Chapter 0240

The evening of the fundraising gala, Elva and I changed into our glistening golden dresses and waited in the parlor with the other candidates for Nathan to come and bring us to the event.

We stood near Susie for a while, but she was distracted. She had prepared notecards for her pitch, as well as some responses to questions she might be asked. She read through them aloud, over and over.

“I’ll hide them up my sleeve if I have to,” she said, when I asked her about them.

Elva twisted and turned, catching light on her puffy shirts. Then she tried to catch it with her hands. She

giggled at her own antics. “So pretty…” she whispered to herself.

“Piper. Speak with us.”

I glanced up to see Veronica approaching, with Tiffany close behind.

My nerves spiked, and I worried they had seen Jane again. But when I looked closer at Tiffany, she

wasn’t carrying her tension in quite the same way she had the previous two times she approached me.

This time, she seemed more excited than anxious.

“What did you want to talk about?” I asked, forcing myself calm.

“How we should split Julian’s time during the gala,” Tiffany said. The two came to stand before Elva and

me. Tiffany waved at Elva, smiling. Elva blinked up at her and shyly waved back.

be the most logical,” Veronica

in our pitches to the benefactors. It would be fruitless to compete

well.”

look good to the benefactors,” Tiffany added.

it would put

nod. “Julian shouldn’t need to trouble himself with

Lilliana, Olivia, and almost every other candidate ! had

more than

help but be in awe of them, as well as incredibly grateful that they were the ones

now. At

room, Lilliana and Olivia were in a conversation of

same conversation with them would go

with Julian,” Veronica

and I both

best candidate

said, deadpan. A tense moment passed, but then the edge

curled up into a smile. She’d

immediately burst into a

a little. One of my few real smiles since Jane held a knife to my throat. I knew

to win over the benefactors, so

the smile that

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