Fake You | MV Ellis: Boys Of Trinity Hall Book 2 Read online

  Fake You | MV Ellis

  Boys Of Trinity Hall Book 2

  MV Ellis

  Fake You

  Published by MV Ellis

  Digital Edition

  Fake You © 2020 By MV Ellis

  First published January 2020

  eBook ISBN: 978-0-6487135-2-4

  All rights reserved. ©

  This eBook is for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold, or given away. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

  If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to your favourite retailer, and purchase your own copy

  No part of this ebook may be used or reproduced in any written, electronic, recorded, or photocopied format without the express permission from the author as allowed under the terms and conditions with which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law.

  Any unauthorized distribution, circulation or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  Thank you for respecting the work of this author

  Disclaimer

  Fake You is a work of fiction. All names, characters, events and places found therein are either from the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to persons alive or dead, actual events, locations, or organizations is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  The author acknowledges all song titles, song lyrics, film titles, film characters, trademarked statuses and brands mentioned in this book are the property of their respective owners. MV Ellis is in no way affiliated with any of the brands, songs, musicians, artists or other entities mentioned in this book.

  “Don’t trust everything you see.

  Even salt looks like sugar.”

  ~Unknown

  For everyone who’s ever had to do what they had to do to survive.

  Fake You Playlist

  The Weeknd - Angel

  Kiana Ledé - Take It All

  August Rigo - Shine(Duet)

  R.LUM.R - Lonely

  Mario - Care for You

  Will Gittens - This Feeling

  Gallant - Hurt

  Astrid S - Doing To Me

  Dagny - Landslide

  Rhys Lewis - Things You Can't Change

  Dermot Kennedy - Outnumbered - Acoustic

  Destiny Rogers - LockDown

  Andrew Garcia - To The Moon

  Janine - Broke Me Down

  Alex Aiono - As You Need

  Two Another - Another Night

  dvsn - A Muse

  Kevin Ross - Thing Called Love

  NOLAN - Conclusion

  Ginette Claudette - Lifetime

  Contents

  Prologue

  Heathcote University Welcome Brochure

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Epilogue

  SHAKE YOU - BOYS OF TRINITY HALL BOOK 3

  Books By MV Ellis

  Thank You & Follow me

  Acknowledgments

  ABOUT MV ELLIS

  Prologue

  Kik

  Fifteen years earlier

  My arms were so sore and I tired, and I was so cold and wet, my teeth were banging together. My feet and hands were tingly and weird, like when I slept on them funny. It hurt. A lot. My nose was all runny, and a didn’t have a Kleenex, so I had to keep taking long sniffs, and sucking my snot down my throat, or waiting until it ran down my nose toward my lip, and lick it up that way. It was gross, but I couldn’t stop. I had to keep going. I had to keep trying. I had to make magic happen. I had to.

  “Angelita, you need to come inside. It’s freezing out here. You’ll catch your death. Besides, dinner is almost ready.” My Daddy’s voice boomed around the small yard, scaring me a little, as I hadn’t heard him open the door over the swish, swoosh of my arms as I flapped them up and down.

  There wasn’t even any space left in the tiny yard to make new snow angels, so I’d started going over the old ones. If only I could stay outside long enough to make enough angels to make the magic work.

  “Okay Papá, I’m coming, but just five more minutes…please?”

  “Okay m’ija, but that’s it. Five more minutes.” He sighed big and loud the way he always did—like he was really sad inside his heart, but didn’t want to say so.

  I knew how that felt, because I felt it too. I was hurting in my heart real bad, but I didn’t tell Daddy, because I knew he couldn’t fix it. Nobody could, except the snow angels.

  Heathcote University Welcome Brochure

  Heathcote University Welcome Brochure – Campus Myths and Legends

  “One of the biggest legends associated with the college is that of Cygnus Dei, Heathcote’s rumored and hallowed secret society. Rumored, because secret societies have been outlawed here since the early twentieth century.

  “If it still exists, Cygnus, as it’s often referred to for short, has all the hallmarks of the quintessential Ivy League secret society—practicing wild initiation rituals, carrying out elaborate pranks, and employing strict selection criteria—metaphorical velvet ropes—to ensure that only the cream of the crop of the college’s student population make the grade.

  “This elitist attitude is reflected in the society’s motto—Cygnus Inter Anates—Swan Among Ducks.

  “Like all secret societies, Cygnus Dei is shrouded in mystery (natch), rumor and misinformation—little of real substance is known about the society’s current membership, selection and initiation processes, or what goes on behind closed doors. All of which seems to ensure its enduring appeal and interest with the college’s general population.

  “Perhaps the biggest secret of all is the identity of the Alpha Cygni—the head of the society. Some say it’s a position held by birthright, others say the place is bought, while yet others claim it is fought for.

  “According to folklore, each year on ‘Tap Day’, ten new prospective members in their sophomore year, called cygnets, reportedly receive a knock at their doors with an invitation from the board of the society—the Northern Cross—to join. Being of the old-school secret-society variety, the members are all men. The ten are then, supposedly, put through a series of initiation trials, before being fully sworn in during their junior year.

  “The ceremony is said to involve a series of mysterious rituals conducted by
the Northern Cross, who don Fawkes masks—a tradition developed long before they were made popular by the movie V for Vendetta, and more recently, the Anonymous and Occupy Movements—and heavy, black-velvet robes.

  “Purportedly headquartered at Trinity Hall with the Alpha Cygni and key members of the Northern Cross resident there, the society is also suspected to keep company at the nearby prestigious Swan Club. But with members remaining secret until after graduation—when they reveal themselves by wearing ties emblazoned with the society’s crest, which features its motto and a black swan, among other symbolic elements—and even then, never formally confirmed, it’s very hard to substantiate any of the rumors.”

  Chapter 1

  Drew

  “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

  I tried, and no doubt failed, to keep the sarcasm from my voice. Dealing with Father dearest was never anything close to what could be described as a pleasure.

  “Do I need a reason to visit my only son? Was I supposed to make an appointment?”

  I didn’t bother dignifying him with a response. He was being antagonistic, as he always was, and he definitely wasn’t looking for an answer to his rhetorical question. He had zero interest in anything I had to say. He never had. Case in point: in the almost-three years I’d been at Heathcote, he’d never once come to see me. So it was clear that this impromptu visit was more than just an uncharacteristic display of fatherly affection.

  I waited. No matter what he claimed, there was a point, and he clearly had a plan for how to deliver it. No doubt, he’d get to it in his own sweet time.

  “It’s your birthday.” As though I wasn’t aware of my own fucking date of birth. I let the dumb statement hang in the air between us. He’d initiated the unplanned contact—he would be the one to get to spill the beans. “So, you’re old enough to be more involved in the business.”

  Interesting… he wanted something. I just had no idea what. Yet.

  “And as such, I have a task for you.” I noted that, though he’d acknowledged that today was my born day, he hadn’t actually recognized its significance by bothering to wish me happy birthday. Happy birthday to me.

  He slid a manila folder over the kitchen counter—I’d been eating my breakfast before going to classes for the day.

  I opened the file, surprised to be faced with a number of grainy black-and-white photos. I recognized them straight away as having been taken by a PI. There were multiple, successive shots of the same person going about their life, clearly unaware of being surveilled. Jesus. As if I didn’t think my father could get any lower on my list of people I liked or admired, he’d stooped from asshole to creeper

  , and slipped even lower.

  “Who, and what is this?”

  “Well I’ve already said what it is—a task for you. Business.” Which was as clear as mud.

  “Okay, so…?”

  “This is Kristina Sanchez. She’s attempting to blackmail me. Well, not me personally, but the company.”

  “Blackmail? On what basis?”

  “Some trumped-up bullshit about chritonium.”

  “What? I thought that was all put to bed years ago.”

  “Exactly. But some people just love to stir the pot. She claims she has information that could blow the whole thing wide open again.”

  “What information?”

  “She hasn’t fully revealed her hand yet, but it’s best you don’t know the specifics, anyway. Suffice to say, she’s angling to destroy everything I’ve worked hard for decades to build, and there’s no way I’m going to let that happen.”

  “So what she has over you, I mean, the company, is real?”

  “Like I said, I haven’t seen all the specifics, but that’s not the point. The point is that trial by media and public opinion means that if we’re dragged before the kangaroo court, we’re going down, regardless of the facts. Public opinion is stronger than the law, these days. And even if it goes our way legally, the ‘no smoke without fire’ mentality will slowly strangle the business, one way or the other. I’m not about to sit on my hands and watch my blood, sweat, and tears suffer death by a thousand cuts.”

  “Okay, so what does all of this have to do with me? “

  “You need to silence her.”

  “Excuse me?” Was he for real? Who did he think he was, some kind of fucking mafia boss? No, even worse, he sounded like a reject from a mob movie.

  “You heard me. You need to make her go away.”

  “Are you telling me to kill her?”

  “Jesus Christ! Are you a total moron, or do you just like to give that impression? If I wanted someone killed, you’d be the last person I’d ask.”

  I noted that he didn’t say that he’d never want anyone killed, just that I wouldn’t be a candidate for the job.

  “Okay, so…?”

  “So, I want you to do what you need to do to ‘persuade’ her to forget what she thinks she knows.”

  “What exactly do you mean by that? Just so we’re clear.”

  “I don’t care what you do. Just make her go the fuck away.”

  “Can’t you just pay her off?”

  “We tried that. Well, we tried making her an offer that someone in her position shouldn’t have been able to refuse, and she did exactly that.”

  “She didn’t take the offer?”

  “Isn’t that what I just said? I swear to God. You’re a fucking birdbrain, just like your oxygen-thief mother.” I took a deep breath and tried to contain the urge to TKO him.

  “I don’t understand why you need me, to—”

  “Ha! Don’t flatter yourself kid. I don’t need you to do anything.”

  “Well then why do you want me to handle it?” Especially as he was always at such pains to tell me how stupid I was. “Can’t you keep trying? Get the PI to dig some dirt, then blackmail her right back?”

  “Nope. If she really has something—which she doesn’t—or even if it doesn’t, but the press get ahold of it, if it becomes public knowledge that I’ve taken action to quash it, it will blow up like a cheap firework. I need to be clean. What we’ve done so far was risky enough, but it was a calculated risk, as we figured she’d take the cash and disappear back into the hole she came from. Obviously that didn’t work out the way we anticipated, so it’s time to change up the tactics completely.”

  “You can’t just up the offer?”

  “The fact that she didn’t take the first one, or even try to negotiate, shows that money isn’t her main motivation. If it was, she would have cut and run by now. I don’t know what her angle is, but there’s a bigger play here, or at least she thinks there is. I want to quash it before it gets out of hand. That’s where you come in.”

  “I still don’t see what I can do that hasn’t already been done.”

  “Of course you don’t. Because your stupidity is boundless. Jesus, if you didn’t look so much like me—” It was true, apart from my steel-gray eyes, which were the mirror image of my mother’s, I was his carbon copy. A fact I hated. “—I’d honestly wonder if you were even my kid. I’ll spell this out as slowly and simply as I can for you. She’s about your age. You do the fucking math.”

  “So you want me to deal with her because we’re both young, and maybe I can work some kind of magic?” He was officially insane.

  “Finally the dots connect in your dense brain. Ordinarily I wouldn’t think anything of the kind, and I definitely wouldn’t send a boy to do a man’s work, but this is the only option, so that’s exactly what I’m saying. Fuck her. Scare her. Make her fall in love with you. Destroy her reputation in whatever way you can so that she’s no longer a credible witness. All of the above. I mean it. Whatever. You. Have. To. Do. And I mean anything.”

  “But I’m connected to you, so if I’m found to have done anything to her, you’ll be implicated.”

  “Except I’d issue a sworn affidavit making it clear that you acted alone, and without my knowledge, probably due to the mental health struggles you’ve
been facing as result of the pressure of your studies, blah, blah, blah…With your mother’s history, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to believe that you’d suffered a similar fate.” Of course. He was going to throw me under the bus by going on record to tell the world I was having a breakdown. I wasn’t even surprised. Nothing he did shocked me these days.

  “And what if I refuse?” As I had every intention of doing.

  “I figured you would, because you’re a bleeding-heart pussy like that. And of course, that’s your right. It’s a free country, after all.”

  There had to be a catch. I said nothing, and waited for the other shoe to drop. My father slid another file across the counter to me. There was a catch. I knew it. I opened it slowly.

  “It’s also my right to cut your mother off totally. She signed a prenup, remember? The conditions of which mean that unless things go my way, her little ‘holidays’ at the ‘resort’ would be a thing of the past, so would the apartment, and the freedom to live her life away from me, except at public engagements.”

  I shuddered internally. A life shackled to the ogre that was my father was what had caused her to need respite at the ‘resort’ in the first place. Being trapped in a loveless marriage of convenience with the most mean-spirited and conscienceless person I’d ever met would take a toll on even the strongest of people, and my mother was hardly that.