The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 499

Liora’s POV

The guards threw me into a room barely wider than my arm span, the only light coming through a single barred window set high up in the wall. A medic came by at some point after they locked the door; she worked in silence, cleaning the blood off my face and tending to my wounds with the bare minimum of effort before packing up her kit and leaving without a word. She hadn’t given me anything for the pain.

I sat in the corner, holding the gauze against my face, and stared at the floor.

The pain was one thing. I’d gotten used to it, and it didn’t bother me anymore; not compared, at least, to the not knowing.

I didn’t know where Mia was. I didn’t know where Zane was, or Callum, or Amy, or anyone who was once on my side. The guards who’d brought me in hadn’t spoken to me beyond the initial arrest, and the medic hadn’t answered the one question I’d managed to ask her before she left.

So I sat, and I waited, and I tried not to think too hard about Daisy.

The door at the end of the corridor opened sometime later. I heard the footsteps before I saw who they belonged to, and I already knew from the rhythm exactly who it was.

Bianca appeared on the other side of the bars looking immaculate, as usual. She had somehow found time to change out of the red dress and into something black. Something suitable for mourning. But her hair was still perfect, and the tiara still sat exactly where it always sat.

She looked me over as she stepped into the light.

“You look terrible, sister,” she said.

I didn’t respond.

Bianca reached into the small clutch bag under her arm and pulled something out, holding it between two fingers so I could see it clearly through the bars. It was tiny, barely the size of a pocket mirror, with a dark frame and glass that caught no reflection at all.

“Belinda gave me this,” she said. “I’ve been saving it. I wasn’t sure when it would come in handy, but since you apparently had plans to kill me today, I figure now is as good a time as any.”

I never had plans to kill anyone. Not Daisy, not even Bianca. If anything, it was her who wanted me killed, pummeled to death by her minion. By a girl who never signed up for any of this, whose parents were probably weeping over her body right now.

“Now, now, Liora,” Bianca said, wagging her finger at me, “you’re not an idiot. You know how this works.” She slipped the little mirror back into her pocket. “Lay a finger on me, conspire to hurt me one more time, and your precious Delta will die.”

“Your reputation is already ruined after you sicced your bodyguard on me,” I said. “You wouldn’t dare kill the royal Delta.”

Bianca’s lips curved. “Au contraire, sister,” she said. “You killed an innocent student today in front of hundreds of witnesses. You’re an exceptional fighter, I’ll give you that—you could have neutralized her without killing her, but you used a knife you had hidden in your boot. A knife that anyone with eyes and half a brain would think was being saved for me. For the future Queen. It’s your reputation that’s been sullied, not mine. And as female Alpha, I have every right to deal with those who conspire to end me.”

“That’s bullshit, and you know it,” I retorted. “Mrs. Oakes—”

“Mrs. Oakes is dead, Liora.”

I took a step back, releasing my grip on the bars. Mrs. Oakes couldn’t be… I refused to believe it. Bianca was bluffing, surely—and yet, when I met her gaze, for once, I saw no lie there. Just cold indifference.