Chapter 219

Cara’s POV

In my mind, there could only be one person responsible for this: Lilia.

The beautiful embroidery, torn out. The rainbow-shimmering lace, in tatters.

It had been such a gorgeous dress, a true work of art.

To see it destroyed like this sent an icy chill down through my veins. This was worse than just the regular type of sabotage that might occur in a competition. The job had been so thorough, the dress so destroyed, that this felt like a warning.

Someone wanted me to fear for my life in such a way that I would go running home instead of fighting back.

They picked the wrong person to mess with.

Confident that Lilia was to blame, I turned and walked out of the room, leaving everything just as it was. I marched to where Lilia was, standing in one of the common areas, already dressed, surrounded by many of the other wolves.

I didn’t care if I made a scene. I walked right up to her and yelled, “What the hell, Lilia?”

She looked at me with faux hurt in her eyes. “What’s the matter, Cara?”

“What’s the matter? You know what the matter is!” I snapped. “My dress is totally ruined.”

She had the audacity to appear surprised. “It is? What happened?”

“You destroyed it!” I accused. “That’s what happened!”

Lilia gasped. “I would never!”

That was bullshit if I ever heard it. This was the same woman who had sent George after me to kill me, who had helped kidnap my child, and who had ultimately tried to kill me herself.

Compared to the other things she had done, destroying a dress felt like nothing.

“Don’t lie, Lilia,” I said. “This is the exact kind of thing you would do to me. You’ve hated me for years. You’ve always sought to ruin my life, and now you want to ruin the competition for me too!”

My words might have been harsh, not for Lilia, but from the perspective of the others, who had no true idea of the horrors Lilia was capable of. To them, I supposed, this entire scene appeared as if I was the aggressor, the one walking up and accusing someone of such a terrible thing.

That was why I didn’t immediately register their shocked and then annoyed expressions. My focus was too much on Lilia, and on how much I wanted to wipe that fake-innocent look of wonder right off her face.

How anyone could fall for her act was beyond me. At least, not anymore, not after all the horrible things she had committed.

These girls had the internet. If they would have just looked Lilia up, they could see her mug shot and all the things she had been accused of.

Unless they didn’t believe that either. Maybe they were willing to walk around blindfolded if Lilia asked them to.

“I’m sorry for your dress,” Lilia said. “But truly, I didn’t have anything to do with this.”

My anger flared hot. She couldn’t keep getting away with lying! “Bullshit!”

“She’s telling the truth,” said one of the other wolves. “We’ve been together since we arrived, when the dresses were brought up from the secure storage room.”

“I saw your dress when they brought it up, Cara,” said another. “It was still intact then. And since then, one or many of us has been with Lilia. She wouldn’t have been able to ruin your dress.”

“You are accusing the wrong person,” said a third. “Next time maybe ask someone what they know before you start blindly accusing people.”

The words angered me to no end. These girls had no idea how much Lilia had harmed me. To have kidnapped my child was the worst offense in the world.

But, at the same time, I was confused. Though the girls had been defensive of Lilia, I wasn’t sure they were all friends with her. This was still a competition after all, and these girls were all princesses in their own ways. Not that a princess couldn’t commit an atrocity, but it seemed rather unlikely that they would all come to Lilia’s aid like this enough to lie for her.

None of them seemed even remotely guilty. They were all entirely confident, I could see it in their eyes.

Only Lilia wore a different expression. When no one else could see her but me, she seemed smug, smirking. She pointed to a nearby camera.

“I’ve been on camera this entire time, too, if you don’t believe the other princesses,” Lilia said. “The only time I wasn’t was when I stepped into my dressing room to change. But there’s no way I could have gone from my dressing room to yours without being spotted.”

I looked at the position of the camera and knew she was right. Her door was right in frame of the camera. Meanwhile mine, unfortunately, was just out of frame.

That left a big question mark then, about who could have done this.

If not Lilia… then who?

Did someone else want to sabotage me?

“Maybe we should watch the tape,” Georgie said, suddenly appearing in the room. A few of the wolves jumped. I didn’t only because I had grown used to her sudden appearances by now.

She could move silently when she wanted to.

“After you do, you should apologize to Lilia,” said one of the wolves.

Lilia touched her hand to her heart. “Oh, I don’t think that would be necessary. It will be enough to just have the truth out there…” Her voice lilted at the end, as she pretended to be magnanimous.

I really hated her.

“Come on,” Georgie said and together we went to the security box where one of the security guards rewound the tape for us. Watching it on enhanced speed, we both kept our eyes on Lilia. In this singular instance, she seemed to be telling the truth. She didn’t go near my dressing room.

But someone else did walk that direction.

“Pause,” Georgie said and the security guard did so. She pointed at a figure in the video. “Who is this?”

I recognized the person right away. “That’s Melinda Bedford.” She was walking around the competitors like she belonged there, and no one paid her any mind, perhaps thinking she was just one of the staff. In her hand were a pair of shears.

She’d done this. Melinda Bedford had ruined my dress.

She was Lilia’s friend, and had pushed for her to join this competition. They had to be working together to push me out.

This was likely a warning, as I suspected. They wanted me to leave the competition because I was afraid.

Well, they would be waiting a while if they expected that from me.

I wasn’t going anywhere.

But without a dress…

“There’s no proof she walks into your room,” the security guard said. “We can’t do anything without proof.”

“Maybe keep non-competitors out of competitor zones?” Georgie suggested.

“She had the right credentials to be here,” the guard said, looking at Georgie with some annoyance.

I gestured for Georgie and we both walked out of the room, after I quickly thanked the guard for his help.

“This is outrageous,” she said. “What are you going to do?”

“Melinda wants me to drop out. I’m not going. I’ll walk out there naked if I have to,” I said.

Georgie gave me a strange look, like she didn’t think that was so terrible an idea, even though I was being dramatic. I’d just wear my regular clothes.

“That gives me an idea,” she said.