“Your father is the one who lied, and this is the treatment I get?” Nola folded her arms in front of her.
“You could have confronted him at any time, but instead you lied.”
“Those lies provided well for you.”
Halle shook her head and curled her lip. “Like the sex tape lies you spread about me? What else have you orchestrated for ratings at our expense? I suggest if you want to remain our manager, you let Sadie and me start making our decisions.”
I couldn’t believe the twins had actually stepped up against their mother, but something told me they’d simply been waiting for the perfect opportunity.
“I’m sorry, Ella.” Scott Blue crossed the room and sat next to his daughter who was sitting with tears streaming down her face.
“Well, I guess if that’s it, I’ll be going to my room.” Nola held her chin up high and turned to head up the stairs, but Millie stepped in her way.
“I’d like for you to pack your things. You’re no longer welcome in my house.” The woman must have had the authority to declare that because Nola didn’t fight her on it. Instead, she cocked her brow upward and tucked her chin as she took the first few steps.
“No, Mama Blue,” said Scott. “I’d like for her to stay.” Nola’s eyes softened as she turned to Scott and for a moment I thought he was about to declare his love and desire to mend things. “I think it won’t hurt anything for her to take Ella’s place in the guest room for a while. After all, she’ll want to be close to the girls and her job.”
Nola’s lip curled, but she didn’t protest. She went up the stairs, and the twins hooked their arms with their father’s and led him out onto the patio.
Millie went upstairs soon after leaving Ella and me alone.
After a few minutes of silence and her staring at the floor, I decided to make my exit. “Well, it turns out the house was yours all along. So, enjoy it, Ella.”
I hoped she’d stop me, but as I walked out the door, she let me go.
Chapter 29
Ella
I spent the next week moving back home. I’d stored most of my things in a storage unit not far from the place, so I hired a moving company to get the heavy things and spent the time alone without much help, aside from Millie.
“Where do you want these?” Millie held up a box that had mason jars full of sea glass I’d found through the years, and I smiled thinking about my mother. She’d had me collect the pieces in hopes that one day she’d do something with it.
“On the table is fine. I think I’ll take that out to the workshop later. Mom always wanted to make a special piece with it, but you know, I think I might have just found my inspiration for a new collection.” There was enough glass there to do some repurposed art pieces that would hopefully launch my name into the stratosphere.
“You should. Now that you have your mother’s contacts, you’re on your way, kid.” Nola had tried to keep me from anyone that could have helped me in the industry, and like a fool, I’d believed every lie she fed me.
“I still can’t believe the lengths she went to. All because of something my mother did. I mean, I’ve known Nola my entire life, and she was like an aunt to me in many ways.” I shook my head, still not understanding the level of hate, but then again, my mother had betrayed her.
“Have you talked to him?” Millie treaded lightly around the subject over the past weeks. She knew that I needed some time to think.
“No.”
“Have you decided what you’re going to do?”
“I’m going to call him over I think, let him see the place, ask if we can talk about us.”
“He loves you, Ella.”
“I think he does. I’m just not sure I’ll ever be enough for him or his mother, at least not for the right reasons.” The headlines on all the tabloids were already screaming about Scott Blue’s love child, and I knew that Nola had probably leaked the shocker herself for a profit.
The twins standing by their father had been the shock of my life, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think that their kindness extended to me. We might be sisters, and I didn’t have to work for them, but they’d never see me as their equal and I wasn’t planning on being a part of any family portraits any time soon.