Chapter 131

Chapter 131
Violet
 
I lifted my chin slightly, my gaze sharp. "So enjoy your champagne. Just try not to choke on jealousy when you're watching me from the audience, knowing how utterly mediocre you are."
 
My words crushed Sienna's smug superiority with surgical precision.
 
Her face went from flushed to ashen, her features twisting with rage.
 
"Who the hell do you think you are?!" Sienna shrieked, snatching up her half-full glass of lemon water and hurling it straight at me.
 
I turned my head. The water grazed my cheek and splashed against the glass window behind me.
 
"You think that piece of junk violin means anything? You think your pathetic practice sessions have any value?" Sienna jabbed her finger at my nose, her voice shrill and vicious. "To me, you and that violin are worse than trash! You're nothing but a filthy performer here to entertain us! You'll spend your whole life as a peasant begging on your knees!"
 
She could insult me all she wanted, but she had no right to insult the violin.
 
That instrument represented years of daily dedication, the one thing I'd fought to protect even when I couldn't afford food.
 
My restraint shattered in an instant.
 
I shot to my feet and, without hesitation, swung my hand back and slapped her across her perfect face with every ounce of strength I had.
 
Crack!
 
The sound rang out across the quiet restaurant, cutting through even the cello music in the background.
 
Silence fell like a hammer.
 
Every pair of eyes in the room turned toward us.
 
Sienna's head snapped to the side. Five vivid red finger marks bloomed across her pale cheek.
 
She clutched her face, frozen, as if she couldn't believe I'd actually hit her in public.
 
"You hit me?!" Seconds later, she let out a blood-curdling scream.
 
"I slapped that filthy mouth of yours," I said coldly. "Try insulting the violin one more time. See what happens."
 
"Ahhh! You bitch! I'll kill you!" Sienna lunged at me, completely unhinged.
 
Her entourage of girlfriends shrieked and rushed forward, trying to surround me.
 
I wasn't afraid of any of them.
 
I shoved aside the first girl who came at me and grabbed a fistful of Sienna's carefully styled blonde curls, yanking down hard.
 
Sienna yelped and bent forward involuntarily.
 
Without hesitating, I raised my hand and slapped her across the other cheek.
 
I didn't care who was pulling at my clothes. My focus stayed locked on Sienna. I kept hitting her.
 
Pampered and soft, she had no strength to fight back. She could only shriek as I gripped her hair, flailing uselessly with her manicured nails.
 
"Get off Violet, you psychos!"
 
Lily roared, grabbing the ice water off the table and flinging it at the girls trying to gang up on me.
 
Like a protective little leopard, she seized one girl by the collar and slammed her back into the booth, then spun around to shield me from the others.
 
The scene devolved into utter chaos.
 
Plates crashed to the floor. Glass shattered everywhere.
 
Sienna's screams, Lily's curses, and the horrified gasps of other diners blended into cacophony.
 
It wasn't until the restaurant manager and several servers rushed over and physically separated us that the brawl finally ended.
 
A music history professor who'd been dining at the next table hurried over, his face dark with fury.
 
"What on earth are you doing! This is disgraceful!" he barked.
 
I was breathing hard as I let go.
 
Sienna's expensive sequined dress had a rip down one side. Her hair looked like a bird's nest. The twin handprints on her face stood out in brilliant red.
 
She looked utterly wrecked.
 
Meanwhile, aside from my turtleneck collar being pulled loose, I was barely scratched.
 
"She hit me! She actually hit me!" Sienna sobbed hysterically, clutching her face. Her hands trembling, she pulled her phone from her designer bag and called home. "Mom! Violet attacked me at the restaurant! Call the dean right now! I want her expelled immediately! I want her out of Manhattan!"
 
After she hung up, Sienna glared at me with pure venom. "You're finished, Violet. I guarantee you'll be kicked out of the academy today."
 
The professor frowned and pulled Lily and me into the hallway outside the restaurant.
 
"Violet, that was far too rash," he said with a sigh, lowering his voice. "Sienna's family donates a substantial amount to the school every year. They have people on the board of trustees. If you go back in there and apologize to her, humble yourself a little, I can mediate and help smooth this over. Otherwise, if her parents press charges, you really will be expelled."
 
"I won't apologize to her," I said, standing straight, my tone firm. "She provoked me first. She insulted my craft. I did nothing wrong."
 
The professor looked at my stubborn expression and shook his head helplessly before turning to negotiate damages with the restaurant manager.
 
I turned to look at Lily standing beside me.
 
There were bloody scratches across the back of her hand from blocking those girls for me.
 
My anger ebbed, replaced by a deep sense of guilt.
 
"Lily, I'm sorry," I said, taking her hand and looking at the scratches. My eyes stung. "I dragged you into this. If the school really comes after us—"
 
"What are you talking about?" Lily brushed it off and threw her arm around my shoulders, giving me a pat. "That was great! I've been dying to see that shallow bitch taken down a peg. When you grabbed her hair? Chef's kiss."
 
"But Sienna's family..."
 
"So what?" Lily snorted. "Manhattan School of Music doesn't belong to her family. If they actually expel us just because she's rich, I'll put the whole thing on TikTok and Twitter. I'll expose them. The internet's everywhere now. I refuse to believe rich people can control everything."
 
Lily's loyalty warmed my heart, but unease still gnawed at me.
 
I pulled out my phone.
 
The screen was still open to my chat with Julian from half an hour ago.
 
He was in London handling a billion-dollar cross-border acquisition.
 
Before he left, he'd told me to call him if I ran into trouble.
 
My finger hovered over the call button. After a few seconds, I turned off the screen.
 
I couldn't call him.
 
He was so busy right now. I couldn't interrupt his work over a student fight.
 
Besides, this was my problem. I had to learn to face and solve things on my own. I couldn't hide under his protection forever.
 
Half an hour later, Lily and I were summoned directly to the dean's office.
 
I pushed open the heavy oak door and immediately spotted Sienna sitting on the sofa.
 
She was collapsed in the arms of a woman in a Chanel tweed suit, crying as if her heart were breaking.