“He’s already moved on to the next one,” Martha said triumphantly. “Don’t say I didn’t try to warn you, Ella.”
I looked up again, seeing Rafe take the woman’s hands in his and holding them up. It cut through me like a knife.
“See?” Martha said. “He’s moved on already, and it hasn’t even been a day… Poor sad little Ella. All alone.”
“I’m not,” I tried to argue. “He told me he loves me.”
Martha threw her head back and laughed.
“And you believed it?” she asked. “You really are dumb, Ella. He said the same thing to me, not a month ago.”
I stared at her in disbelief, and she threw her hair over her shoulder, looking righteous as she stared me down.
“Why don’t you believe me?” she asked, holding her head up high. “I’m beautiful, I’m still young… He’s been sleeping with me since I started working here.”
“Lies,” I whispered, but she merely laughed.
“Believe me or don’t,” she said, taking a step closer. “It’s the truth. And only a few days ago, it was me with his cock between my legs…”
“I… I have to go,” I muttered, trying to move back.
“Hey, wait!” Martha cried out, her eyes narrowing around the necklace I was wearing. “Where the hell did you get that? Did you steal it?”
“No!” I cried out, touching the jewels at my throat. Now they felt like they were choking me. “I would never…”
“Give it back!” Martha yelled, grabbing at the collar just as I ripped myself away.
I felt the clasp come undone, and I stumbled back, feeling the crowd’s eyes on me as I took step after step away. Martha kept glaring at me, and I felt hot and dizzy. I needed to get away. I needed to leave.
I ran out of there, my legs barely able to carry me fast enough. I didn’t stop running until the sound of the clock sounding midnight was gone, replaced by traffic. Somehow, I’d gotten into the VW and started driving, heading for the bus stop, with tears pouring down my face. I needed to get away, and I needed to do it fast.
It took me until I changed in the bathroom of the bus station to find the collar gone. My fingers traced the spot where it had rested so briefly, and I couldn’t stop the tears anymore.
I needed to get away.
I stood in line at the bus stop, waiting to leave, when I felt a memory take over my thoughts. Rafe, the first day I met him in the entrance hall of his beautiful home.
I felt the tears coming, falling down my cheeks as I sobbed for what could have been.
And suddenly I knew… I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t leave this all behind me. I couldn’t walk away from Rafael Goldwyn, no matter what my stepmother told me.
I needed to give him—give us—another chance, even if it never worked out.
I got out of the line, my legs shaky as I ran off. I ended up in a little back alley, the snow still falling softly down, and I looked up at the sky, wondering if I’d made the right choice.
There was no going back now. A smile lit up my face and I prayed for a Christmas miracle. For Martha to be wrong, and for Rafe to rescue me, whisk me off my feet and give me the fairytale I had dreamed of.
“What have we got here?”
I snapped my head up, my eyes zeroing in on a group of thugs approaching me. And just like that, my heart sank, and worry settled in place of happiness as I watched them surround me.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered. “I w-was just l-leaving.”
“I don’t think so,” the tallest one said, slamming a hand on the brick wall behind me. “I think what you really want is to have some fun, don’t you, little girl?”
“Please, let me go,” I cried out, making a desperate attempt to go away, when I saw one of them in the back flash a glinting silver knife.
He grinned at me and my blood ran cold in my veins.
“I don’t think you’re going anywhere, sweetheart,” the leader laughed in my face.I ONLY CAUGHT A GLIMPSE of Ella before I saw her running off. I excused myself to the event planner I’d been talking to and rushed outside.
I’d just been telling the woman, who had done an incredible job with the party, that there might be something else to plan soon, but the moment I saw Ella’s expression, I knew something was up, and I had to catch her before it was too late.
The moment I got outside, I bumped into Martha, and she gave me a self-righteous little grin as I raced past her. I followed Ella’s scent to the stairs, and my heart nearly stopped in my chest when I saw something glittering at the bottom of the stairs. Diamonds… diamonds and silver, the collar I’d given her lying on the ground, thankfully still in one piece.