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Chapter Ten

Author: Marvea
last update Last Updated: 2025-04-28 09:01:56

Lucian’s POV:

“Have you found her?” My worry was plain as day in my tone.

The guard hesitated before he spoke. “No, sir. We've searched the whole area and the surrounding vicinity, but she's nowhere to be found.”

“How on earth can an 18-year-old girl manage to escape such a fortress?” I thundered, causing the men standing before me to shudder.

I cast my sight to the two men on their knees: Felix and Boyd. “You two,” my hands were pointed straight at them. “I had instructed you to keep watch over her door. What is your excuse?”

The taller one spoke, looking to the ground to avoid my eyes. “Sir… we thought you instructed everyone to gather at the garden, and so we left to attend the ceremony.” His words were shaky as he spoke.

The other nodded in agreement.

These incompetent nincompoops. They left their duty without permission, and they're somehow trying to twist it to be my fault. They deserved to be punished.

“Your excuse is futile,” I proclaimed. “As a result of the failure of your
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  • Her Choice To Make    Chapter Thirty Three

    Tessa's POV:She was the last person I expected to see.“Summer?” I whispered, heart racing.She flinched as if my voice burned her, her wide eyes shimmering with panic. The mask slipped off completely—both the literal one and the one she’d worn for weeks. Her hands trembled as she tried to scramble back, but I was already on her, pinning her wrists down.“You followed Tori?” I hissed. “You stole the necklace?”“I—I didn’t mean to.” She gasped. “Not at first. I saw her do it. I swear I wasn’t part of the plan. I just—I needed a way out.”My mind reeled, barely able to keep up.“You needed a way out, so you stole Olivia’s necklace?”Summer nodded miserably. “I thought… if I could sell it, I could leave the manor. Start fresh. Somewhere else. Away from all this.”Her voice cracked. I stared at her—at the same girl who once clung to Tori like a shadow, the same girl who had tried to help me when I was accused. The pieces started falling into place. She’d watched everything unravel and ne

  • Her Choice To Make    Chapter Thirty Two

    Tessa’s POV:I pulled the recorder from my coat pocket and held it between us, the small, silver object suddenly feeling too loud in the quiet room.Lucian’s eyes dropped to it, then flicked back to mine.“I need you to listen,” I said. “And not interrupt.”He didn’t nod. He didn’t blink. Just folded his arms and waited.I clicked play.Tori’s voice filled the air, tinny and soft, laced with the cold calculation that had made my skin crawl when I first heard it. I made sure to twitch Summer’s voice to make it unrecognizable.The recorder played: “That necklace—the one everyone was looking for. It wasn't in Tessa’s room. On her dresser. You made me knock that night. You gave me a line. And then the necklace was supposed to show up in her room?” Tori’s voice sounded. “And if I did?”Summer faltered, and for a moment, I thought she might crumble. But then she said—quietly, clearly—“I’m“ going to tell Lucian.”“You want the truth?” she asked.Summer didn’t answer.“Fine,” Tori said. “Yes

  • Her Choice To Make    Chapter Thirty One

    Tessa's POV:The recorder burned in my pocket like a hot packet of freshly made toffee. All night, it had stayed there, tucked away beneath layers of fabric, humming softly against my skin like a live wire connecting the dots. Every time I moved, I swore I could feel it pulse — a tiny reminder of what I had. Of what, I still didn’t know.Tori’s confession.Summer’s bravery.The threat that still loomed.And yet… it wasn’t enough.I’d listened to the recording four times. Each time, the truth had unraveled clearer and uglier. Yes, Tori had stolen the necklace. Yes, she’d tried to frame me. Yes, she’d used Summer like a pawn and threatened to burn her life to the ground if she said a word.But still — the necklace was gone. Vanished. Removed from my room before anyone could find it. And that… that changed everything.Because Tori didn’t have it now.Which meant someone else had taken it.I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes as I sat curled on the edge of the old boiler room cot

  • Her Choice To Make    Chapter Thirty

    Tessa's POV:From the moment the door clicked shut, I knew things were going to spiral. For goodness' sake.Summer’s breath came out in hitches in the silence, too loud in the large room. I pressed my body tighter to the cold floor, every muscle locked and straining. The recorder blinked once, then vanished into shadow again—silent, but ever listening.“Hey,” Summer said again, her voice fraying at the end. “I just… I need to know. About that night.”“What night?” Tori’s voice was soft. Friendly. Too friendly.“The night you told me to knock on her door. Tessa’s door.”Silence.From beneath the bed, I could hear the rustle of sheets—Tori had moved. Sat up, maybe.“Summer, you must be confused.” She said, and this time the friendliness was gone. “What are you talking about?”Summer took a deep breath. I could hear her shifting her weight from one foot to the other, the scrape of her boot against the floor. “Don’t do that. Please don’t pretend like you don’t know. You told me to say tha

  • Her Choice To Make    Chapter Twenty Nine

    Tessa's POV:I didn’t sleep after Summer left.Even after I locked the window, even after I lay back down, I stared at the ceiling for hours, wide awake, the conversation still echoing through my mind.She had knocked. She had followed orders. But she hadn’t taken the necklace.And the one who had?Tori.I shouldn’t have been surprised. The moment Summer spoke her name, something inside me clicked into place. I’d known, hadn’t I? Deep down. We all had. The way she hovered at the edges of the drama, calm but never too calm. Curious but never too involved. Always watching. Always listening.Always one step ahead.And now?She was about to be caught.I had to appreciate the genius behind it, though. The level of manipulation and skill it took to execute a plan of such magnitude. Get someone else to do your dirty work and leave no trace behind. Well, almost no trace. I don't think Tori would appreciate knowing that Summer was a loose end she did not tie up. But it was entirely up to fat

  • Her Choice To Make    Chapter Twenty Eight

    Tessa's POV:Leaving the girls and heading to my room, I didn't notice the time fly, my mind too preoccupied on everything, from the mysterious figure in the hood to the way the rumor had spread like wildfire. It was almost enough to distract me from a very discomforting fact.The room was quiet. No, wrong way to put it.The room was too quiet.It was the kind of quiet that wrapped around you too tightly, like a wool blanket soaked in ice water. I’d been asleep – I was sure of it – but now I was sitting up, heart thudding against my ribs like it was trying to escape.A noise again.Soft. Barely there. But deliberate.Scratch.Tap. Huh?My eyes darted toward the window. For a split second, I thought maybe it was a tree branch, a bird, a trick of the wind—Then I saw the shadow move.I didn’t think—I just moved.My hand shot out and flicked on the bedside lamp, flooding the room with golden light.A figure flinched at the window, her hand still pressed against the glass. For half a hea

  • Her Choice To Make    Chapter Twenty Seven

    Tessa's POV:The rumor didn’t work.By morning, it was obvious. No mysterious footsteps at our door. No secret notes slipped under the carpet. No nervous maid tugging her apron and begging us to listen.Nothing.Grace said maybe the wrong people had overheard it. Lily thought maybe the maid was just too clever to fall for it. Amelia just muttered under her breath and threw herself into yet another round of wardrobe surveillance.And me?I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at the pale light pouring in through the curtains, feeling… stuck.We’d played our cards. We’d whispered our bait into the wind. And the wind had carried it straight into oblivion.I thought about how I heard in the movies the heroine always had a way to fix everything. Or it always worked out for them. “Well, guess I'm not the main character of my own story.”No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than Grace muttered to herself, lost in her own mind, and said, “Oof. Low blow.” I did a double take at her, for it

  • Her Choice To Make    Chapter Twenty Six

    Tessa's POV:It was another day. I found a loose thread on the edge of my sleeve and began unknotting it slowly, pulling it free with the sort of concentration one would normally use for disarming bombs. Anything to keep my hands busy. Anything to delay the creeping sense of helplessness that had been yipping at my heels since Amelia said it, “We didn’t find anything.”The room was quiet again, except for the soft sounds of the curtains and the occasional creak from the old floorboards beneath us. It was well past midnight now. Everyone was too tired to speak, but too wound up to sleep. We had been at it for hours, thinking of what to do. Grace sat cross legged on the floor, playing around with a broken quill. Amelia paced quietly near the fireplace, eyes flicking from the flames to the closed wardrobe like it might burst open and offer us answers. I almost snorted at this. If only.Lily leaned against the bed, chewing her lip. Kate, on the other hand, stared blankly at the far wall.

  • Her Choice To Make    Chapter Twenty Five

    Tessa's POV:The corridor felt longer than it had any right to be. Each step behind Tori felt like walking a cliff's edge — like one single mistake and the entire plan would collapse. My heart pounded like an EDM machine, every beat echoing in my ears louder than her clicking heels ahead of me.She didn’t speak as she walked. Didn’t glance back. But her silence said enough.She was suspicious.Dangerously so.We were nearly at her room now – the grand, lavish corner suite at the far end of the east wing. Of course she had one of the biggest rooms. It wasn’t even hers originally. Rumor had it she’d charmed one of the stewards into switching the plaques.I just hoped Amelia and the others had gotten out in time. That they’d slipped away like shadows before the door swung open.Tori reached into her pocket and brought out her key. I watched her fingers fumble with it slightly — not clumsy, not nervous, just… distracted. Her thoughts weren’t in her hands anymore. They were behind her.On

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