Empire High Betrayal (Empire High #3) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,93

blood on my hands. And Mason had seen what he thought was me going into Matt’s room. There wasn’t any evidence against Isabella. There never was. Honestly, Isabella was right. I looked guilty. Not her.

“This is ridiculous,” Matt said. “I’ll be right back.” He walked over to the police officer.

Kennedy hugged me harder. “Are you okay?”

“No, not really.”

“Matt told me what happened. Did she really kill her own dog?”

I nodded. I didn’t want to talk about this. Just thinking about Sir Wilfred made me want to throw up. “Distract me. How was your dance with Rob?”

“Great. But if I’m being honest?” She looked over her shoulder to make sure no one was listening to us. “Well, how big of a distraction do you want?”

“A huge one.”

Kennedy took a deep breath. “You were right. I’ve had the biggest crush on Felix since freshman year and he’s finally being nice to me. I know I should have told you, but…”

I squeezed her so hard that she actually yelped. “I knew it.”

She laughed. “You’re getting blood all over me.”

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry.” I took a step back but she just pulled me back into another hug.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I guess it’s what I deserve after not being honest with you.”

“I think he likes you too,” I said. “He said you looked amazing tonight.”

She laughed. “He did, didn’t he?”

“Sweetheart,” Mrs. Caldwell said as she walked over to me. “Here, you should take my towel.” She started to undress.

What is she doing? I tried to protest, but I was relieved to see that Mrs. Caldwell was wearing a very chic strapless dress underneath her bath towel. Because of course she was. Mrs. Caldwell was always prepared for everything. Meanwhile, I had rolled around in dog blood. I swallowed hard. I wrapped the towel around myself and tried not to think about the fact that I now looked a hell of a lot like the woman that got knifed to death in the shower in Psycho. Definitely more than Mrs. Caldwell had earlier.

The police officer walked over to us. “Miss Pruitt is sticking to her story that you were the one that killed the dog, Miss Pruitt.” He scratched the side of his head as he stared down at his notes. “I hate Halloween.”

“So you think I murdered my half-sister’s adorable puppy and then rolled around in his blood for fun? And then wrote, ‘You’re next,’ on the wall in his blood? Why would I do that?”

He looked down at his notepad. “According to her…because you hate her.”

Yeah, I freaking do hate her. But I’m not a dog killer! “She’s been out to get me ever since she found out we were related.”

The officer just stared at me. “That’s exactly what she said about you.”

“This is ridiculous,” Matt said. “My brother saw Isabella go into my room…”

“No, he saw someone dressed as Sandy go into your room,” the officer said. “And no one else saw a thing. And we don’t have enough evidence to make an arrest.”

It looked like Matt was about to punch him in the face. And the last thing I needed right now was for Matt to wind up in prison. I grabbed his hand. He slowly unclenched his fist.

“Princess!” my dad said as he came rushing into the foyer.

“Dad!” I said.

And at the exact same time, Isabella called, “Daddy!” But she could choke on her words, because my dad came rushing over to me.

“Are you alright?” He grabbed both sides of my face.

I nodded. But just him being here and taking care of me made tears come to my eyes all over again. I glanced at Isabella out of the corner of my eye. The expression on her face was priceless. It looked like her head was about to explode. But I wasn’t having a competition with her over who our dad loved most. I was trying to get her freaking locked up before she killed me.

“What happened?” my dad asked, his hands settling on my shoulders.

I hadn’t realized how my story might sound to my dad. Me going into Matt’s room? Lying on his bed? But I didn’t care what he thought right now. I just needed him to know what Isabella had done. “Isabella murdered Sir Wilfred on Matt’s bed. She dressed like me so she could get away with sneaking into his room. There was blood everywhere. And she wrote, ‘You’re next,’ on the wall in Sir Wilfred’s blood. She’s telling the cops that I did