Chapter 626:
Three seconds later, a reply.
Scanning… No such person in the registry. Checking aliases… Match found: Stephanie Miller. Father owns a car wash chain in Ohio. Legally changed name last month. Maxed out three credit cards on ‘designer’ rentals.
Aurora smiled in the dark. Entertainment.
Over the next few days, Stella turned Room 302 into her personal showroom.
She unpacked an obscene amount of clothes, pushing Maddie’s meager belongings off the shared closet rail. She covered the walls with posters of herself.
“Hey! Watch it!” Stella shouted on Tuesday morning.
Maddie had accidentally brushed against a jewelry box on Stella’s desk.
Stella rushed over, opening the box to reveal a large, blue sapphire necklace.
“This,” Stella declared loudly, making sure the girls in the hallway could hear, “is the Heart of the Ocean. It’s been in the Kensington family for five generations. My grandmother gave it to me before I left the estate.”
Aurora was drinking tea at her desk. She glanced at the necklace.
It was pretty. It was shiny. It was also a cubic zirconia replica from a collection released by a department store two years ago. The real Kensington Sapphire was currently sitting in a vault in Zurich. Aurora knew this because she had paid the insurance premium on it last week.
“It’s beautiful,” Maddie whispered, awestruck.
“Don’t breathe on it,” Stella snapped, slamming the box shut. “It’s worth more than your life.”
Stella’s “Kensington” status had spread through the dorm like wildfire. Girls from other rooms flocked to her, hoping for invitations to parties or just to be near the “wealth.” Stella held court on her bed, handing out cheap lipstick samples she claimed were “unreleased prototypes.”
Ł@ŧëşŧ ÇĦ@þŦèŕş íń 𝑔𝑎𝑙𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑠.𝑐𝑜𝑚
“I went to school in Switzerland,” Stella bragged to a group of sycophants. “Prince Harry used to copy my homework.”
Aurora put on her noise-canceling headphones. It was like watching a bad reality TV show live.
That evening, Stella stood up. “Alright, girls. We’re going to The Gilded Cage. VIP table. My treat.”
The girls squealed.
Stella looked at Maddie, who was studying physics. “Hey, charity case. You can come too. We need someone to hold our purses while we dance.”
Maddie flushed red. “I… I have to work. I have a shift at the library.”
“Work?” Stella laughed. “How quaint. How much do they pay you? Ten dollars an hour?”
She reached into her Prada bag and pulled out a crisp hundred-dollar bill. She crumpled it into a ball and threw it at Maddie. It bounced off Maddie’s textbook.
“Here,” Stella sneered. “Now you don’t have to work. Clean my shoes instead.”
Maddie stared at the money. Tears welled up in her eyes. Her hands clenched into fists on her lap. She needed the money.
.
.
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