Chapter 163
Chapter 163: Official Engagement???
Catherine’s POV
The rest of the day was a blur of forced concentration and simmering rage. After the spectacle in the cafeteria, I couldn’t focus on a single lecture. Every time I walked through the hallways, I felt the weight of a thousand stares.
Tessa walked beside me as we headed toward the campus exit, her expression mixed with pity and concern. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you? We could go to that cafe near the library, just hide out for a bit.”
“No, Tessa. I just need to be away from here,” I said, my voice tight. “I need a place where I don’t have to look at Lucy or pretend that seeing Julian hold her hand didn’t make me want to scream.”
“But he looked like a robot, Catherine,” Tessa noted. “I don’t think he’s happy with the situation.”
“It doesn’t matter how he looked. He did it. He chose to stand by her in front of everyone.” I stopped at the curb and pulled out my phone to hail a ride.
“Where are you going? Back to the estate?”
“No,” I said, watching a black sedan pull up. “I can’t go back there yet. That house reminds me of them.” I gave Tessa a quick squeeze on the arm. “I’m going to a friend’s. I’ll call you later.”
“Friend?”
Tessa didn’t know Kiera. “Yeah. You don’t know her. I met her during the holidays.”
She nodded and I climbed into the back of the cab. “Not the estate,” I told the driver, giving him Kiera’s address.
By the time I reached Kiera’s house, I was trembling with suppressed emotion. I didn’t even knock; I used the key she had given me and let myself in.
I found Kiera in the living room, her laptop open on her knees and a glass of wine on the side table. She looked up, her expression shifting from casual to alarmed the moment she saw my face.
“Cat? What happened? You look like you’ve been through a meat grinder.”
I dropped my bag on the floor and slumped onto the sofa opposite her. “That would have been better than…” I managed to say. “… having Lucy as a fellow student in the school.”
Kiera’s jaw dropped. She set her laptop aside and leaned forward. “You’re kidding. She’s now on campus?”
“Yes. She was in my classes, Kiera. She spent the morning poking at me, and then at lunch… Julian walked in. He let her hold his hand in front of the entire cafeteria. She sent a waiter to my table with ’luxury water’ just to make everyone think I’m a charity case.” My voice cracked on the last word, and I hated it.
Kiera didn’t offer empty platitudes. She let out a long, low whistle, her eyes darkening with an anger that mirrored my own. “That predictable, manipulative bitch. She really thinks she can play the Queen Bee on campus? She thinks the university is just another wing of the Vaughn mansion?”
“Well it’s working out for her,” I whispered. “She’s got Richard on her side, she’s got Julian acting like her lapdog, and now she’s making sure she makes me look like a loser at school.”
Kiera stood up and began to pace the length of the rug. “No. She’s not winning. She’s overextending. Lucy’s biggest mistake is thinking that she has the upper hand.” She stopped and looked at me with a sharp, dangerous glint in her eyes. “Don’t bother about it anymore, Catherine. I mean it. Put a smile on your face and let me know what you would like to eat. I know exactly how to deal with Lucy.”
I looked up at her, curious despite my exhaustion. “What do you mean? What are you planning?”
“Don’t worry about the plan,” Kiera said, a small, cold smile touching her lips. “But trust it will come out good as usual.”
“Kiera, I don’t want to make things worse. Lucy is looking for a reason to have Richard ship me off.”
“Richard won’t do a thing if the blowback comes from somewhere he can’t control,” Kiera countered. “Trust me, Cat. I’ve got this. The plan will be effective. Very effective.”
I wanted to press her for details, to know exactly how she intended to handle Lucy, but I saw the resolve in her face. I knew Kiera wouldn’t tell me, and I also knew she was the only person I trusted to actually strike back. I nodded, leaning my head back against the cushions.
“Thank you,” I said softly.
“Don’t thank me yet. Wait until I give her a dose of her own medicine.”
I stayed at Kiera’s for a few hours, the quiet of her home acting as a balm for my frayed nerves. We didn’t talk about the Vaughns for the rest of the evening. We talked about books, about the semester’s workload, and about anything that wasn’t Lucy Clement. But even in the quiet, the tension remained.
When I finally decided to head back to the estate, I felt like a soldier returning to the trenches. I called a car and sat in the back, scrolling through my phone. Just as we pulled into the long, winding driveway of the Vaughn property, my phone buzzed with a notification.
It was a text from Julian.
Have you seen the news? The one on the Foundation’s live portal. I’m sorry, Catherine. I can explain.
My heart hammered against my ribs. I tapped on the link to the Foundation’s internal portal; the site where they announced major events and philanthropic “victories.”
The headline was splashed across the top in bold, elegant font: A CELEBRATION OF TRADITION AND FUTURE: RICHARD VAUGHN ANNOUNCES THE OFFICIAL ENGAGEMENT GALA FOR JULIAN VAUGHN AND LUCY CLEMENT.
Below the headline was a photo of the three of them: Richard, Julian, and Lucy. They were all smiling. Julian’s smile looked like it had been carved out of stone, but to the public, he looked like a man in love. The “date” Richard had mentioned wasn’t just a dinner; it was a full-scale engagement announcement, set for the following weekend.
I stared at the screen until the light dimmed and the phone went black. A cold, dead weight settled in the pit of my stomach.
I walked up the front steps needing to get to my room and lock the door.
But as I entered the house, I saw Julian standing at the foot of the stairs. He moved toward me, his hand reaching out as if to touch my arm.
“Catherine, wait,” he said, his voice desperate. “The portal… Richard went ahead with it before I could stop him. I didn’t know he was going to announce an engagement.”
I looked at his hand, then up at his face. “Does it matter if you knew? You’re going to be there. You’re going to stand on that stage and put a ring on her finger because your father told you to.”
“I’m trying to find a way out,” he hissed, glancing toward Richard’s closed office door. “The project… the money for Ethan and Tessa. If I defy him now, he cuts me off. He takes everything. I can’t help them if I’m on the street.”
“Is that the excuse you’re going with?” I asked, my voice dangerously low. “That you’re sacrificing yourself for them? Or are you just a coward who’s afraid of his own father?”
Julian flinched as if I had struck him. He opened his mouth to reply, but the sound of Lucy’s laughter from the upstairs landing cut him off. She appeared at the top of the stairs, looking down at us with a look of pure, unadulterated triumph.
“There you are, Julian!” she called out. “Richard wants to discuss the guest list. And Catherine… make sure you have something nice to wear. It would be such a shame if the ward looked out of place at the event of the season.”
I didn’t say a word. I walked past Julian, ignoring the way his fingers brushed against my sleeve. I climbed the stairs, keeping my eyes fixed ahead, and walked straight into my room.