Little White Lies Read Free

yet, you know!”
    “Oh yeah, right.” My cheeks burn as I move to the
S
box. I have to stop
doing
that. Louise Shepherd. My name is
Louise Shepherd
. I riffle through the letters, then freeze as I spot the familiar postmark.
    “Bills, bills, bills!” Vix moans, opening her mail. “You get anything interesting?”
    “Same,” I lie quickly, shoving the letter into my bag as she hooks her arm through mine. “I’m gonna have to start looking for a job soon!”
    “Seriously!” Vix nods as we head into the car park. “No one ever warns you how expensive uni is! I thought it was all about late nights and lie-ins, booze and bonking, good times and—”
    “Good grades?” I raise an eyebrow.
    “You sound just like my dad,” Vix groans as we slide into the car. “ ‘University is not about getting drunk all day, Victoria. This is your future on the line.’ He’s still sore that I didn’t get into Cambridge like his beloved
Darius
.” She pulls a face. “Dads! It must be easier living with your uncle and aunt, huh? Less pressure?”
    I falter.
I wish.
I owe them everything. They had no obligation to adopt me, so when I let them down it’s a hundred times worse.
    And boy, have I let them down.
    “Not that I’m saying it’s easy losing your mum and dad,” Vix adds quickly. “Just... just tell me to shut my big mouth.”
    “It’s okay.” I smile as I maneuver the car out of the car park. “I never really knew my parents, but I don’t think my aunt and uncle treat me any differently than my cousins. Except, I guess, my uncle’s a little more protective of them, but that’s probably just because they’re younger than me.”
    I smile as I think of fearless little Millie and her comical take on the world. She’d be into everything, given half a chance.
    “Tell me about it,” Vix groans. “It’s a nightmare being the youngest. Especially with Darius for an older brother—he’s like another parent!”
    I laugh.
    “But you and your cousins get on okay?” she asks.
    “Like a house on fire.” I smile. “I think of them more like sisters, really. One’s only a year younger than me, so we always did everything together—horse-riding lessons, ballet classes, same piano tutor, same swimming coach, same school... till sixth form, anyway.”
    “Why, what happened?”
    My heart sinks.
Then everything changed.
    “My uncle always wanted us to go to his old boarding school for our A levels—to make sure we got the best grades. They only take girls in the sixth form, and I was a year older, so... it was the first time we’d been separated nearly our whole lives.”
    And I wish I’d never gone. Never left her side.
    “I wish I had sisters,” Vix sighs. “All I hear is: ‘Victoria, why can’t you be more like your brother?’
My dad doesn’t understand that I don’t
want
to be a bloodsucking lawyer, and investigative journalism is an equally valid career choice. He thinks it’s all just paparazzi on motorbikes.” She sighs. “You know he gave Darius a Porsche for his twenty-first? A
Porsche
? And he won’t even let me drive his old
Volvo
. I can’t believe your uncle loaned you his car. You’re so lucky. And it’s an automatic too. So easy to drive.”
    “Yeah, it is—except when you have to go up and down all these hills!”
    “So how come you’ve got your uncle’s car anyway?” Vix asks. “Doesn’t he need it?”
    I shrug. “Not for a while.”
Not where he is.
    “He’s away?” Vix asks.
    I nod.
    “Business or pleasure?”
    “Business,” I say quickly, focusing on the road in front of me as we drive down a steep hill, hoping Vix will drop the subject.
    I think of the envelope in my jacket pocket.
It’s certainly not pleasure
.
    “Isn’t he worried about you damaging his car?” Vix asks. “I’d be totally paranoid about even
scratching
it, if it were me—my dad would go completely mental.”
    I smile. “My uncle doesn’t really go mental about that stuff