Reborn

Chapter 9

"Countess Alethea, please follow me. It is now your turn to be interrogated."

Alethea rose to her feet without comment, pleased to note that she could breathe slightly better while she was standing. She followed Chanse to the room, nearly bumping into him as he paused before opening the door.

"My dear Countess, I would advise you to not lie. The punishment will only be worse if we find out that you set a prisoner free and then lied about it."

Alethea tilted her head, feigning confusion.

"I cannot lie about something I haven't done. Please keep in mind that you baselessly accusing me only ruins the relation between our families. I assure you that I had nothing to do with a rapist's escape from prison. My personal morals would prevent me from setting loose such a vile person."

Chanse merely rolled his eyes and pushed open the door. Alethea stepped past him and cast a glance around the room. The room was minimally furnished. Thick black curtains covered the windows and the walls were painted a rich maroon and with multiple gas lanterns. A throne-like chair was pushed to one wall, accompanied by a small foot stool. Another, more simple chair was placed in the middle of the room.

Gordon sat on the throne, his shoulders and back impeccably straight despite having sat there for hours. Chanse closed the door behind Alethea and took his spot; standing beside his brother. Gordon gestured for Alethea to sit on the chair in the middle of the room, and so she did.

"Once again, my lady, I'm terribly sorry for putting you through this. I highly doubt that you would do something of this sort, however, we can't allow a single person who interacted with Cederic to avoid suspicion, no matter their status here."

Alethea shook her head slightly.

"I have not taken any offense, Lord Gordon. If there's any way I could help, I will be eager to do so."

Gordon nodded gratefully.

"Would you please tell us what you were doing and where you were last night? Starting from right after supper."

"After supper, I spent some time with my sister, Cynthia, in the palace gardens. We stayed there for a long time, possibly until midnight. I walked Cynthia to her chambers and then had one of her guards escort me to my room. I changed out of my clothes and went to sleep and then woke to Lord Chanse accusing me of Cederic's absence."

Gordon nodded, jotting down what Alethea said in his journal.

"And if we ask Cynthia's guards they will confirm that you were escorted to your room?"

Alethea nodded.

"However, Lord Gordon, I must tell you that since I arrived here, there haven't been any guards posted outside my room, so there is nobody to confirm that I stayed in my room all night. All you have as proof for that is my word."

"And you swear it, upon your life, that you didn't leave your room all night?"

"I swear it."

Gordon nodded solemnly.

"I will accept your word for it. You may leave now, my lady."

Chanse rolled his eyes.

"As if we could trust her words. She spent many an hour with Cederic. What's to say she didn't sneak ou-"

Gordon cut his brother off with a single gesture.

"Chanse, please put aside your personal bias. Do remember that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and we cannot prove a person's guilt without evidence. Unfortunately, your gut feeling does not count as proof."

Chanse glanced between Gordon and Alethea before sighing.

"What if I told you I saw her embrace Cederic in the garden in the days preceding his arrest?"

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Audrey wanted to avoid opening her locker at all costs. Every time that she had rejected a girl on her brother's behalf, without fail, her locker would be set up to be a trap full of hidden stink bombs and rotten, slimy vegetables. But that day, when she arrived at school, she noticed a huge group of people gathered around her homeroom class. As she walked towards the crowd, she heard the sound of a girl sobbing almost entirely masked by the crowd's laughter.

Audrey tapped the boy closest to her, stopping his laughter abruptly.

"What's going on?"

"Man it's hilarious. Ava found out that Leah's been texting Noah and got pissed. I think she exposed just about every dirty secret Leah ever told her. Being friends with Ava must really be a double edged sword, huh."

Audrey frowned. From as far as she could remember, she didn't recall Noah telling her anything about Leah or talking to Leah. Neither did she ever reject Leah. Audrey usually never bothered remembering the names of people she rejected, but she was sure she would've remembered Leah, since she was one of Ava's best friends and therefore one of her biggest tormentors.

Audrey and Noah hardly ever hid anything from each other, so Leah's apparent closeness to Noah didn't make sense unless she was texting him for a project. Audrey began pushing her way through the crowd, but once people noticed her making her way through, they quieted down and the crowd parted for her.

Leah was hunched over her desk with her head buried in her arms on her desk. Her shoulders shook violently as she hiccupped with tears. Ava stood in front of her, looking down at her with a smug, satisfied look on her face. As Audrey approached, Ava looked up and grinned.

"Here to watch the show? Now's your chance to get dirt on Leah. I'm spilling everything today, and guess what?"

Ava leaned towards Audrey conspiratorially.

"I'm doing it for free."

Ava leaned back, her smile widening.

"So far, Leah has made out with the dork Max, tasted the moldy cheese in the second floor bathroom, sent someone nudes beca-"

"Shove a sock in it, Ava. Nobody cares. Everyone's done weird shit. So have you. You want to be exposed too?"

Ava giggled.

"You're dreaming if you think anyone has dirt on me.

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Hello everyone c:

I spent 5 hours and 4000 words writing out everyone's character profiles and I think I fried my brain in the process.

But I also have an idea of what kind of a person I want each character to be, so I think that'll be good for the story and development.

Thanks for reading and see you in the next update!