Chapter 59:


    Effie didn’t look up. Her hand moved across the paper in a blur. She didn’t reach for scratch paper. She was calcting in real time.


    Eighteen minutes passed.


    Effie put her pencil down and raised her hand.


    The proctor walked over, whispering. “Do you need the bathroom, dear?”


    Effie shook her head. “I’m done.”


    “Done?” The proctor frowned. “You should check your work. You have forty minutes left.”


    “I checked it in my head,” Effie said, just loud enough for the room to hear.


    She handed in her paper and walked back to her seat.


    Up in the VIP box, Victoria scoffed. “Ridiculous. She clearly gave up. Probably filled in ‘C’ for everything. A waste of a seat.”


    Belle nodded eagerly. “She has attention issues, Victoria. Isolde refuses to medicate her.”


    Grayson watched the small girl sitting alone, staring at the ceiling. He felt a strange tightening in his chest. She looked so calm.


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    The exam ended. The papers were fed into the scantron machine on stage for immediate preliminary scoring. Results were projected onto the main screen.


    Names scrolled by.


    Kaiden Lancaster: 85%


    Belle exhaled the breath she’d been holding. “Eighty-five! That’s passing! That’s excellent!”


    Victoria nodded. “eptable. The Lancaster genes.”


    Then the top of the list refreshed. A gold star animation burst across the screen.


    Effie Lancaster: 100% Time: 18 minutes.


    The auditorium went dead silent.


    Then came a gasp. Then apuse. It started with the students and spread to the parents, swelling into a roar. A perfect score. In record time.


    Victoria’s teacup rattled against the saucer. She mmed it down hard enough to crack the china.


    She rose to her feet, her face twisting into a mask of fury. She marched to the ss railing. “Stop this!” she shrieked. “Stop this noise immediately!”


    The apuse faltered and died, confused.


    “This is a fraud!” Victoria leveled a manicured finger at the screen. “The machine is broken. Or the test waspromised.”


    The Headmaster went pale. “Mrs. Lancaster, the system is encrypted…”


    “Don’t lie to me!” Victoria swung her finger toward the back of the room, finding Isolde in the shadows. “It’s her! That woman has no ce here! She taught her daughter to cheat — just as she cheated her way into my family!”


    Isolde stood. She walked slowly down the aisle toward the stage, not looking at Victoria. She looked only at Effie.


    “Cancel the score!” Victoriamanded. “Disqualify that child immediately!”


    Grayson rose and reached for his mother’s arm. “Mom, stop. Everyone is watching.”


    Victoria pped his hand away. “Let them watch! Let them see us purge the rot! You are too weak to do it, Grayson. You let that woman walk all over you. You let her humiliate your son!”


    She leaned over the railing, her eyes venomous. “Effie Lancaster’s score is an anomaly. A statistical impossibility. She does not belong here. This school is for a certain caliber of student, from a certain caliber of family.”


    Effie shrank back in her chair, her lip trembling.


    Isolde stopped walking. She turned. She looked up at the VIP box.


    She didn’t scream. She didn’t cry.


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