Under the Heiress' Facade
Chapter 142

The final Belle & Hunk election showdown was a speech contest. It was scheduled for 2:00 pm atCavenridge International Academy.

Early that morning, the teacher overseeing the contest, Wanda Walker, posted a notice on theschool forum and bulletin board: "Finalists from the auditions, please report to the backstage of theschool auditorium at 1:00 pm this afternoon."

Christopher took a screenshot of the notice and sent it to Hera but received no response. Hecouldn't help but wonder why she hadn't been replying to his messages since the previous day.

Believing he had a valid reason to contact Hera, Christopher scrolled through his contacts andcalled the contact that was saved as "Goddess" for the first time. However, the call didn't gothrough, indicating Hera's phone was switched off.

Concern gnawed at him. Christopher couldn't help but wonder if Hera was in trouble. He hurried tothe teacher's faculty to replace Kerry Lane, the homeroom teacher of junior year Class K.

"Hera messaged me two nights ago, saying she needed two days off for personal matters," Kerryremarked as she checked her phone for the message.

For over a week now, Hera had been heading to the lab shortly after she arrived in the classroomevery day.

While Kerry had been willing to overlook Hera's classroom absence, she disapproved of herskipping the speech contest.

Kerry tried to persuade Hera to return to school many times, but Hera didn't respond to hermessages. Kerry had even tried calling her, but Hera's phone remained switched off.

"Ms. Lane, Christopher, you can't reach Boss—uh, I mean Hera—either?" Katie interrupted, havingoverheard their conversation. She was there to submit the homework on behalf of her class.

"I can't reach her either!" Katie added, placing the large pile of workbooks on Kerry's desk.

She thought Hera had deliberately ignored her because she found her too bothersome.

"Is she in some kind of trouble?" Kerry asked, her tone tinged with concern.

A shiver ran down Katie's spine as a worrisome thought crossed her mind.

"Could she have been kidnapped? I mean, Boss is beautiful…"

Christopher pondered silently for a moment before speaking up.

"Please contact her parents, Ms. Lane."

"Of course. I'll do that right away."

Kerry nodded.

While they were preoccupied searching for Hera, a gossip post titled "Hera Taking Leave Possiblyto Avoid Competition" emerged on the school forum and quickly gained traction as the most popularpost of the morning.

"Taking leave to dodge the competition? What game is she playing at?"

"Wasn't she busy flirting with Christopher two days ago? Did she strike out?"

"Obviously! Our Christopher wouldn't fall for her."

"Go, Christopher!"

"What the heck? Is she chickening out? Then why bother campaigning?"

"I smell a conspiracy behind the people pushing Hera's campaign."

"Who posted this? Do you have any evidence? Delete this now! Hera wouldn't skip out on thespeech contest!" Katie responded to the post.

"Katie, are you Hera's lapdog or something? I've noticed you always defend her."

"Lapdog and lackey, I'd say. I really don't get why the mayor's daughter is so sycophantic toward acountry bumpkin like Hera. What's in it for you, Katie?"

"Katie, my source is solid. Hera won't be participating in the contest this afternoon."

…

It was 1:00 pm. The audition finalists reported to the backstage of the auditorium promptly.

Lily, the first finalist to arrive, stood at the registration counter, counting the finalists who came tosign in.

Once all the finalists had registered, she couldn't help but feel disappointed and scornful that Herahadn't shown up. It confirmed the gossip post on the school forum about Hera's decision to skip thecontest.