Page 84 of Like You Know

“You’d think I’d be a bitter asshole after everything I’ve been through, everything I did.” He shifted in his seat, his silk robe rubbing against my own. Hendrix was clearly in a reflective mood. I couldn’t blame him. “But I guess I’ve also learned that life has a way of working out if you let it. Like, everything is OK in the end, and if it’s not OK, it’s not the end.”

“It’s because of who you are as a person deep down, Hendrix.” I kept my gaze forward. “You didn’t let that shit define you, and you worked to learn from it. That’s all any of us can do.”

He cleared his throat. “Thanks, Amaya.”

“You’re not bitter.” I shrugged. “But you’re still an asshole.”

I could see his grin out of the corner of my eye. “And you’re still a bitch.”

“Thank you.” I let my grin break free and clapped along with everyone else as Ms. Perry finished her speech and walked off the stage.

More people spoke—inspiring words from former students, the class president, and of course, my valedictorian bestie. Donna’s was the only speech I paid real attention to.

And then it was time. Guided by the teachers, my fellow graduates and I made our way forward in neat alphabetized rows. One by one, names were called, and students in shining teal robes proudly walked across the stage to accept their certificates and flip the tassel on their cap to the other side—a sign they’d officially graduated.

I cheered each one of them on, right along with the rest of the crowd.

Then it was my turn.

Ms. Perry called my name, and I took a breath as I stepped forward. I kept my gaze on my feet as I climbed the few stairs in my heels, then focused on Ms. Perry and reaching her.

I could feel all their gazes on the side of my head, hundreds of people staring at me and wondering just as many things as they already knew. It was all anyone in Devilbend had been talking about for weeks.

The tangled web of Raine Clayton’s crimes was still unraveling, but it was clear to anyone she was done.

She had spent years perpetrating more crimes than I cared to tally up—everything from tax evasion to straight-up murder. Because they’d caught her in the act of kidnapping and attempted murder in the cabin that day, the police had more than enough to keep her locked up while they gathered even more evidence against her, BestLyf, and multiple members of the organization.

She had immediately surrounded herself with an entire firm of high-profile attorneys, but even they couldn’t get her out on bail. Due to her resources and connections, she was too much of a flight risk. But they were doing their damnedest to get her out of paying for her crimes. They had their work cut out for them.

Even if Raine somehow managed to avoid life in prison, she was ruined, along with BestLyf. The organization that had been growing since the nineties—one of the most powerful corporations in the country—was crumbling for the whole world to see, as if it had been constructed from dust and lies. TMZ was reporting on it constantly, sometimes hourly. With that many high-profile people involved, there was a constant stream of scandals, news, declarations of innocence, and scrambling to get distance from a ship that had already sunk.

The police had already gathered a good deal of evidence against multiple members of BestLyf, but recent developments had given them access to more information than they could realistically process in the short time that had passed. But even preliminary reports—the little that they’d speak about—made it clear they had enough to throw the book at Raine.

Jet had barely left my side at the hospital and had practically moved into my house when I was discharged. Since then, he’d relaxed his staunch rule against telling me anything to do with his work; I knew more details than anyone outside the investigation. They had enough to prove Raine had her hand in multiple horrific crimes. Most notably, she was aware of the murder of Chelsea—one of Mena’s coworkers at the diner—who had gone missing and turned up dead. Raine had personally ordered the murder of Irene Richards in prison, and she had directly ordered my mother’s kidnapping.

More broadly, she was well aware of all the illegal dealings connected to BestLyf—many of which Calvin had been in charge of. There was a massive criminal underbelly to BestLyf, a huge network of drugs, guns, and human trafficking. And she was behind it all, had built it all.

And now she was going to pay for it.

I knew the law was anything but straightforward and the process could be painfully slow, but I also knew in my gut Raine would not get away with it. She’d hurt too many people, and there was too much evidence to prove it.

Not to mention all the people suddenly willing to talk, to give evidence and even testify—most of them in an effort to distance themselves from this truly horrifying shit show. To save their own asses. High-profile people, like Nicola’s famous actress mom, were falling over one another’s designer shoes to speak against an organization that had been as useful to them as they had been to Raine Clayton.

I didn’t care. As long as the real monsters paid for their evil deeds.

“Congratulations, Amaya.” Ms. Perry handed me my high school diploma and shook my hand. I returned her smile and reached up to flip the tassel from one side to the other.

Then I reminded myself I didn’t give a shit what all those people were saying or thinking about me, and I turned to face them with my head held high. I knew what really mattered to me, and their opinions weren’t it.

I held my fists up in triumph, my diploma clutched in one, and everyone cheered a little harder. Maybe I’d been imagining some of the whispers and judgment. The whistling and clapping seemed to get a little more intense and last a little longer than it had for the students before me.

Maybe I was imagining that too, but whatever. I’d been through a lot to make it to this point, and I enjoyed the applause.

My focus zeroed in on a particularly rowdy group in the crowd.

In the first row of the audience, the people I loved most in the world—at least the ones not graduating with me—all sat together in the same section. They must’ve arrived extra early to grab those seats, although they were on their feet right now, whooping and cheering and clapping like crazy people.

Jet stood front and center, beaming at me as he held his hand up to his mouth and wolf-whistled. The sound carried over all the rest of the noise.