Page 81 of Soulless Rivalry

Sinem and Briar stood outside my door, and against my will, my shoulders slumped in disappointment. I guess a part of me had hoped it would be Mia, back from God knows where.

“Hey, babes,” my best friend greeted me softly as Sinem pushed Briar’s wheelchair inside my room and closed the door after themselves.

“Hey.”

“Is there anything we can do to help? Do you need anything?”

I shook my head no, the only thing I needed right then was to know my cousin was okay, that she’d be coming back to me. My stomach rumbled, the sound echoing around us.

“Come on, let’s get you something to eat. They’re about to serve dinner.”

I wanted to argue but the look in Briar’s eyes told me she needed it as much as I did. It made me feel less alone.

By the timewe arrived in the great hall, we were surprised to see a commotion had broken out. People were gathered in a crowd in the corridor leading to the dining hall, screaming and hooting. That sort of behavior usually meant there was a fight going on. We were too far away to see who was fighting though, but it only added to the sensation of misery I had been feeling. Everything was going to shit these days.

“What’s going on?” Sinem asked a girl in front of us.

Turning around, her eyes widened as she took us in, gaze settling on me. “A fight broke out between your cousins and the Korolovs!”

Blood drained from my face, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Pushing my way through, not giving thought to the students complaining, I finally arrived in the front row.

Konstantin was sitting on Luca Benetti’s chest, pummeling his face with his fists as the latter lay there and took it, unable to match his strength. I gasped, my hand coming up and covering my mouth. Next to him, Royal had Lorenzo on his stomach with his hands behind his back to keep him from moving. Rhodes and Asher were also fighting Luca’s friends, clearly having the upper hand. Dominik was there too, holding Batista on the ground with a hand around his throat, squeezing hard.

The sight was too much for me and I was seconds away from fainting when guards finally decided to intervene.

Two of them grabbed Konstantin off Luca, and he went willingly but it did nothing to erase the deadly look in his eyes. The others were separated too, exchanging insults and death glares.

Dean Taylor appeared, looking furious. All the guys involved were told to join him in his office, except for Luca who was directly taken to the infirmary, two guards holding him up by the armpits.

Before I could think it through, I ran after them, my brain racing a mile an hour wondering what happened for all hell to break loose like that.

There was no way they could have known about the fake text that claimed to be Dominik because I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, but maybe Mia had? Maybe she’d told someone else she was going on a date with him and that person came through and testified?

The other option for such violence to happen was that my cousins had gotten wind of me and Konstantin seeing each other and I didn’t want to think about that. Especially not with Mia disappearing and the incriminating text from Dominik. I was already an outcast, but now they would consider me a traitor too.

The Korolovs and their friends went into the office first and I took that opportunity to go see Lorenzo, who was sitting on a chair, pressing a tissue to his bleeding nose.

“What the hell was that, Lo’?” I took in his disheveled and bloody appearance, wondering what the hell happened to make him fight. He hated conflict, hated violence. That was the main reason he didn’t want to join the mafia.

Whenever his dad had ajobfor him and he’d come back home beaten and bloody, he’d cry himself to sleep later on. My cousin was not a violent man, but it seemed like his twin disappearing had him losing his mind.

“They found her phone!” he bit out, blue eyes settling on me. “They found Mia’s phone in the woods and it had blood on it! Guess who her last text was from? Dominik-fucking-Korolov!”

Blood rushed from my face and I stumbled back. I wanted to scream that it was a mistake, that it was way more complicated than that, but I couldn’t.

“It must’ve been a mistake, Lorenzo. Think about it! He only came back today!”

His eyes narrowed on me, but he remained silent. Instead, Batista decided to jump into our conversation. I didn’t hate many people, but Batista was one of them. He was my uncle’s son and the ultimate heir to our grandfather. Of course, his father would inherit his throne first, but then Batista was next in line. The fact that he was the first son of a first son made him feel invincible. He was cruel and selfish and only cared about himself.

“Are you taking this scum’s side? Our cousin is gone and you're defending the primary suspect?!”

I snapped my mouth shut, shaking my head and trying to remain calm. “Believe me when I say I want to find her as much as you do but I’m telling you, Dominik Korolov has nothing to do with it. We’re losing our time on this track!”

“You—” his words never made it out because that’s the moment the door to the dean’s office opened, Konstantin and Dominik walking out of the room with murderous expressions, followed closely by their friends.

Both my cousins matched the energy and I was stuck in the middle. Konstantin’s lip was bleeding but, other than that, he looked perfectly fine. The same couldn’t be said about Luca in the infirmary.

Konstantin’s gaze fell on me and softened a little before he forced himself to look away and stalked out of the office. ThenTaylor called in my cousins and their friends who went into his office, shutting the door after themselves.

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