Page 38 of The Obedient Lie
But really?
No.
She came back late. After midnight. Always gone before six.
Sometimes, her bed wasn’t even touched.
Her bathroom shelf was empty.
No perfumes. No expensive rosewood shampoo.
Nothing pink. Nothing soft.
Not even her damn lip gloss was left behind.
And the worst part?
Therumors.
I heard them whispered behind textbooks and lockers, sliding between dorm halls and library tables like venom.
“She’s been sleeping in the library.”
“I heard she keeps her jacket under the philosophy section.”
“You think she’s really staying there all night?Alone?”
Bastion heard them too.
I could see it in the way his jaw clenched tighter every day.
But he didn’t say anything.
Neither did I.
Because if we said something…
It made itreal.
And what hit hardest — worse than the empty dorm, worse than the vanished food, worse than the missing perfume —
Waspicturing hercurled up under flickering library lights, spine pressed to a cold stone wall, because she thought we didn’t want her.
Because she believed Bastion when he told her she ruined everything.
And I hated that I noticed. That I even listened to what others were saying. But most of all…. I hated how much Imissednoticing her.
Chapter Sixteen
EMILIA
I was running on three hours of sleep and a stolen coffee pod from the faculty lounge.
The old drama hall floor had left lines down my back, my fingers were stiff from the cold, and my ribs still ached from trying to curl tight enough to stay warm.
But none of that mattered today.
Alexander was coming.
