Chapter 0112
When Linda said she knew enough, I knew she was referring to her blackmail. What she knew was that Nicholas and I had been campus sweetheart three years ago. Unfortunately, that was enough to get her everything what she wanted.
She picked up one of the cookbooks. “Since I know everything, I expect you to agree with my decisions. here. I know best, after all. You should consider yourself fortunate to be paired with me.”
“I can help.” I started to reach for a book of my own, but she slapped my hand away.
“You can help by not screwing this up for me.”
For the rest of our hour together, I was forced to agree with all of Linda’s decisions, even the ones I knew wouldn’t make sense. No one would select three different kind of egg dishes. Where was the
variety?
But when I tried to suggest it, I was immediately shut down.
“It would be such a shame for little Elva, wouldn’t it?” she said. “If her mother was tossed out on the street, destitute and publicly shamed. Absolutely tragic.”
I kept my mouth shut after that.
When we were finally allowed to separate for the day, I was worn out and eager to spend time with Elva.
Nicholas had agreed to check in on her while I was busy, so I was not surprised to find him and Mark playing cards in my bedroom while Elva took a nap.
Both Nicholas and Mark looked at me when I came through the door. Mark frowned.
Nicholas asked, “What happened?” He kept his voice soft, so as not to wake Elva.
My heart skipped a beat. How had he been able to tell something had happened with only a single glance? Mark had only grimaced, but Nicholas knew instantly, it wasn’t a sickness, nor a passing moment
of anger.
He knew something bad had happened.
I walked to them and fell into one of the open chairs at the table. I held Nicholas’s gaze, before flicking a
telling glance to Mark
Nicholas, fortunately, caught my meaning. “Mark can be trusted. He knows must everything about the
past, and our current… predicament.”
I nodded, relieved. “You both surely know about the newest competition.”
“Yes.”
“Then you know we girls are to work in pairs. But you might not have expected that my partner would be
Linda.”
Nicholas straightened. Mark leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table.
“Has she threatened you?” Mark asked.
“Not bodily. Though she has taken charge of our challenge and refuses to accept any input from me. And some of these choices she is making… I feel as if she might be setting me up for failure.”
It would be a dangerous gamble on her part, to make us both look bad while hoping she alone would weather the storm. I suppose she had a chance of surviving it, more than I did, simply because of the
importance of her pack.
Even so, it was a risk. One I wouldn’t have thought her calculating enough to make. Yet the evidence
was there.
“At this rate, whether the secret of our past is out or not won’t matter. I’m going to be eliminated strictly
for incompetency if Linda has her way.”
“We should do something about this,” Mark said, catching Nicholas’s eye.
“Our options are limited,” Nicholas said.
God, I really wished we could just tell the truth about our past. If we were out from under Linda’s
blackmail, then she wouldn’t be able to hurt any of us. But, if we came forward ourselves, then I’d be
breaking the King’s order.
Unless…
If we went public with the secrets of our past, maybe it would give me some level of protection. Surely
once the truth was revealed, if I was to go missing, someone would notice the connection. The King
wouldn’t be able to simply disappear me so easily.
