Chapter 95 The Scent of a Lie
Kira’s POV
I froze with the coat still over my arm, the casual vibe in the room suddenly gone ice-cold. Victoria’s voice had dropped to this whisper, like she was about to spill state secrets or confess to murder.
“It’s about your personal maid…”
She trailed off. Just stood there, lips parted, eyes flicking to the door again like someone might burst in.
I raised both eyebrows. “Okay… dramatic pause much? Get on with it. What about Liana?”
Inside, my stomach twisted hard. Shit. Did she hear something? Liana had just left minutes ago after dropping all that bombshell stuff about the scar, the king’s drunk rage, the guards holding him back.
If Victoria had been lurking outside the door…or worse, eavesdropping…Liana could be in deep trouble.
Adrian didn’t exactly seem like the forgiving type when it came to people under him, and Liana is just a maid. I forced my face to stay neutral, but my pulse was hammering.
Victoria scrunched her nose, leaning in a little like she was sniffing the air. Then she blurted, “Has she always smelled like that?”
I blinked. Once. Twice. “Come again?”
She gestured vaguely around me. “Wait…you don’t perceive it? There’s this awful smell around her. Like…a strong rotten kind of decaying scent. More like a corpse.”
I stared at her for a solid three seconds, brain buffering. All that tension, the hushed voice, the glancing at the door like we were in a spy movie…and this girl hits me with a smell check?
I burst out laughing, loud and uncontrollable. “Oh my God. You made the whole room feel like you were about to confess to treason, got me thinking you overheard something life-or-death, and your big reveal is that my maid smells funky? Do you have some kind of scent fetish or what? Should I be worried you’re gonna start sniffing my underwear?”
Victoria’s cheeks went pink, and she bit her lower lip hard, looking away. “Never mind,” she muttered, straightening up like a soldier caught slacking. “Forget I said anything.”
I narrowed my eyes, the laughter fading. Wait… what the hell was that? She’d played it off fast, but that hesitation, the way she clammed up…something was off.
I’d brushed it aside quickly so she wouldn’t circle back to Liana, and wouldn't start asking questions about what she might’ve overheard.
But now suspicion crawled up my spine. What exactly did she mean by “an awful smell around Liana”? Why couldn’t I perceive what she was talking about? Could wolves smell all kinds of stuff?
I decided to pivot, keep it light, act like the whole thing was no big deal. “Random question yeah,” I said, super casual, like I was asking about the weather. “Was there ever a time the king, you know… went kinda crazy and almost killed me?”
Victoria snorted, a sharp, surprised sound. “Not just the king. Half the palace wanted you gone at one point.”
My stomach dropped, but I kept my face steady. “Yeah, well, I’m a delight. But seriously…why’d you hate Abby… I mean me, so much? Why bully me like that all those years? What’d I ever do to you?”
All the playfulness drained from her face in an instant. She stiffened, shoulders going rigid, eyes dropping to the floor.
“N-nothing, really,” she stammered. “It wasn’t… anything personal. Everyone else was doing it, so I just… joined in. And Lady Margaret…she straight-up instructed the whole academy to make your life hell.”
I frowned, crossing my arms. “Lady Margaret told you guys to bully me? Why?”
Victoria shook her head, looking miserable. “I don’t know. She gave the order, and no one dared disobey her. She’s…scary powerful when she means business.”
Then, out of nowhere, she dropped to her knees right there on the tiles, hands clasped. “I’m so sorry, Princess. For all of it. I’m not usually like that… I swear. I just… wanted to fit in. I wanted to do what everyone else was doing.”
I stared down at her, genuinely shocked. “So none of you ever stopped to think about how I was feeling? Like, if Lady Margaret told you to jump off a cliff, would you? Or kill someone?”
“No!” She waved her hands frantically, eyes wide. “Gods, no. It only worked because the king wasn’t against it. No one would dare bully the king’s woman. Not if he cared.”
Everything always circled back to that overbearing bastard Adrian. Of course.
I sighed, rubbing my temple. “Stand up, Victoria. I haven’t forgiven you…not even close…but I’m giving you one chance to prove you’re worth forgiving.”
She scrambled to her feet, eyes shining with tears she was trying not to let fall. “You will not regret this! Thank you. Thank you so much. You don’t know what you’ve done for me. If you’d told the king you wanted me dead, he’d have done it. No questions.”
That hit me like a punch. Why was Adrian suddenly so protective? With the real Abby, he’d let the whole kingdom treat her like garbage. But now? One wrong word from me and heads roll? Did he… suspect I wasn’t her? Notice something different? Or was the so-called bond messing with his head too?
But why now? Why not when Abby was alive?
I shook my head, pushing the thought away. “You still haven’t answered my actual question. Do you know everything that goes on in this palace?”
She nodded eagerly, like she was desperate to be useful. “Pretty much. My father’s a high council member…he brings home stories all the time. And the palace maids gossip like it’s their job. I hear everything.”
Perfect. “So…has there ever been a time the king got really drunk and almost killed me?”
Her brow furrowed, genuine confusion all over her face. “Drunk? Almost killed you? Never. His Majesty doesn’t even drink in public…everyone knows that.”
She hesitated, then leaned in, voice dropping to a whisper. “Well… no one knows this. Not the maids, not even my father. But I saw it once. Beta Thomas was helping the king into a hidden room late at night. His Majesty was stumbling…actually drunk. Beta Thomas locked the door behind him and took the keys. That’s the only time I’ve ever seen him like that. I haven’t told a soul… until you, right now.”
My heart raced. “So nothing like… his men having to subdue him because he was about to kill me?”
She shook her head firmly. “If something that dramatic happened, my father would’ve heard. The council would’ve known. It didn’t happen. Is there a problem?”
I shook my head as confusion slammed into me like a truck.
I knew something was off about her story. So does this mean that Liana lied to me? But why?
The whole story…drunk Adrian, the rage, the guards holding him back, the scar…it was bullshit. I’d never seen that scar on Abby’s body before today and she has changed in front of me before. I’m not one to easily forget details.
What caught my eye that first time was the weird black veins, not some dramatic claw mark. I didn’t see any claw marks when I saw the veins. Then suddenly the scar appears, and she’s got this perfectly rehearsed story to go with it?
Something wasn’t adding up. Big time.
Before I could spiral further, a loud, cheery ringtone blasted through the room…some upbeat pop song that definitely wasn’t my vibe.
I jumped, looking around like, What the hell?
Victoria darted to the dresser, pulled out a sleek black phone, and handed it to me.
Oh. Right. The new phone they’d given me yesterday. I’d forgotten it even existed.
The screen said ‘Your Man’ with a king emoji by the side.
Of course. When did he even save his number in my phone? And he saved his number as ‘my man?’ Please!
I made a mental note to change the name to “The Devil,” and swiped to answer, bracing myself for whatever he called for.
“What do you want?” I said, ice-cold.
Adrian’s voice came through, warm and eager, like an overexcited golden retriever who’d been waiting at the door for hours. “Kira! Hey, princess. I’m outside…I’ve been waiting for you. The helicopter’s ready. We should get going if we want to make it to LA on schedule.”
My jaw dropped. I locked eyes with Victoria, who was pretending not to eavesdrop but failing miserably.
“You’re…coming with me?” I asked, voice flat.
He laughed, soft and fond. “Of course I am. Wherever you go, that’s where I’ll be, remember?”
I sat there, phone to my ear, heart pounding in my chest like a war drum.
This trip just got a whole lot more complicated.