a little of the make-up she’d purchased for me.

  When we entered the dining room both men turned, and I was taken aback by how similar they looked. Same towering height, broad shoulders, dark hair, grey eyes. Even their demeanour was the same. The air of authority, the coldness… it was all there, and a little piece of my heart broke to realize this brother would not be what I expected. The only subtle difference was in the nose and chin, which he and I clearly got from our mother.

  “Ah, here you are, my beautiful daughter!” my father beamed, causing Archie to scowl.

  I frowned at this excess of pleasure; this wasn’t right. Was he trying to start a feud?

  “Archibald, please meet your sister, Esmeralda.”

  Archie took a step toward me and bowed slightly. “Esmeralda,” he offered so formally, without emotions. Was he the Prince of England?

  Fuck it! Let’s show him how it’s done. I took a couple of steps toward him, closing the distance and pulled him into a hug. He was so surprised by the gesture that he didn’t resist but he just stood there rigidly, declining to return the embrace.

  I let him go but rested a hand on his arm. “I’m so happy to meet you Archie, I’m so glad to have a brother.” I gave him a genuine smile. “I hope we can be friends. I’m so happy to have you.”

  Archie smiled back at me, but it didn’t reach his eyes, which shone with promise of pain.

  When William turned around to take a seat at the head of the table Archie removed his arm from under my hand. “I wish I could say the same,” he spat, low enough that neither my father nor Sophia could hear. “My only wish is for you to go back to the shithole you came from,” he added with finality, walking stiffly to his seat.

  I stayed frozen on the spot at the crushing pain his words caused. I had not expected a warm welcome, far from it, but such disgust, such… dare I say ‘hate’, was unwarranted and so soul crushing. I’d never expected that a stranger could cause me such hurt and yet it had just happened. Congratulations, Archibald Forbes, it took you all of thirty seconds to break my heart.

  “Esmeralda,” my father gestured to a seat at his left, across from Archie. Either he was oblivious to the pain I had just experienced or he just didn’t care.

  I shook my head. “I, yes sorry.”

  “Archibald will be taking you to and from school starting on Monday. He will help you integrate into the ranks. Won’t you, son?”

  Archibald nodded, taking a spoon of his mushroom soup. “Of course,” he replied but when he threw a look at me it meant ‘In your dreams’.

  The rest of the dinner was just as clinical, and I was pleased when Sophia offered me an out when she declared that I must be tired after the day’s events.

  She offered to take me upstairs, but Archie jumped up and said he would oblige. Already I knew that was not a good thing.

  I sighed when we reached the top of the stairs. “We’re out of earshot now, say what you need to say – I’m tired.” I meant that both emotionally and physically. I missed Luke dearly, and I hated to feel so unwanted.

  “You don’t belong here. Nobody wants you here,” he hissed.

  I let out a humourless laugh. “See brother, that’s something we agree on.”

  His pace faltered, as if he was surprised by my agreement. “Don’t call me that!” he barked as we reached my door.

  I shrugged, reaching for the handle. “Want it or not, it’s what you are… genetically at least. But don’t worry, brother, as soon as I find a way out, I’ll be gone, I promise.”

  “Good.”

  I nodded. “Good indeed.” I replied, walking into my room and closing the door without a look back at the glowering young man behind it.

  Chapter 4

  I woke up late for the first day of school and had to rush, which meant no time to do my makeup or hair, so I settled for a messy bun.

  Archie was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs, radiating irritation.

  “Sorry, sorry,” I offered, trying to smooth the frown on his face only to see it deepen.

  “You’re clearly not late because you took care of your appearance, are you?” he sighed before exiting the house without a look back.

  I followed him to the car and he glared at my red Converses.

  “What? It matches.” I pointed to my red blazer and red pleated skirt.

  “You’ve got to step it up, because like it or not you’re now also the image of the Forbes family and this isn’t acceptable.”

  I detailed him as he drove, not even bothering to look at me. Was he serious? How much of a pompous ass was he?

  “Don’t worry, brother dear,” I taunted, “I won’t take your arm in public.”

  He snorted, throwing me a quick look. “You don’t speak to me. You don’t acknowledge me. You don’t look at me. You don’t even breathe in my direction. Are we clear?”

  It stung, no matter how much I said I didn’t care, being rejected by my own flesh and blood hurt deeply. “I’m not sure, brother – I’m quite slow, you know, public school and all. Can you explain again? Pretty please.”

  He glared at me; his lips pursed in a fine line. “Don’t antagonise me, Esmeralda, I can make your life a misery.”

  I hated how much he sounded like our father, how poisoned he already was. “Aww really? But you’re making my life so easy right now,” I replied with heavy sarcasm.

  “Don’t test me, you won’t like it.”

  I snorted, looking away. There was nothing left to take from me, or so I thought.

  True to his word, Archie left me behind and I had to manoeuvre between the sea of students eyeing me with a significant level of curiosity on my way to the office.

  I hated my brother right now, for making this whole experience so much more difficult that it ought to be. I didn’t want to be here, I never asked for this and he was punishing me for invading his universe. If only he knew how much I’d give to escape it.

  “I’m Esme Dan –” I shook my head. No, you’re not. “I’m Esmeralda Forbes.” My voice cracked under the force of the unshed tears I was fighting back.

  The woman looked up and her features softened, probably seeing the distress I was trying so hard to hide. “Hello Esmeralda. Welcome to Brentwood Academy.”

  She retrieved a blue folder from her desk and came to me. “This contains your locker number, your code, your schedule and a map of the campus.”

  I nodded mutely, not trusting my own voice anymore.

  “Taylor Oppenheimer offered to show you around the school but she was delayed this morning and won’t be here before the afternoon. I can ask Principal Webber to assign another-”

  “No, it’s alright Irene, I’ll do it.”

  I turned toward a petite woman with thick, curly brown hair and thick-rimmed glasses. She was dressed in a long khaki skirt and a beige cardigan, she was the epitome of unremarkable and just that made me like her.

  “Are you sure?”

  The woman nodded, giving me a kind smile. “Of course. I’m not expecting any students in the library now – they barely come at all,” she jested, but it was obvious she meant it.

  “Thank you,” I breathed with relief at not having to face the sea of students by myself.

  Her smile brightened. “I'm thrilled to help, Esmeralda.”

  I was about to ask how she knew my name but she must have heard
me say it, plus I was probably prime news today – William Forbes’s long lost daughter – former trailer trash promoted to Stonewood princess overnight.

  She took the folder and scanned it before taking me in the direction of the lockers.

  “My name is Anne White and I've been the librarian of this fine school for eight years now,” she chuckled to herself. “Time goes by so fast when you have fun.”

  She stopped in front of the blue locker by the girls’ toilet. “Not a bad location,” she confirmed my own assessment. “You can’t make a mistake, lockers in every corridor are a different color. Just remember blue by the toilet and you’ll be fine.”

  She turned the schedule toward me. “It’s quite easy, really. All the rooms starting with 1 are on this floor, rooms starting with 2 are upstairs.”

  “Okay…”

  “The letter following the number will tell you which side to take. So for 2R12,” She pointed at my first class of the day, “you need to go upstairs on your right and just follow the numbering. When it’s L, it’s left. Anything with a S, is straight ahead.”

  I smiled at her. “Clear enough.”

  She patted my arm. “I think you will get your manual in each class but if you need any help, you can find me in the library,” she pointed at the brown door close to the main entrance.

  My morning classes went by uneventfully. At least the teachers didn’t make me go to the front of the room to introduce myself.

  When lunch hit, nerves began to spread as I stood in from the double doors leading to the cafeteria, my hands clammy with apprehension – Archie and his gang of rich assholes ignored me completely this morning, only looking at me with the same kind of disgusted rictus on their faces that somehow cut me deep. Didn’t he understand I didn’t want to be here just as much as he didn’t want me?

  I wiped my hand against the red pleated skirt I was wearing, straightening my back. I would not show him how it affected me. I was not here forever, I’d find a way out soon enough.

  As soon as I walked in, the conversations stopped. I sighed. So much for inconspicuous.

  I glanced around the room, stopping at my brother’s table. He was sitting there with his little band of merry assholes and their groupies. I held his glare for a few seconds, head high, chin up.

  I wasn’t scared, I had the kind of life that gave me an advantage Although it hurt that my own brother hated me, I knew it was a phase, just a blip in my life. I would be 18 soon enough and the reputation of this school would help me get a scholarship somewhere. This was just my senior year, not a life sentence.

  I took a plate and some cutlery, and it was enough to show the difference between my former public school and the American Elites-enabler establishment that was Brentwood Academy. The glasses were actual glass, the plates porcelain, and the cutlery? I was pretty sure it was silverware.

  Even the food was a whole other quality and smell. No sign of the undescriptive ragout, hard mash, cold pizza or chicken nuggets that were not even 1% chicken – here, it was smoked salmon tagliatelle, coq au vin, whatever that was, and vegetables cooked to perfection.

  I settled for the pasta and strolled to an empty table for two, avoiding my brother and his mates altogether.

  After sitting down, I picked up the novel I’d taken from my stepmother’s collection. I had barely started to read when a plate clattered onto the other side of the table.

  I looked up and arched an eyebrow at the girl grinning at me as she sat down in the chair facing mine.

  “Hi, I’m Taylor but you can call me Tay!” she beamed.

  “Hi Taylor – I’m Esme” I replied, somehow confused by her cheerfulness. Didn’t she know I was ‘persona non grata’, as I imagine they say here?

  She chuckled, shaking her head. “Oh believe me I know everything about you, Esmeralda Forbes – This school is gossip central!” she snorted, popping a French fry in her mouth. “It’s the good thing about being an outsider, you hear everything.”

  I detailed her as she kept eating her fries. She was way too cheery to be an outcast and way too pretty. She had long black hair, hazel eyes, the slight olive hue of her skin and slanted eyes led me to think she was mixed raced. She was absolutely beautiful, and the fact she was attending this school, along with her Louis Vuitton school bag and jewellery, proved she was just as rich as the other students were.

  YOU’RE just as rich now, Esme, I thought, still unable to grasp the truth of this statement.

  The only reason for her outsider status that I could see was that she was plump, all curves which suited her perfectly. I hoped I was wrong because I didn’t think I could dislike them anymore than I already did.

  “You’re wondering why I’m an outcast?” she asked, her humour never leaving her.

  I chuckled. “Yeah…” Her positive energy was contagious.

  “I’m a muggleblood!” She staged whispered

  I gasped in fake shock, resting my hand on my chest. “No!”

  We both laughed and I couldn’t help but look at my brother’s table, both him and his blond friend were glaring in our direction.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t stay here,” I offered reluctantly, jerking my head toward my brother.

  She glanced back, flipping them the bird. “Ah, the self-proclaimed Kings of Brentwood Academy?” She snorted. “Please, if it wasn’t for their legacy and this microcosm – they’d be nothing.”

  My mouth hung open in surprise. In the few hours I’d spent there today I noticed that everyone was kissing the ground these boys walked on.

  “What?” she shrugged.

  “I just- aren’t you afraid?”

  Her smile widened. “I’m too rich to bother, and too smart to get involved. I’m literally untouchable. I’m Taylor Oppenheimer.” She replied as if it explained everything.

  “Okay?”

  She arched her eyebrows in surprise “Oppenheimer?”

  “You can repeat it, it means nothing to me.”

  “Oh wow…. Yeah, we’ll need to work on that. You won’t survive this world for long if you don’t know your history.”

  I don’t plan to stay long. I thought, but I barely knew this girl, I couldn’t spill the beans.

  “My family owns diamonds and not just any, we own Carbonite, which is the most famous and most expensive diamond trader. We basically control the diamond stock.”

  “Wow.”

  She nodded, taking a sip of her Coke. “Yeah…”

  “Are you richer than them?”

  She chuckled. “You’re part of them, you know that, right?”

  I shook my head, frowning at the thought. “I’d rather get shot than become like them.”

  She sighed. “You’re seeing the worst side of it now Esme, and yes, I’m richer than them… I think my family might be richer than all that table put together.”

  “I thought all that talk with them was power and money, you should be at the head of this table then.”

  She rolled her eyes. “No, you’re forgetting one essential element in your equation… blood.”

  “Blood?” I grimaced. “What are you, vampires?”

  “In some ways… This town has been founded by the oldest of the oldest families, they form a blue blood clan. ‘The Patricians’.” she mocked, using quoting fingers. “You need to be decent in the three categories to make it. I might have been able to make it to the table if I’d tried hard enough but truth be told, the royalty of Brentwood is not worth the effort.”

  “Patricians?”

  “Yeah it’s what we call a person of noble or high rank; aristocrats.”

  “And you’re not?”

  She shook her head. “No, here comes the five-minute story. As you can probably tell, I’m part-Filipina. My mother was a middle-class woman from Brooklyn who met a low life wannabe gangbanger and he got her pregnant when she was 17.” She sighed. “Then he had to get himself shot. My mom fought with her family when they asked her to get an abortion and she moved out. She took ca
re of me really well, you know, despite the meagre means and then when she was 25, she met Jonathan, my dad, and it was love at first sight. She didn’t know he was rich; he didn’t care she was a maid.”

  “It’s a legit fairy tale.”

  She smiled brightly, and I envied how happy she was. “It really is. Dad adopted me as soon as they got married and I’ve been a legit Oppenheimer since I was eight.”

  I liked her even more now I knew that, because whilst I had the ‘blue blood’ I’d been raised normal and it somehow made me feel better to know someone else with a similar background.

  “What’s your next class?” she asked, extending her hand to me.

  I gave her my schedule.

  “It’s quite similar. I just don’t take Politics or Chemistry.” She smiled. “Want to be friends?”

  I sighed, giving my first genuine smile since I left my small home. “Desperately!”

  Her own smile widened. “Cool, give me your number.”

  “I, umm,” I blushed with embarrassment.

  “What?”

  I was grateful that the bell rang and I could avoid her confused look.

  “I don’t have a phone, ah –” I chuckled as I gathered my bag but it lacked humor. “My father thinks I need to make a clean cut with my old life, so I’m not allowed a phone or internet for a while.”

  “No internet?” she asked, stopping in her tracks, but she was nudged forward when someone connected with her.

  “Careful, Oppenheimer” my brother barked.

  “Why are you even walking that close to me to start with, Archibald?” she sneered haughtily. “Don’t you need to keep a certain distance? In case you catch my normality?”

  “You should watch who you befriend too, Oppenheimer.” The blond spat with obvious disgust, looking at me. “Some people can only bring you down.”

  “I think you’re right, Astor,” she replied tapping her chin with her forefinger. “You better move along then, before you bring me down.”

  Astor glared at her before walking away stiffly, closely followed by my brother.

  “Who the hell is he?”

  Tay looked at me as if I had lost my mind before sighing. “Ah yeah, I keep forgetting you’re not from around here. I’ll drive you home after school if you want.”