The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 462

Liora’s POV

Bianca’s supporters seemed to multiply overnight. Everywhere I went, I could feel eyes on me, hear the murmurs that didn’t even seem to let up when I passed.

People who had started to give me a begrudging level of respect before now went out of their way again to show me just how much they hated me. It started with bumps in the hallways or “accidentally” having drinks spilled on me, but by mid-week, it had snowballed.

More than once, I found my locker ransacked and covered in graffiti. One time on Wednesday afternoon, a group of girls standing in the hallway outright tripped me on my way to class, sticking their legs out in my path, and laughed at me when I sprawled across the floor and my papers went flying.

The worst part was the dining hall. The first time I tried to eat there after everything went wrong, someone threw a roll at my head. Then another. By the time I made it to an empty table in the back, my tray was covered in crumbs and I’d lost my appetite entirely.

After that, I started eating in the library.

It was quieter there, tucked away in the back corner behind the philosophy section where few students ever went. There, at least I could spread my homework out across the table and pretend I was just another student cramming for midterms, not the disgraced former princess hiding from her own classmates.

Mia joined me sometimes, and Zane when he wasn’t busy charming his way out of whatever trouble he’d gotten himself into that week, and occasionally Amy stopped by to check on me. But mostly, I ate alone. I preferred it that way, because at least it kept my friends out of the direct line of fire.

On Thursday, I was walking back from the library after lunch when I spotted a familiar figure leaning against one of the columns in the quad.

Daisy was alone for once. I stopped in my tracks, surprised to see that Bianca wasn’t around, nor were the other cronies. It was just her, leaning with one hand on her hip, the other picking at her teeth.

I paused for a moment, watching her. She hadn’t noticed me yet. Strangely, despite being alone, her eyes still had that same blank look I’d seen in the hallway, like she was somewhere else entirely. Like her body was going through the motions, but her brain wasn’t inside of it.

I’d been mulling over what happened before all week, and I had come to a steady conclusion: if Bianca and that witch had used magic on the King, then I wouldn’t put it past them to charm a student on top of it.

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