Chapter 0357

“Then, what?”

He glanced at me. Slowly, he stopped walking. We were alone in the hallway though there was talking up ahead. Around the corner was the dining room. Some of the girls must have gone down to lunch early.

“Joyce called you out to that balcony,” Julian said. “He said it was because you are too

reckless, but when has he ever cared about something like that before or since. You aren’t one of his selected candidates, and he’s never taken an interest in any of Nicholas’s or my relationships before.”

“You can’t think… he had ulterior motives?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Julian admitted quickly. “It does seem unlikely. Joyce has never been rebellious. He’s always done just enough to stay within the rules our parents set for him. I suppose he could have seen, as I did, how fond Nicholas is of you, and wanted to step in, but…”

My throat went dry. “But?“”

Julian squeezed my arm. “The timing is what concerns me. He locked you out there the same night Nicholas was almost taken. It felt wrong to me, even then I felt something was off. That was why I was so insistent we check on Nicholas.”

My worries culminated into a dark jagged swirl that sliced mercilessly inside my chest. I had to voice an unhappy question. I felt guilty even thinking it, so I whispered it to Julian rather than saying it too loudly, “Could Joyce be working with the underground?” o

Julian looked at me. There was a hard edge to his gaze. “You should be careful around him.”

“You do suspect him, then?”

for a small moment, he sounded

reply to that. He rendered me

Julian urged me into walking again, and we finally turned

Nicholas and Olivia as they stood in the center of the hallway. A producer was holding

chaos, I couldn’t make out the question, but it made Nicholas dip into his reservoir

the next instant, he called out,

  1. e. that you

every eye in th

looked at me.

at Julian instead, and then, in

to

my arm was fierce, like

led me

and Olivia.

we were standing

eerie hatching faces of cool indifference, while their eyes

y heart ache

the glances

too. Maybe the

perfect for each other. More perfect

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