The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 176

Callum’s POV

I spotted them from across the hall. Liora and Zane. He’d kissed her cheek, making her face instantly flush bright red, his arm wrapped around her waist.

Something ugly curled in my chest at the sight. It made my wolf growl possessively.

“She’s ours,” he hissed.

But I ignored him. More than that—I shoved him down as deep as I possibly could. I didn’t care if Liora was with Zane. Didn’t care if they were an item now, even if seeing their exchange now made the image of them making out the other night even more bitter.

I would not care about this. I refused.

Suddenly, I spotted another familiar face that made my pulse spike. Amber hair, a dark leather jacket. Was that the girl from the marketplace? The one who had dropped the brooch?

My eyes darted to the poster that was now sitting on the floor, discarded. It was a royal announcement from the King himself, offering a reward to anyone who found the missing brooch. It belonged to the Princess.

Bianca.

And yet… I was pretty certain I had seen that girl drop the brooch at the market. It had fallen out of her pocket. Hadn’t it?

Before I could approach her, Bianca suddenly stepped in my way. “Babe! There you are!” She laced her fingers through mine and grinned. “I was looking for you. How are you feeling? After the other night, I mean.”

I thought back to the night of the concert, when my instinct had led me directly to Liora in the crowd. The sight of her bloody, battered body cowering on the floor still stuck in my mind and made my stomach twist. I wasn’t sure how I had located her amongst the chaos, but I had. I tried not to think about the implications of that.

“I’m fine,” I said, which was technically true, if I ignored the lingering ache in my ribs from the whole ordeal. I’d scuffled briefly with one of the rogues during the chaos, and he had gotten a good hit in on my side before running off. I glanced at the pendant around Bianca’s throat, then, and nodded toward it. “So. About the brooch.”

Bianca’s face paled somewhat. I narrowed my eyes. Something was off here. If her pendant was a royal heirloom, why had she said those things? Why suddenly start acting like it was precious now, after calling it ‘cheap costume jewelry’, only when the flyers were posted?

Not to mention the fact—why had Liora insisted that it was hers? She had said it was her mother’s, and seemed quite upset when Bianca wouldn’t hand it over.

I didn’t get an answer to my question. Not before the PA system crackled to life, and Mr. Alder’s secretary said over the speakers, “Callum, please come to the office at your earliest convenience.”

This conversation would have to wait, it seemed. Bianca looked almost… relieved.

“You should run along,” she said, pulling her hand away from mine. “I’’ve got class, anyway.” With that, she was gone.

My jaw clenched as I watched her leave, hips swaying in her pink skirt and heels clicking on the floor. Something about this situation with the pendant was still making me on edge. Had that girl really pickpocketed Bianca? And if so, why had Bianca acted like she’d never seen the pin before?