Chapter 111


    I nced back at Susie. Looking at me, she crossed her fingers. If we could somehow manage to be


    together, that would be most ideal.


    But no. Too quickly, Susie was called to be paired with someone else.


    “Next we have Piper…”


    I sucked in a breath. My remaining options weren’t great, but hopefully I wouldn’t be paired with


    “And Linda.”


    In the kitchen, Linda and I red at each other. We were supposed to be going through the offered


    cookbooks, searching for the finger foods of our choice, but neither of us had touched them yet.


    Other girls around us were chattering andughing, working together as intended.


    When I reached for one of the books, Linda scoffed, “You would.”


    “What’s your problem?” I snapped, unable to stand the tension anymore.


    Linda had all the cards here, since she knew my secrets. I didn’t know why she had to push it further by


    being such a roadblock in the challenge. Didn’t she understand that if we butted heads here, it would


    only


    look bad for us?


    Crossing her arms, she didn’t seem to care. “My only problem is that I’m being forced to work


    alongside. you, the absolute embarrassment of thepetition.”


    7 have always held my own


    It makes me wonder now, knowing what I know. I wouldn’t be surprised if he conspired to keep you


    here.”


    By he, she clearly meant Nichs, though she wasn’t willing to use his name, probably in case


    someone


    overheard.


    I lowered my head a bit because, well, she wasn’t wrong exactly. Mark had given me the hint to help


    me


    win favor with the ambassador, and both Julian and Nichs had lied about me killing the boar.


    Maybe I truly wasn’t here on my own merits. The thought gave me nofort at all.


    *I can tell you are realizing I’m right,” Linda said. “How naive of you, if you hadn’t realized it before. I


    don’t know what he wants from you, Piper, though I can guess. But even you can’t be so foolish as to


    think you’ll actually win thispetition.


    I knew what she thought Nichs really wanted from me. The same thing everyone else thought too.


    Sex.


    What negative opinions they had of their princes to assume they’d only kept me around for camal


    pleasures. Didn’t they expect their husbands to be as virtuous as them? Or did they expect any love


    affairs to stop once the marriage took ce?


    Or worse, did they simply not care one way or the other?


    Some of the girls, many who had survived the elimination had made their previous opinions known.


    They didn’t care which prince they ended up with, they just wanted to be Luna. If they were so single–Please check at N/?vel(D)rama.Org.


    minded in that goal, would they be willing to overlook infidelity?


    How… sad.


    I hoped I was never that desperate for anything, that I would overlook my partner’s betrayal.


    What was worse, at least for me, was that Linda had assumed all this of Nichs, who was easily the


    kindest, most loyal man I had ever met. Julian, perhaps, I could see bending the rules with a cruel


    smirk and pretty words, but never Nichs.


    When we had dated, I had trusted him implicitly. It had never even crossed my mind that he would


    cheat. It was simply impossible. We had been dedicated to each other.


    But this idea of him that Linda had, an insatiable man who kept his old fling around just to sleep with


    her, was so oundish that it was worthy of pity.


    I did pity her. She had so few good qualities of her own that she could only hope to win through


    ckmail and mockery.


    “You don’t know anything.” I said.


    Her eyes shed dangerously.


    “I know enough,” she said.


    And it was a threat.