★★★TOP 50 WATTPAD ROMANCE NOVEL★★★
He's her English teacher and her priest... what happens when they fall hopelessly in love? A sexy, forbidden, true love romance between an American student and a Catholic priest.
[RECAP: Leonie has just found Suki in her dorm, brandishing Father Gabriel's love letter...]
Leonie froze as the smirk stretched across Suki's face.
"What are you doing here?" Leonie asked. She couldn't take her eyes off the letter that Suki held. Gabriel's letter to her. Signed with his name.
If Suki had read it...
But of course she had. The malicious glee on the girl's face said everything.
"I thought it was time to do a little digging. It was obvious something was going on," Suki said. She tossed her dark hair as she waved the paper.
Obvious? "What do you mean?"
"Yankee girl getting picked for the lead role. All those cosy rehearsals. Him asking you to stay behind after class. And I saw you leaving the vestry. I knew something was up." She dangled the letter. "And now I have proof." She quoted from it: "'Bed beckons, naturally my thoughts are turning to you.' I don't know whether to laugh or throw up. Have you slept with him, then?"
Leonie ignored the question. "You have no right to touch my things." She was furious and terrified.
"Don't I? I wonder what Mother Benedict will say? A student not only having an inappropriate relationship with a teacher, but with a priest as well. So, have you screwed him? Good luck passing off the results of that as an immaculate conception. I doubt anyone would believe the Holy Spirit would impregnate a little slut like you."
"Give it back." Leonie reached for the letter but Suki held it above her head. Her eyes narrowed to a spiteful gleam.
"I hardly think so. It's my duty to take this straight to the head."
With a cold, creeping dread, Leonie knew she had lost. Even if she got the letter back, Suki could still sneak about what she knew. It would be her word against Leonie's, and Suki had all the details in the letter to support her case. Leonie wasn't sure that she could manage to deny things convincingly enough to Mother Benedict even if she tried.
She resigned herself to her fate. "What do you want?" she asked Suki.
Suki arched her eyebrows, determined to torture Leonie as long as possible. "What makes you think you could have anything that I want?"
"Do you want to play Abigail? Do you want me to quit the role?" Leonie could only imagine what people's reaction would be. Her mind was racing to think of some excuse that she could give.
Suki laughed nastily. "As if some part in a school play would induce me to keep my mouth shut. No, if you want to save your precious little priest, there's something else you're going to have to do."
"What?" How high could her price be?
"Drop out of the RADA scholarship."
Leonie was silent for a while. The scholarship meant everything to her. Freedom and independence. Choosing her own future. Getting to stay in England, and maybe even being with Gabriel.
She played for time. "What makes you think I'd even win it over you? You don't seem to have any regard for my ability."
Suki shrugged. "I don't. But you never know how these things might go. Someone on the judging panel might be as deluded about you as our dear Father Gabriel is. There's no accounting for bad taste."
"If I drop out, will you give me the letter back?" Leonie said.
"Maybe. Not until the applications close though. And I might just hang on to it a little longer, in case I need anything else from you. Some study notes, perhaps. Or an essay or two. We'll see," Suki told her.
Never give into a blackmailer, Leonie thought. They would never stop bleeding you dry. But what choice did she have?
"I'll quit the scholarship process if you give me the letter now."
Suki laughed again. "You're not really in a position to bargain, are you? No, I'll be taking care of this for now." She folded the sheet and put it in her pocket. Leonie could hardly bear to see something so precious as Gabriel's letter in her enemy's hands. But there was nothing she could do.
Suki flounced off in her usual way, buoyant with victory.
Feeling a heavy despair, and wondering how on earth she was going to warn Gabriel, Leonie lay down on her bed. She stared at the ceiling and wished that the whole of St Winifred's would collapse.
Right on top of Suki Laverne.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Things are not looking good, are they?
What will happen next?
EDIT: I've changed a paragraph to try and explain why Leonie can't just grab the letter back.
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