The Messenger( Iva) novel Chapter 248

Monica-2

“It’s surreal.”

Claim

“Everything about our lives is surreal.” Iva stood, pulling Lori up with her. They embraced-fierce and quick, the way best friends do when they know a goodbye is temporary but still feels like too long.

“Two days,” Iva said.

“Two days,” Lori repeated.

Iva walked toward the canteen doors. She paused at the threshold and looked back.

“Try not to set anything on fire while I’m gone.”

Lori laughed. “No promises.”

And then Iva was gone.

Lori stood in the middle of the canteen for a moment, feeling the absence of her friend like a physical weight. Then she glanced at her watch.

Her heart stopped.

“Damn,” she breathed. “I’m going to be late.”

She grabbed her bag and ran.

The headmaster’s building loomed before her, ancient stone darkened by centuries of weather. Lori burst through the doors, down the corridor, past the startled glances of students who recognized her as the headmaster’s new assistant.

She rounded the corner.

And stopped.

Brentley stood at his desk, his face pale, his posture rigid. His usual calm demeanor had been replaced by something that looked remarkably like fear.

Standing before him, her back to Lori, was a woman.

She was tall-willowy, elegant, dressed in clothes that probably cost more than Lori’s entire wardrobe. Her dark hair fell in perfect waves past her shoulders. Her voice, when she spoke, was sharp enough to cut glass.

“The headmaster Attia is currently in a meeting.” Brentley replied.

“I don’t care about his schedule,” the woman said, each word dripping with entitlement. “Find him. This second. Tell him that his fiancée is here.”

The word hit Lori like a physical blow.

ΡΙ

<Monica 2

#Fiancée

Her heart stopped.

Her lungs forgot how to function.

Claim

Her vision tunneled, narrowing until all she could see was the elegant woman with the perfect hair and the expensive clothes and the claim that echoed in Lori’s ears like a death knell.

*Fiancée.*

He had a fiancée?

He was engaged?

And he had never told her.

Brentley’s eyes darted past the woman and landed on Lori. His expression shifted-relief.

The woman followed his gaze.

She turned.

Her eyes-a cold, pale blue-raked over Lori from head to toe. Assessing. Judging. Dismissing.

“And who are you?” she asked, her tone suggesting that whoever Lori was, she was not important enough

to warrant an answer.

Lori’s mouth opened.

No sound came out.

Her chest was burning. Her heart was cracking. The bond-that fragile, beautiful, terrifying bond-throbbed with a pain that made her want to double over.

*He has a fiancée.*

*He has a fiancée.*

*He has a-⭑

Ї

r

“I asked you a question,” the woman said, her voice sharpening. “Who are you? And why are you looking at me like that?”

Lori forced herself to breathe.

Forced herself to speak.

“I’m the temporary assistant,” she said, and her voice sounded hollow, even to her own ears. “I work for Headmaster Attia.”

The woman’s perfectly sculpted eyebrows rose.

“His assistant?” She let out a small, dismissive laugh. “How quaint. I didn’t realize he had hired a new one.” She turned back to Brentley. “As I was saying. Find him. Now. I don’t have all day.”

< Monica-2

Brentley nodded, his face ashen.

Lori stood frozen in the doorway.

Her mind was screaming.

*He didn’t tell me. He had a fiancée and he didn’t tell me.”

*He let me believe… he let me hope…*

*What else is he hiding?*

Claim

The woman-Monica, Lori’s mind supplied, remembering the name from some forgotten conversation- tapped her foot impatiently.

“This is unacceptable,” she murmured. “Engaged to the man for months, and he still can’t make time for

me.”

Months.

They had been engaged for months.

Lori felt sick.

She turned and walked away.

She didn’t remember leaving the building. Didn’t remember crossing the courtyard. Didn’t remember climbing the stairs to her room or closing the door behind her.

But suddenly she was there, sitting on her bed, staring at the wall, the word *fiancée* echoing in her skull like a bell that would never stop ringing.

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