Clara’s reaction to that line was to throw her pen at Caiden. He disappeared before it could hit him and she was left glaring at empty space.
She sighed and picked her pen off the floor. Sometimes he was very annoying, but most of the time he was oddly kind for a demon. She still didn’t quite know what to make of the demon she was bonded to.
She looked down at her notes again. Revenge didn’t seem as easy now that she knew she would have to somehow get hold of all the evidence needed to prove Beryl’s wrongdoing.
How was she going to do that by herself?
To obtain James’ financial records she would either have to ask him, ask his financial advisor or somehow steal them herself. She sighed and closed her notebook. There was no chance any of them were possible. James might love his granddaughter, but he was never going to disclose very personal financial information to her and neither would his financial advisor.
She needed to ask Caiden for more advice. He would know a way to get hold of evidence. Clara pushed aside the notebook and turned her attention to the computer. She switched it on and waited for it to load. There were a few things she wanted to check.
When the computer was ready, she typed in the password from Clarissa’s memories and opened up the internet browser. It was time to look up her death as Clara Kennedy. She typed in her name and death before closing her eyes. She wasn’t under any allusions that she would like what she found.
Clara counted to three and opened her eyes. The first result on the page was an article from the Trinity Academy website. Clara clenched her jaw and clicked on the link.
The article detailed that the star scholarship student at the academy had sadly passed away and her death was suspected to be suicide.
“Clara had always been a welcome part of the school as our first scholarship student. Her presence is greatly missed by students and staff,” she read aloud with a scoff.
There was nothing about her relentless bullying or how the school had been complicit by doing nothing about it. Clara wanted to tear her hair out.
“We offer our condolences to her family and anyone affected by the loss,” she continued and snorted loudly.
She closed down the article with a huff and continued down the list of results. There were some news articles about her death that were brief and only identified her as a student of Trinity Academy who lived with a foster family.
Clara was itching to find out what actual students of Trinity Academy were saying, but she would need to be friends with them on social media to find out. It was tempting to log into her social media accounts to find out, but she knew she couldn’t do that.
Clara Kennedy was dead and it would look odd if she was logged into her social media accounts. She was Clarissa St. Clair now.
Clara closed down the browser and resolved to never look herself up again. Everything she had seen had enraged her.
She distracted herself by finding Clarissa’s phone and putting it on charge. It was a very expensive phone and was a far cry from the basic cheap phone she had as Clara Kennedy. Whilst she was waiting for the dead phone to charge, she pulled out Clarissa’s schoolwork.
It would help to acquaint herself with the schoolwork in advance. The art part didn’t look like it was going to be a problem. She would have to be careful about showing a sudden improvement in art though. The teacher would jump to the likely conclusion that she was getting someone else to do her homework for her if she handed in work that was on a completely different skill level.
Business looked a little harder. She hadn’t worked on anything like it before. It was lucky that Clarissa had been good at it, she could use her memories.
Schooling was very different in the UK compared to the US. Clarissa was studying for an International Baccalaureate and went to a fee-paying high school.
Clara saw a uniform in Clarissa’s school memories and opened the closet to take a look. There were lots of closets in Clarissa’s room and each one had a different theme. The one she opened was the school themed one. Inside were rows of white blouses, school jackets and black pants.
Clara pulled out a complete set to evaluate the uniform when compared to Trinity Academy. Both uniforms were from fee paying schools that had prestigious images.
The school jacket was black with the school logo on one side. It was nice and plain and looked like it would be the perfect fit. She liked the idea of wearing black pants more than the Trinity Academy plaid skirt. She also had lots of bad memories associated with the Trinity Academy uniform.
For now, Clarissa’s school uniform was infinitely better than the one she had worn before. She put the clothes back in the closet and reminded herself to call it a wardrobe if she was speaking aloud. Closet was the American word for a wardrobe and she was British now. There were a lot of things to remember so she could pass as British 18-year-old.
Clara spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Clarissa’s expansive bedroom. There were lots of things to look at so by the time a maid came to collect her for dinner, she still had a lot to explore.
Dinner was Clarissa’s favourite, Chicken Masala Curry. Clara hadn’t tried anything like that before so she was intrigued when she sat down at the table and smelled the spices. It smelled good at least. She tried her best to ignore Beryl who was also sitting at the table.
“It’s this curry again?” Beryl griped. “It’s too spicy, I always have to drink lots of water after.”
Clara went through Clarissa’s memories to see if she could find anything to say in response.
“This curry is considered to be not spicy by normal standards,” she replied. “I was thinking I would like to try something spicier in the future. I’ll talk to Maria about it.”
Beryl gave her a nasty look and Clara knew she had successfully annoyed her. There was no way she was going to shy away from Beryl now that she knew exactly what she had done. Her body was nervous, but her mind knew she was planning revenge.
“That’s an idea,” James agreed. “I think we should have a variety of cuisines for our evening meals. It’s good to try different things. It certainly makes you look more esteemed when having lunch or dinner meetings with clients.”
Clara risked a glance at Beryl. The redhead was glaring at her. If looks could kill, Clara would have already burst into flames. She smiled at Beryl who glared even harder.
She took a bite of chicken and found that it was delicious. It might also be her favourite thing to eat as well. The curry itself was comfortably spiced and creamy. It was so nice that she almost forgot Beryl was sitting next to her.
“Clarissa, are you going to have permanent scarring from your cuts?” Beryl asked a moment later.
Clara tried not to show that she was uncomfortable with the question. She should have known it wasn’t a good idea to annoy Beryl.
“I have to see a doctor in a few days, I’ll ask then,” she replied, doing her best to sound like she wasn’t concerned.
“I can shop around to see if I can find a plastic surgeon who can help with the scarring,” Beryl said sweetly. “I don’t want you to have permanent scars from self-harm for life. You’re a girl and you need something more than your money to make you attractive.”
Clara tried her best to ignore Beryl's insult about Clarissa's suicide attempt. She looked over at James to see if he had noticed that Beryl was insulting her in an indirect way.
“She can cover up the scars with make-up if they bother her,” James commented. “Beryl, you’re finding solutions for problems Clarissa doesn’t yet have.”
Clara appreciated that James had noticed that Beryl had gone too far, but he hadn’t exactly reined her in either. It was no wonder that Beryl had been able to get so far in her kill Clarissa plan.
“Problem solving is why my business is going so well,” Beryl said with a laugh.
Clara’s ears pricked up, but she tried her best to not show her interest. Clarissa didn’t normally pay much attention to Beryl’s company so it would be odd if she was suddenly attentive when Beryl mentioned her company. She continued eating like Beryl hadn’t spoken.
“What is your revenue like this quarter?” James asked. “I like that you haven’t asked me for any help with your company, it shows your independence from me.”
Clara knew that was very far from the truth. Beryl had stolen his money instead of asking for his help.
“We’re smashing our targets,” Beryl said triumphantly. “I’m confident things will be the same next quarter.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to visit and take a look at everything to see if there’s anything I can suggest?” James offered.
Clara glanced at the woman next to her who most definitely didn’t want James coming to take a closer look at her company. Beryl didn’t show any signs of being bothered by the request.
“Darling,” she giggled. “I want to be an independent business woman; I can’t be if you poke your nose in.”
"Fine, I won’t,” James said with a smile.
Clara wanted to vomit. Beryl had missed her true calling as an actress. She had averted the situation so well. Clara knew how she had managed to get this far in life by lying, Beryl was the right type of person to pull scams off flawlessly without her victims noticing anything amiss.
***
After dinner Clara turned down an invitation to play cards with James and Beryl and returned to her bedroom. She felt more energetic after eating and wanted to get back to working on her revenge plan.
Caiden hadn’t turned up since his disappearance in the afternoon so she could only assume he was gathering information for her or was avoiding her.
Clara added some more notes in her revenge notebook about Beryl being a good actress and tried to think of other ideas to bust her lies. Beryl didn’t want James to look closely at her company. Perhaps she could find some way to get James to Beryl’s company office to look over their financial records.
She wrote that down with a frown. James did seem determined to let his girlfriend be independent from him businesswise so that idea was unlikely to succeed. None of her ideas looked like they were going to work so far.
Perhaps she could learn how to hack so she could get access to Beryl's financial records herself.
Clara tried to look up how to hack on a search engine and ended up with a headache. It was all too complicated for her. She put her head on her desk and sighed heavily.
“I don’t know what to do...”
“I’ve already come up with a plan,” Caiden said from behind her.
Clara didn’t bother to turn around. It felt Caiden had been waiting for the right moment to reappear.
“What’s your plan?”
Caiden came to stand by her chair.
“There’s a hacker in your classes at school, he can help you.”
Clara looked at him skeptically.
“How do I convince a hacker to help me out?”
Caiden grinned at her.
"The hacker just happens to have a crush on Clarissa. You’re going need to flirt a little. It will hurt me to see you flirt with another man, but I’ll allow it.”
Clara didn’t quite know what to say to that. It was no wonder that he hadn’t mentioned this plan earlier, he knew she wouldn’t like it.“I have to flirt with this hacker to convince him to help me?” she asked just to make sure she had heard correctly. Caiden shrugged. “I was only joking. He will accept money; he needs it and he will most definitely think something is strange if you flirt with him.”Clara threw her pen at him again. This time Caiden side stepped it instead of disappearing.“I was trying to lighten the tone,” he protested. “You need to stop throwing things at me.”Clara knew that he was doing his best to distract her from everything. After all it was her first day with Clarissa’s memories. She didn’t even know if she was going to sleep well tonight. Sl
Caiden frowned and he checked her future again. It was still the same vision. Something had happened to change Clara’s end from a simple soul handover to a make out scene. He moved to stand next to Clara to see if there were any changes in her appearance. It was evident that she looked a little happier now. She looked up at him curiously and he failed to see any sign of attraction in her eyes. There was no chance she wanted to kiss him passionately on the lips like she had in his vision of the future. Maybe her interaction with Arthur Wang had changed her future. He was a potential future romantic interest for her. Perhaps she opened her heart to romance in the future before her end and that led to their kiss. He reminded himself that her future would change slightly over time due to natural shifts. Clara giving up her soul to him was a guaranteed event because they had bonded and had made a contract together. The vision that he was currently seeing could also change again at a
Clara fought the urge to throw the menu at Caiden. It was almost a shame he wasn’t visible in the human world. If she retaliated now, she would look completely crazy. The demon swanned over to her side to whisper in her ear. “Remember I can see your future. I know everything.” “Thank you,” she said sweetly to Arthur. “Perhaps I can just buy you food instead.” She did her best to ignore Caiden. He really felt like a demon right now. There was an evil glint in his eyes. She focused her attention on Arthur. Caiden didn’t deserve to have any of her attention right now. Arthur smiled at her. “That sounds good. It really doesn’t feel right to accept money from you.” Clara could understand his thinking in some way. He had known Clarissa since he was 11 and had experienced a crush on her at some point. It would be awkward to let her pay him with money. She smiled back him and she began to get the feeling that Arthur might still have a crush on Clarissa from the spark in his eyes. T
Clara narrowed her eyes. Just when she thought Caiden was less annoying, he came out with something like this.“I don’t think being able to tell when someone is flirting with me is going to help with my final goal,” she snapped and removed her hand from his hair.“There was someone at Trinity Academy who liked you in your first life,” Caiden told her.That was enough to pique Clara’s curiosity. Then she remembered that it didn’t really matter because Clara was dead and she considered everyone at Trinity Academy to be a bully in one way or another. “Well, they didn’t do anything to save me so I don’t care who they are,” she replied.She was sure she would have been interested in this titbit of information before she had died. Now her only focus was revenge.&
Clara was surprised to see Caiden look so downcast. It didn’t look right to see the demon look so sorry for himself. She didn’t quite know what to say to comfort him.“You’re not useless,” she said. “You’re doing everything that you can. You’re really annoying at times, but you’ve been very helpful to me so far.”Caiden perked up noticeably at her compliment and Clara smiled gently. The demon might be easier to deal with than she had predicted.“Are all demons as insecure as you?” she questioned.Caiden looked surprised by the question. Clara was interested to hear his answer. He hadn’t told her much about demons yet and her curiosity had yet to be sated.“I don’t think so. I only really interact with younger demons like myself,” he answered. “I’m th
“We don’t need to go far with the act,” Clara reminded him. “We just need to appear as a couple at a first glance.”“I just wanted to fluster you,” Arthur said with a guilty smile. “Never mind. As you said, we just need to act like a couple if you get recognised by Beryl. Let’s go.”Arthur parked in the car in the hotel parking lot. There were regular looking cars, fancy cars and other Lamborghinis. “Beryl is due here in 20 minutes according her text,” Arthur said after checking his phone. “Let’s get moving.”They walked into the entrance of the hotel. Clara was overwhelmed again by the fancy atmosphere. It was so bright and dazzling inside. She really had been living in a low class before. Trinity Academy was nothing compared to this.“Have you stayed he
“You are the best person I could have asked to help,” Clara agreed. Arthur beamed at her. There was a visible blush on his face and Clara waited for Caiden to say something malicious about Arthur. Hopefully he had got past that pettiness, but she wasn’t going to expect too much of him. “He did a good job with that,” the demon said reluctantly. “He dispelled any suspicion that the staff had about the two of you.” “You’re still the one footing the bill for today,” Arthur said with a grin. “Remember that you said you would buy me food instead of paying me.” Clara almost winced at the thought of the bill before remembering that she actually had a bank account now. It was easy to forget sometimes that she was a rich heiress. “I did. I think we’ve got enough material to prove that Beryl is cheating on Grandpa now,” she replied. “Let’s just focus on our food. Do you think they didn’t actually kick us out because we dressed like rich brats?” “It’s most likely that we survived for l
Clara blinked in surprise. She wasn’t sure if she had heard Arthur correctly. She was shocked that Arthur would suggest committing a crime in order to find the evidence they needed. It was a method that would undoubtably provide results, but she didn’t want to do it. She felt that the chances of getting caught were high. “We’re not breaking in,” she hissed in case they were overheard. “It’s a crime.” Arthur shrugged. “We’ve already committed a crime by putting spyware on her phone. I’ve checked out her office already, the security isn’t great there. It’s feasible.” Clara stopped eating her pretzel with a sigh. Arthur was right. They had already broken the law once and were going to a second time by hacking into the company’s computers. “I hope someone clicks on your email so we don’t have to stoop to that,” she said. “I hope so too. Of course, I wasn’t being serious about the break in. It’s a last resort plan,” he replied. “My parents have heard of her company and were interest