The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 298

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Zane took a step toward me. “After everything she went through tonight, you still chose Bianca?”

“Zane, you don’t understand.”

“No, I understand perfectly.” He shook his head. “You’re a coward.”

The words hit me harder than I expected them to. My jaw clenched, but I didn’t argue. Because he was right.

I was a coward.

Bianca smiled and squeezed my arm. “Thank you, baby. I knew you would make the right choice.”

She leaned in to kiss me, but I turned my head at the last second. Her lips brushed my cheek instead.

“I need some air,” I muttered, pulling away from her. I turned and walked out of the bar before she could stop me.

The cold night air was soothing against my hot face, and before I knew it, I was walking down the street with my hands stuffed in my pockets. I needed to clear my head. Needed to get away from Bianca and her smug smile and the disappointed look on Zane’s face.

I pulled out my phone and checked the livestream. It had ended. The final results were in.

Liora had passed.

I should have felt relieved. But all I felt was sick.

I headed back toward campus, staring at the ground in front of my feet. The streets were quiet, most students still at the bar or watching the stream from their dorms.

When I reached campus, I spotted movement near the forest entrance. Someone was walking out, limping slightly.

Liora.

She was still covered in mud and blood, her clothes torn and her hair hanging in wet tangles around her face. She looked exhausted. Broken. Alone.

And it was my fault.

I’d been the one to convince Alder to let her retake the exam. At the time, I had thought I was helping her. Instead, I had unknowingly handed her over to a sadist who had tried to get her killed.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Alder called after me. I didn’t look back as I slammed the door hard behind me and stormed away.

The package wasn’t my mother’s fine china. It was a cheap replica I’d bought from the local pawn shop. The real china was still safely locked away in my family’s estate. I knew from the beginning that he didn’t deserve to have it, and I never intended to give it to him.

But he was too stupid to figure it out on his own. He probably wouldn’t realize until he tried to sell it back to the same pawn shop in a few months. But then, he’d probably already be banned from setting foot on this campus, and even my conniving parents weren’t dumb enough to keep rubbing elbows with someone who would do something so heinous in public like that.

I walked back to my dorm slowly. The campus was bustling now as students returned from the bar.

“Callum!” Bianca started running toward me. “Baby, there you are! I was looking all over for you!”

I pretended I hadn’t heard her, and didn’t stop moving until I was locked securely in my room.

Once I was alone, I pulled out my phone and looked at the voting app one more time. At the red X next to Liora’s name. At the proof of my betrayal.

Then, I deleted the app and threw my phone across the room so hard that the screen shattered on the wall.