Empire High Betrayal (Empire High #3) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,114

eyes were red and puffy like he’d been crying.

“Oh. Um. Hey,” I said. “Can I speak with Brooklyn?”

He wiped under his nose with the back of his hand. And then held the door open for Mason and me to come in. “Mr. Pruitt’s been expecting you. He’s in his study.” He gestured toward the large wooden office doors.

Okay. “But will you tell Brooklyn that I’m here? Friendsgiving starts in less than an hour and we really have to get going.”

The guy looked like he was about to start crying again. “Just go talk to Mr. Pruitt.”

Before I could ask any more questions, he walked away.

Weird. I hoped he was okay. Brooklyn was always so nice to her security team, but they always just made me feel uncomfortable. Like they hated me for some reason. I walked over to Mr. Pruitt’s study and knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

I pushed open the door and froze. Mr. Pruitt was sitting behind his desk in a wheelchair. His arm was attached to an IV. His face was completely drained of color. Except for his eyes. They were red and puffy just like the security guard’s. He looked like death.

“Matthew,” he said, his voice hoarse like he hadn’t used it in a long time. “There’s been…an incident.”

“What kind of incident?” It was like all the blood rushed to my ears. I could hear my heart pounding.

Mr. Pruitt looked back down at the picture of Brooklyn he had on his desk. “Brooklyn…she…” his voice trailed off as a sob escaped his throat. He tried to reach for a tissue from his desk, but his arm gave out.

“What the hell is going on? Where is she?”

Mr. Pruitt just shook his head. “We didn’t know how weak her heart was until it was too late.”

Too late? Too late for what?

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m going to miss her just as much as you.”

What the fuck was he talking about? I didn’t realize I was stumbling backwards until I ran into Mason. Mason grabbed my arms like he was expecting me to fall over.

But this was just a sick joke. Brooklyn was fine. I’d just seen her last night. She’d just left me dozens of messages. There was no incident. I pushed Mason off of me and ran out into the foyer. “Brooklyn!” I yelled.

My voice echoed in the empty foyer.

“Brooklyn!” I ran up the stairs. “Brooklyn, please just talk to me!” I ran down the hall to her bedroom. “Brooklyn?” The room was empty. I ran back out into the hall. Where the fuck was she? I started opening up random doors. “I’m sorry, baby. Please just talk to me.”

“I told her she wouldn’t live to see her wedding day,” Isabella said.

Her words sent a chill down my spine. I turned to see her standing in the middle of the hallway with a huge smile on her face.

She had no clue what she was talking about, though. Brooklyn was fine. “Get out of my way, Isabella.” I walked past her. “Brooklyn, where are you?!”

“Those morgue people came and took her away hours ago.”

Panic was starting to settle into my chest. “Brooklyn!”

“They just wheeled her cold, lifeless body out,” Isabella said. “Like a bag of trash. Because that’s what she was.”

I lunged at her. I didn’t realize or care that anyone was watching us, but two bodyguards grabbed me before I could wrap my hands around Isabella’s throat.

Isabella laughed.

“Get off me,” I yelled. “Brooklyn, where are you?!”

“Exactly where she belongs,” Isabella said. “Six feet under with her whore mother.”

I ripped my arm away from one of the security guards and grabbed the front of Isabella’s sweater.

She screamed at the top of her lungs.

“What did you do?” I yelled.

The security guards pulled me away.

This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t real.

“I didn’t have to do anything,” Isabella called after me as I was being pulled down the steps. “I had a wonderful plan, but I didn’t even have to use it. She died because she was weak.”

“Don’t you dare fucking call her that.” I tried to lunge up the stairs again, but Mason stepped in front of me.

“She died in surgery,” he said.

I shook my head back and forth. “No. What the hell are you talking about? She wasn’t having surgery today.”

“She’d agreed to give her dad her kidney. There were complications.”

No. “She would have told me if she was doing that.” I just kept shaking my head as the tears started to fall down my cheeks. “She’s okay. She’s alive. I’ll