The Rejected True Heiress (Liora) novel Chapter 35

Chapter 35

“You didn’t have to do this,” I said quietly.

“I wanted to. I know you act like you don’t care. But we see you, Liora. We all do.”

The lump in my throat didn’t make it all the way up. I swallowed it down, hard.

“Happy whatever–this–is,” she added, grabbing the cracked candle with both hands and lighting it with a sputtering match. “Make a wish.”

“Don’t believe in wishes.”

“Too bad. You’re getting one anyway.”

I stared at the flame. The way it danced, fragile and flickering, against the growing dusk. Then I closed

my eyes.

I wish I could stay…just a bit longer.

I blew out the candle.

We ate the cake in silence for a while. It was awful. Dense and sweet and vaguely rubbery. I told her it

was perfect.

She beamed.

After that, we kicked off our shoes and curled up on the small couch beneath the window. Mia insisted on watching a horror movie, even though we both knew she’d be screaming ten minutes in. She was weird like that. Sweet and jumpy but obsessed with ghosts, monsters, and slasher films like the ones in her books. I never understood it.

The screen glowed in the dark room, flickering over her face as she curled her legs beneath her.

Half an hour in, she shrieked and buried her head in my shoulder. I didn’t move.

Outside, the wind picked up. The air was turning cold again, sharp with the scent of burning leaves and rain. The kind of cold that whispered: summer’s over.

Mia peeked up at me during a quiet scene.

“Hey.”

“Hmm?”

“You think they’ll hate you more when the scores come out?”

I laughed once. “Oh, definitely.”

Chapter 35

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She nodded seriously. “Good. Means it worked.”

I couldn’t stop the small wave of guilt that nipped at me. Was this… selfish? Maybe I did deserve to be

sent home. Maybe I’d earned it.

“Mia,” I said quietly, pulling the blanket tighter around me.

“Yeah?” she replied, tossing a piece of popcorn into her mouth. She grabbed the remote and turned the volume down a few notches without even glancing away from the screen.

I hesitated, then said, “I know that…you know I’m keeping something from you.”

She didn’t look surprised. Just nodded once.

“And I appreciate that you don’t push. You never ask for more than I can give.”

Another nod, this one a little faster, more nervous maybe.

“But… if you ever found out what it was–would you hate me for it? Or at least… would you forgive me?”

She paused. I could see her chewing slowly, as if buying time. I didn’t blame her. What I was asking wasn’t fair, not without context. The rain pattered softly against the windows, filling the silence.

Finally, she sat up a little straighter and looked at me.

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I mean, I don’t know what the secret is. But what I do know is that you’re not a bad person, Liora. You pretend to be cold, but you’ve got this whole soft, kind thing going on underneath. It’s cute!”

I snorted and tossed a pillow at her. She caught it with a grin.

“I’m just saying, whatever it is… I can’t imagine it being something unforgivable. You’ve helped me, other kids like us. You gave us someone to look up to. Unless your big secret is, like, you murdered a puppy. Then yeah, I might reconsider.”

I gave her a half–smile. “I’m not a monster.”

and

She pointed at the screen where the monster on–screen was currently climbing out of a sewer drain.” Could’ve fooled me. You’d make a terrifying villain.”

We laughed again, genuine, light. The kind of laugh that made things feel okay, even if they weren’t.

”

I sank back into the couch, letting the sound of the rain and static from the movie drown out the noise in my head. What was coming… it was out of my hands now. Might as well enjoy what time I had left.

Chapter 36

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