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It’s dark and grainy, like it was shot on a camcorder from the early 2000s. It’s only when the audio starts to come through I realize what it is. It’s a video of Alexander and I. The moment captured is one that’s been burned into my thoughts from the moment it happened. It’s the night Alexander rescued me from the horrid auction where Cassidy tried to sell my virginity.
The night I told him who I really was.
There’s a video?
My head is spinning, and I can’t seem to make sense of it even though it’s right in front of me. With a slack jaw, I look up at Alexander. He couldn’t have videoed this, could he?
But he isn’t even looking at me. He pins Cassidy with a cutting glare.
I turn to her. She isn’t looking at the screen, her eyes are focused somewhere off in the distance. Suddenly, a sinking feeling fills my stomach.
“What is this?” I ask her, more venom dripping from my voice than I intend.
Cassidy doesn’t look at me or speak. She hasn’t directly addressed me the entire time we’ve been in this room. My whole body shakes as things become clearer.
That night was the most vulnerable Alexander and I had ever been. He seemed almost as shaken up about everything as I was. As much as I hate him and can probably pinpoint moments in the past few months where he would have had the presence of mind to do something like this,that nightisn’t one of them.
But this video exists, and…
“Yes, Cassidy. Tell her what this is.”
I look back at the screen. The grainy shadows form the outline of the room we spent the night in. Cassidy organized the whole thing. If she’s put a tracker on Alexander, it’s not farfetched to assume she could have bugged the rooms, too.
And I was dumb enough to think Alexander and I were sharing a private moment.
That conniving bitch.
I storm over to the table and put on a pair of gloves before taking up the syringe.
It’s all coming into focus now. It wasCassidywho lied to me about Alexander fucking her in his mother’s cabin. It wasCassidywho leaked my real identity and almost got me killed. It wasCassidywho gave Liam the information he needed to break into my room and try to kill me.
It was all Cassidy.
I stick the needle in her forearm, my finger on the plunger. My hand trembles from the anger swimming in my blood. I’m about to explode.
She winces and tries to writhe away, but Alexander’s grabs her by the hair, holding her taut. I look up at him, the past few weeks flashing in front of my eyes like a noir film. If all this is really true then…
Alexander didn’t betray me.
I’ve been treating him like shit this entire time for no real reason.Oh god.My stomach roils, and I force the thoughts out of my head because it’s too much to confront.
I’d rather be angry.
“You’d better start talking,” I say, my voice trembling. “Or I’m going to fucking kill you.”
She finally looks scaredof me.The thrill rushing through my veins is heady. She deserves every bad thing she’s feeling andmore.I don’t think she has a good bone in her psychotic body.
“I didn’t set up the camera to catchthat,”she begins, her stuffy eyes sliding over my face. “I just wanted videos of all the girls losing their virginity, in case. That kind of dirt always comes in handy to keep them loyal. Maybe I would have sent it to Alexander too, to show him that you were ruined…” She sucks in a quivering breath. “But then he showed up to the auction,” she glances at him. “I only suggested the room on a whim, improvising. I didn’t know you’d be stupid enough to have that conversation there. Why would I turn down the perfect opportunity to ruin the bitch who ruined my life?”
And she smiles.
She has the audacity to smile.
Alexander’s eyes are on me. Does my anger show on my face? I straighten my shoulders and try to keep my face neutral, but Cassidy’s confession leaves my chest hollow.
I got it all wrong.
“The Chancellor should have had you killed,” Cassidy hisses, unprompted. There’s a wild look in her eye now, like something’s finally snapped in her brain. “When he was too much of a coward to get it done, I sent Liam.” Her smile grows. “I saw those cuts on your thighs. I figured if you jumped from the window it wouldn’t be surprising. Just another dead mongrel.”
