How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls by Zoey Dean Read Free Book Online

years—my late husband and I donated the performing arts center.‖
    See?
    Laurel went on, ―Yet he informed me that after Vanity Fair , he could not admit the girls. There would be—I believe he called it ‗an alumni uproar.‘‖ She held her palms up at the impossibility of it all. ―Sage and Rose shall have to earn a place in next fall‘s freshman class, like anyone else. Or at the very least, demonstrate the ability to do so. I believe he will be willing to overlook some of their indiscretions if they can meet some specific standards.‖
    From what I had read, the chances of these two earning legitimate spots at Duke was about as likely as the Gap using me instead of my sister in next season‘s ads.
    ―How are their grades at school?‖ I managed to ask with a straight face.
    ―Appalling.‖ Laurel knitted her finely arched brows together. ―Here is the thing, Megan.
    I know something about my granddaughters that they do not know. They are not stupid.
    Nor are you, evidently.‖
    I had nothing to say to that.

    ―Yale is an excellent university, no? But frightfully expensive. Debra tells me that you incurred a significant expense to attend there. How much are your outstanding college loans?‖
    ―Seventy-five thousand dollars,‖ I reported, despite it being clear that she already knew.
    I remember discussing that very number, in fact, during my initial interview with my former boss.
    ―Seventy-five thousand dollars.‖ She sighed. ―So expensive in this country to attend a fine school. Not like in France.‖
    Expensive for someone like me, I wanted to tell her. Not someone like you .
    But she‘d already pressed a button on a discreet box on the coffee table. ―Please send the girls up.‖
    ―Right away, Madame,‖ the voice through the intercom replied immediately. How was that possible? Then I remembered the Skull‘s earpiece.
    ―I should like to detail the rest of this arrangement with the twins in the room,‖ Laurel explained.
    Before I could protest that I‘d agreed to no arrangement as yet, the elevator door opened again, and the two teenagers I‘d seen in Vanity Fair stepped into the room. Both wore jeans and very high heels. One wore a white silk camisole. Her complexion was enviably translucent. Her flaming red hair hung in loose curls nearly to her waist—
    Sage, I figured. The other one, Rose, had a perfect golden tan with freckles dotting her nose and arms. Her streaky red hair fell stick-straight down her back.
    I think I‘ve conveyed how effortlessly beautiful my sister is, right? Well, these girls made her look merely average. If the theory of the bell curve applied to looks, somewhere on the planet, two severely butt-ugly girls were paying the price so that the twins could look this amazing. Let me say that I had a very superficial reaction to all this gorgeousness: I disliked them immediately.
    Laurel stood, so I did, too. The girls towered over both of us. Sage—the pale one—
    shook her curls out of her eyes in what seemed to be a practiced gesture. ―You summoned?‖ she asked Laurel, sounding incredibly bored.
    ―I did. There is someone I want you to meet. This is Megan Smith. Megan, my granddaughters, Sage and Rose.‖
    Sage‘s eyes flicked to me for a bare millisecond. “And?”
    ―She will be your academic tutor for the next two months.‖
    The twins exchanged a look, and then Sage put one hand on a prominent hip bone. ―No, thanks.‖ She turned to go, taking her sister‘s hand.
    ―Thanks anyway,‖ Rose called over her shoulder.

    I could third that. No, thank you .
    Laurel sensed my hesitation. ―Megan—you must hear me out. Girls, sit. I‘m going to make each of you an offer you cannot refuse.‖

    Any sacrifice—even the sacrifice of one’s values and personal beliefs—is justified when the result of said sacrifice is financial independence.

    Describe your perspective on this statement, using relevant examples to support your view.

chapter seven
    Once