The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 132

“You ruined my dress,” I hissed.

The guard shrugged. “Principal’s orders.”

I grit my teeth and whirled on my heel, storming away. But I didn’t return to my dorm; rather, I snuck off into a side corridor, then located the door that led backstage. I slipped through and climbed up the ladder to the maintenance gangways.

The ceremony was just beginning, it seemed. I perched between the rafters and watched as the principal found his place beside my father’s dais.

My father looked around, scanning the crowd, then turned to the principal. “There is one person missing tonight.”

Yeah. Me.

The principal nodded. “Indeed, Your Highness. Liora Belrose, the wolfless, was forbidden from attending the ceremony tonight due to her recent conduct,” he replied, causing the crowd to murmur. I caught a glimpse of Callum and Bianca sitting together at one of the frontmost tables.

Bianca looked awfully pleased with herself, but it was Callum who really caught my ire just then.

Of course he would lie to the principal about last night. He was even colder and more selfish than I thought, and that glimpse I’d gotten of his caring side, the side that wanted to be a librarian—it all felt like a farce now.

“Recent conduct?” My father’s brows lifted.

The principal withdrew the vial and handed it to my father. “Miss Belrose was caught taking stimulants in order to pass her classes,” he explained. “This was confiscated from her possession last night.”

My father took the vial and studied it. “That’s impossible.”

“It’s not, Sir.” Jessica, who’d been seated beside Bianca, suddenly stood. I swore I caught a glimpse of Bianca pinching the skin of her back as she shot to her feet, but it was so quick I wasn’t quite sure. “I saw Liora putting the serum in her food. She does it at every meal.”

The principal’s mouth fell open. The room went abuzz as my father strode down the dais and made for the door. Everyone was talking amongst themselves all at once, heads turning, hands flying to mouths. Bianca looked like she’d just swallowed a rotten egg, and Jessica was trembling beside her.

All the while, amidst the sudden chaos that my father left in his wake, Callum remained still. Stoic. Unmoving and completely expressionless.

I stared at him for a long moment, waiting for some change in the mask he wore. Something—anything—to indicate the slightest hint of remorse. Hell, at this point, I would even settle for disappointment, which Bianca had clearly written across her face.

But he just… sat there. And stared at the spot where my father had just been sitting.

Suddenly, I heard a voice in my mind that had me snapping my head up. My father’s voice echoed through our mindlink, stern and full of that quiet anger that never failed to set me on edge.

“Liora. My room. Now.”