The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 381

Nothing. No response. I felt my jaw tick; at least she always seemed to return when I needed her the most. But that was what frustrated me even more—because it meant that she was still in there and capable of returning, but because Callum and I hadn’t marked each other, she was still refusing to permanently return. Like a child throwing a tantrum.

Once Mia, Zane and I were alone again, I looked at my friends. “How did you guys find me?”

“We didn’t,” Mia said, perching on the edge of my bed.

Zane’s throat bobbed. “It was Callum.”

“What? How—”

“Not sure.” Zane sat back and ran a hand through his hair, which was already mussed as if he’d been doing a lot of that already. “I heard him shouting for help. Found him giving you chest compressions.”

“He wouldn’t let go of your hand when the medics took you back to campus,” Mia whispered. She looked at her lap. “Until Bianca showed up, of course.”

My heart did a stupid little thing in my chest at the thought of Callum, of all people, being my savior. After everything that had happened, I supposed a small part of me almost expected him to leave me to die in the woods.

But he hadn’t. Of course he hadn’t.

And to think that he had held my hand until Bianca forced him to leave me…

“Well,” I said, clearing my throat, “I’m sure he would have done the same for any fellow student.”

I looked over at my bedside table and froze.

A single daffodil was sitting there.

With some effort, I pushed myself up to a seated position, wincing as the movement pulled at my stitches. I reached out and picked up the flower, turning it over between my fingers. When I lifted it to my nose, it smelled sweet and fresh, like it had just been picked.

I looked at the chair again. Then at the door.

I hardly dared to think that it was Callum who left the flower for me. But no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t shake the image of him finding me in the woods, terror in his eyes, and desperately trying to keep me alive.