The Billionaire's True Heiress: From Fake Jewel to Real Crown novel Chapter 85

A million dollars.

The whole room fell silent. You could practically hear everyone suck in a breath. It was such an outrageous demand, it had to be on purpose.

Bonnie looked around, clearly pleased with herself. “Of course, if she can’t pay up, there’s another option. She gets expelled. And before that, she has to apologize to my son in front of the entire school.”

“She needs to say she was trying to get with him, and when it didn’t work, she got angry and attacked him.”

Was Bonnie seriously just making things up? Lying so boldly?

Darcey suddenly felt like Cicely had been right to slap Bonnie earlier. Honestly, one slap wasn’t enough. She deserved a few more.

“Bonnie!” Darcey couldn’t hold back anymore. Her voice shook with anger. “You know this is your son’s fault. And yet you’re insisting Claire apologize?”

“And you want a million dollars for medical bills? Isn’t that just blackmail?”

Bonnie just shrugged. She couldn’t care less. Besides, Darcey wasn’t even Jasper’s homeroom teacher.

“Blackmail? Now that’s an ugly accusation.” Bonnie gave her a pointed look. “Are you just defending Claire because she’s your student?”

“I’ve already said, if she’s willing to apologize, we won’t take a single cent.”

“My son wouldn’t have gotten involved if she wasn’t acting out. She must have been flirting with him. Why else would he go after her and not someone else?”

Darcey felt her chest tighten. Did she really need to spell it out? If Jasper had tried this with anyone else, he’d probably be in way worse shape. He went after Claire for a reason—because she wasn’t the James family heiress anymore. In their eyes, a fallen heiress was easy prey. Now that Claire was just the “fake” rich girl, they thought they could treat her however they wanted. Darcey was sure that if Claire let this go, more people would come after her next.

Bonnie definitely hadn’t expected Claire to fight back, let alone threaten her.

“That footage belongs to the school. I have every right to ask them to delete anything that makes my son look bad,” Bonnie shot back, looking at Claire with a smug little smile. She wanted to see what else this girl would do.

“Oh, really?” Claire met Bonnie’s gaze without flinching. “Go ahead, try it. See if you can get that video deleted.”

For a moment, Bonnie hesitated. Claire seemed so sure of herself—did she have some kind of secret weapon? Was she close to someone on the school board?

Claire added, “Actually, I might not be able to get the video to every customer at your restaurant. Who knows, maybe the place will get shut down for health violations before I get the chance…”

“Mom!” Jasper suddenly cut in, shouting at his mother before Claire could finish.