The Rejected True Heiress (Liora) novel Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Liora

The hallway to our dorm was quiet, too quiet. Late afternoon sunlight had dipped into a rainy night, the once long, golden streaks, replaced by suspended memories in the air.

I tossed my braid over to my other shoulder, my clothes suddenly feeling too tight. I hadn’t expected to see him, not really sure why Callum of all people would be waiting outside of my exam hall.

The stone beneath my feet felt cool, even through my thin slip ons, and the faint scent of lemon polish lingered from whatever overworked staff member had been forced to scrub the floor for inspection earlier.

I reached for the doorknob of my dorm room with a sigh already forming in my chest.

At Homecoming, the results would be posted–names read aloud, futures sealed with nothing more than a thumbtack and a bulletin board later in the night. For everyone else, it would mean everything. For me, it was just a statement.

Regardless, I already knew I passed, and showed up Callum’s snooty parents. I wasn’t being arrogant, I just knew what I wrote, and I knew it was better than most of the nobles who had snickered when I walked in. But knowing didn’t make me feel triumphant. It didn’t even make me feel relieved.

It just made the ticking clock in my head louder.

Because after Homecoming… I wouldn’t be here. No matter how many exams I passed, or how many time’s I helped out the image of the wolfless, this version of life wasn’t real.

I pushed open the door and was immediately hit with an explosion of noise.

“YOU’RE ALIVE!” Mia shrieked.

I blinked. “Barely.”

She was already bouncing across the room, bare feet sliding across the polished floor, her inky hair a mess, cheeks flushed like she’d been waiting hours to ambush me.

“I told you! I told you, you’d crush that test! You passed didn’t you! I mean, we don’t know you passed, but you totally did! I bet you did so well you’ll qualify for the spring competition!” She stopped in front of me, breathless. “Do you even understand how rare that is for someone not born into a bloodline?”

I raised a brow. “I don’t think they hand out medals for statistical anomalies.”

She groaned and shoved my shoulder. “Ugh, stop being humble and let me be excited for you.”

I cracked the smallest smile. Just for her.

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Chapter 34

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She didn’t wait for a response before darting to her desk and pulling out a tiny box–worn, a bit dented on the side–and held it up like it was made of gold.

“What’s that?”

“A cake,” she said proudly.

I stared at it. “That’s a box.”

She opened it with dramatic flair, revealing a lopsided chocolate lump barely holding together under a cracked layer of sugar glaze. A single, snapped–in–half candle was stabbed in the middle like a last-

minute sword.

Now I was smiling for real. “Did you mug a homeless bakery for this?”

“No, thank you,” she sniffed. “It’s from the school shop. Don’t be rude, I almost set off the fire alarm trying to light the candle.”

“And the occasion?”

Mia’s face softened. She set the box down on the windowsill, the orange light catching on the broken

candle.

“For you,” she said. “For everything you’ve done. For sticking up for wolfless kids like me. For surviving this hell of a school without letting them change you. You have no cue what that means for people like me, like us. You’re strong, you’re different when… all I do is affirm the stereotypes. I just…appricate you.”

I looked at her, really looked at her.

I couldn’t understand why she talk about herself this way. Mia wasn’t fragile. People thought she was, because she was small and quiet and was always absorbed in books too easily. But she had grit where it counted. She held people up when they couldn’t hold themselves. I’d seen her take insults on the chin and then whisper something behind their backs like some witch casting a curse.

But people like me, needed people like her. Every person, every role is meaningful and immeasurable.

Chapter 35

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Chapter 35