She's No Beauty Queen

There was a severed head in a jar on the nightstand next to the bed. It had an oddly tranquil expression considering Angelina's captor had likely murdered whoever it belonged to.

Whatever solution the head was in kept it very well preserved. There wasn't the slightest sign of decomposition. The head belonged to a very beautiful woman with light hair but it was possible that all of the color had been leached out of it, like it had with her eyes.

Those eyes stared straight into Angelina's soul. She began silently hyperventilating as she tried not to scream because she was certain a single scream would result in getting her killed that much quicker.

"See that?" the man demanded as he shook her roughly in the chokehold. "That was the last person who lied to me. If you don't want to end up in a jar next to her tell me the truth right now. Who is that woman in the picture?"

"I don't know," she whispered. If she tried mustering the tiniest bit of volume she would either burst into tears or hysterical laughter. She honestly wasn't sure which. "I really don't; I swear. I'm Angelina Dawson. Whoever she is, she's a fake."

"Prove it."

Prove it? How was she supposed to do that?! How was she even supposed to think straight in a situation like this? She had been locked in a cage singing to a murderer for more than two weeks!

Angelina had to be smart about this though or she really would end up with her head in a jar. She decided to use a similar line of defense to what she did earlier. It had kept her alive this long.

"There has to be a pageant video of me singing somewhere. Use it to compare my voice. You'll find that it's exactly the same," she whispered desperately.

Her captor shook his head, a wild light in his eyes. "No! That's not enough. I need to compare both of your voices to a video like that to be positive."

Her stomach twisted into a knot. Both of them?

He began debating with himself like he had before and ultimately decided that he would bring the other woman here and make them both sing. Whoever was closer to the voice on the video would live. The other would join the poor soul whose head was in that jar on his nightstand.

Angelina was immediately shoved back into her cage as the man went back out, likely to plan the abduction of her imposter. What had she done? In her desperation to live she had condemned someone else to die!

After two hours of sobbing hysterically by herself she calmed down enough to think somewhat clearly. The imposter had been with Mark tonight. He was practically Eddie's right hand; he did whatever he was told without question.

The only reason she could think of that he would be escorting the fake Miss California at an event was that Eddie told him to keep an eye on her. Why? Because he didn't trust whatever woman was trying to weasel her way into his life posing as Angelina or because he hired her and wanted to make sure she didn't besmirch Angelina's reputation?

Honestly, it could go either way. But Mark being there was a definite sign of something being weird because Eddie never intervened in her pageant schedule before.

All he did was sponsor her enrollment fees, outfits, and whatever she needed for the talent portion per their agreement. Aside from that he let her do her thing without interference. Making Mark escort "her" meant something was wrong.

But which was it? She would feel slightly less guilty about sending someone purposely trying to take over her life to her death than she would if someone who was only trying to help her while Eddie tried to bring her home got caught up in this.

This was driving her crazy. 'Eddie, what are you actually thinking about all of this? Are you looking for me at all?' she thought despairingly.

Tears began rolling down her cheeks again. Eddie. He was always so politely distant to her but sometimes when the two of them were spending time with Aria she would see the most glorious smile on his face.

He was a fairly serious person, which wasn't surprising considering the way he was raised. Angelina was the same way. Both of them had been forced to grow up too soon to meet others' expectations. It was why she originally felt connected to him.

She didn't want to die like this without at least telling him goodbye. Despite everything that happened between them later he had been the first person to show her genuine kindness without expecting anything in return.

If he was looking for her…would he find her in time? Or would he find her pickled head in a jar weeks or months later?

There was no guarantee her captor would stick to his words. He might get upset again and kill her too. What she told him tonight had bought her time but she had no way of knowing how much.

Would Eddie be sad if she died? Obviously he would be upset that Aria lost her mother because he would have to raise her alone but she wanted to know if he would mourn her beyond that.

Their relationship had been so cold and distant all this time. He probably wouldn't care at all.

The first few nights alone in here she had fantasized that he would come for her like some sort of knight on a white horse. She had stupidly imagined flinging herself into his arms for comfort even though that was far outside the realm of their relationship.

But with so much time passing and nothing happened that flight of fancy died. He wasn't coming. He wouldn't comfort her even if he did because they weren't like that. It had been nothing but a stupid, hysteria-induced thought.

Now that Angelina had seen Mark in that photo her beliefs had changed yet again. There was a fifty-fifty chance that Eddie was looking for her. Would he find her in time if he was? That was the real question that kept her up half the night.