The Nobleman's Masterpiece ✔

1 FOLLOW SUIT

Hell reserved a special place for selfish rots who abandoned their parents.

Lydia believed that to be an absolute truth because the more she entertained the thought of running, the worse things became.

She stepped around the orange slime. A quick scan of the opulent ballroom and everyone within carrying on without a care in the world told her something she'd have to contend with...no one else could see the gunk but her.

These eyes were faulty, she thought. With all they cost....

But considering how broke her family was and how she came about them...it was very appropriate.

She clenched the silver paper-thin five-by-seven-inch electronic tablet in her hands and continued walking. If tonight didn't work out, she would have to live with these faulty eyes. She prayed they wouldn't stop working all together. Being blind again—no bigger fear held her captive. That was why she'd come.

Money could solve it all.

This wasn't her first time at a party so extravagant, but it was her first time...since the repairs. Her heart thumped with each step.

"Where is he?"

The man she was looking for—the one she came all this way to meet—was nowhere in sight.

Holding her five-by-seven-inch data diskette close, she joined a long line of nobles gathered by the affluent table and tried to figure out how to pay for a meal; she couldn't waste much.

The data-tablet held the last of their money—namely her school tuition. With it she could probably pay for someone to repair the eyes again, but then what?

She could barely afford food at this gathering. She had to pay, though.

Wealthy guests didn't come to a party expecting a free meal and a dance. They came to flaunt their status, showering the host with riches.

Lydia tried to look enticed by the assortment of replicated confectionery, but her tuition balance drew her gaze. The numbers looked even—close to what she remembered before the surgeries. Still, she ran her fingertips along the data diskette surface in order to read.

The food was another problem. She reached out for one treat only to find it was farther than she'd anticipated. And then the orange slime...it fell from the ceiling, tearing a small shriek from her.

"Something specific you had in mind?" someone asked.

Lydia spun around.

Two big green eyes stared her down. Lydia's spirits sank; it wasn't who she'd been searching for.

"Lydia, how are you?"

The words made her freeze. That nasally voice she'd know anywhere. "M...Master Joshua?" she whispered.

Arms extended, Joshua smiled. "Surprise. Bet you didn't expect all these muscles."

There weren't all that many, and the muscles weren't what shocked her—it was Joshua's face.

She couldn't look away from the bulging green eyes that clashed with Joshua's pale, pasty skin. Joshua's aquiline nose made him look distinguished, but the dimple in his chin was a bit much.

The man was flawless, too flawless. Fake.

Lydia pondered how many cosmetic surgeries all of these changes took, and at Joshua's young age. The operations were top-notch, too. Anyone who met Joshua now would never know. Lydia knew, though.

No, Joshua hadn't been the prettiest pie in the replicator, but Lydia had liked him just fine the way he used to be. So much time waiting to see him again, and now this.... Surgeries. Lydia had had enough of surgeries.