Chapter 30 #2
A group of girls are talking to Sinclair and then they include Theodore, my eyes wander over to them, all gorgeous and talking and laughing. Not a visible nerve in sight. My mind wonders if these are the kind of women Edward usually dates.
Beautiful and confident.
“Your margarita.” The waiter passes me a cocktail.
“Keep them coming, please,” Edward asks him.
“Yes, sir.”
I casually look around in hope to spot Thomas.
“He’s over by the bar,” Edward tells me.
“Oh.” I stand still, not wanting to move.
“Go on, then.” Edward sighs. “You have ten minutes.”
I smile and kiss his cheek. “See you soon.” I turn and head toward the bar, I need to dissect this party with someone stat.
EDWARD
Jerome, Theo’s bodyguard, appears through the crowd and whispers something to him, Theo’s eyes rise to meet mine.
I lean closer. “What?”
“There’s a disturbance at the front gate, sir,” Jerome replies.
“What kind of disturbance?”
“Miss Auclair was refused entry and is demanding to see you, Mr. Prescott.”
Isadora.
My eyes meet Theo’s.
“She’s being very vocal and says she’s not leaving until she speaks to you, sir.”
Theo crunches on a piece of ice, unimpressed. “Go deal with your problem.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I drain my glass, this is the last fucking thing I feel like.
I follow Jerome through the party and out to the front gates. Isadora is standing to the side with her arms folded.
“What the hell are you doing?” she spits when she sees me come around the corner.
I pull her to the side and out of earshot. “What the fuck are you doing is the question,” I whisper angrily.
“I’m trying to get into a party that I would have always been invited to…. And now for some unknown reason…I am not.”
“Don’t play games with me, Isadora,” I sneer. “You made your bed, now fucking lie in it.”
“No,” she fires back. “You made the bed, Edward. Remember?” She raises her voice in the hope someone hears us. “There were three of us in it.”
I grab her elbow and bring her to me as I drag her farther into the garden. “Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”
“Why am I not invited tonight?”
“Because you are threatening Hermione and I won’t stand for it.”
“So you’re just going to erase me from society?” she gasps.
“You asked for this, not me. I have no problem with you. However, I do have a problem with you threatening Hermione.”
“If I tell everyone about you and her.” She smiles sarcastically.
“Then you are dead.” I look her fair and square in the eye and step forward so that we are only millimeters away. “What do you think King Volter is going to do to you if he finds out what you’ve done?”
“He’s going to kill you,” she fires back.
“After he kills you.”
“He wouldn’t touch me,” she spits.
“Are you sure about that?” I fire back. “It’s one thing to betray a girlfriend, but I did not betray her. I engaged in some extracurricular activities with her and her friend. But you…. You’ve threatened to sell sex scandal stories about the Crown Princess of Switzerland to the media….”
Her face falls as she stares at me. “Did you tell him?”
“Be very careful, Isadora,” I whisper. “Or he will find out.”
“Let me in.”
“Go. To. Hell.”
“Is Hermione inside?” she replies. “Is that why I can’t come in?”
Yes.
“I don’t know, I haven’t seen her,” I lie. Hermione was the first person I saw when I walked through the door with Alora.
“So let me get this straight,” she fires back. “You get to break Hermione’s heart and use me for all your deviant kinks and then you get to walk away scot-free with a new shiny girlfriend that we all know you are going to dump as soon as this blows over.”
My eyes flicker red.
“Hey, this has nothing to do with me and my life. I’m doing my job and protecting my ex-girlfriend, Hermione, from you. If you hadn’t been threatening her, trying to blackmail her and ruin her life, you could have come to any party you wanted to.”
“Fuck you.”
“Get. Out,” I sneer.
“You’re going to pay for this.” She steps onto her back foot. “I’m going to make sure of it.”
“Don’t play with matches, Isadora, and then cry when I arrive with the fucking kerosene.”
“Is that a threat?”
“That’s a promise.”
“Everything alright here?” Theodore approaches us in the darkened corner of the garden.
“Edward isn’t letting me into your party,” Isadora replies.
“I think it’s for the best, Isadora,” Theo replies. “Not tonight.”
“You’re siding with him?”
“Always.”
“You make me fucking sick too. The Kingsmen. You think you’re so untouchable.” She looks him up and down in disgust. “You let me into this party or I’m going to bring you down too, you and the pathetic Sinclair Montague.”
“Please.” Theo rolls his eyes. “You’ve got nothing on us.”
“Oh really?” She crosses her arms for effect. “What happened in St. Barth last year, Prince Theodore?” She smiles. “I have video footage to prove it…I’m sure Daddy the King is going to be so proud of his gangbanging son.”
His eyes hold hers. “Liar.”
She smiles darkly.
He steps forward. “I’d be careful who you threaten, Isadora.”
This fucking woman….
“I’d hate for you to have an accident.”
“If I go missing, my instructions are that all of my evidence goes straight to the press. Do you think I’m that stupid?” She lifts her chin as if happy with herself. “So am I coming into the party?”
“No. You’re not,” Theodore replies. “And you’ve just made damn well sure that you never come to one again.” He holds two fingers up as his eyes hold hers. “Nobody threatens me and gets away with it.”
Three guards walk over. “Escort Miss Auclair from the premises and see that she never enters a social engagement of mine again.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You son of a fucking bitch,” she whispers as they grab her elbows.
Theo and I turn and begin to walk into the house.
“I’m going to bring you all down,” she calls from behind us. “Just you wait….”
Theo’s murderous eyes meet mine. “You have the worst taste in women.”
“In this instance—” I drag my hand through my hair, “—I have to agree.”
ALORA
The music is playing, the dance floor is packed and I have to say, this is actually a fun night. Thomas has been a godsend, he’s swooned every female he has met off her feet. Laughed with Sinclair and Theodore and I may have even caught Edward half listening as he talks.
“Do you want to get some fresh air?” Edward asks me.
“Is that code for do I want to come outside while you and your friends smoke cigars kind of fresh air?”
Edward’s eyes dance with mischief. “Perhaps.”
“No, thank you.” I smile and he kisses me softly.
“Back soon.” His hand runs down over my behind as he nips my neck.
I watch him walk through the crowd and smile, see…this is why I brought Thomas, Edward would never have left me here alone. He would have been chained to my side to the detriment of us both and we would have both gone home frustrated.
I walk over to the bar and wait in line and I feel someone standing to the side of me, not in the line but close enough that I can feel them watching me.
Hermione.
We don’t know each other and have never been introduced, but I know who she is from all my stalking…. Which is actually pretty pathetic now, given the circumstances.
It’s obvious she has something she wants to say…here goes nothing.
“Hello.” I smile.
“Hello.” She nods shyly.
I don’t know why, but I just get the feeling that she’s a good person, from everything Edward has told me and the vibe she has surrounding her. I move closer. “Hermione, is it?” I ask.
“Yes.” She nods. “You’re Alora?”
“Yes.” I hold my hand out to shake hers. “It’s nice to meet you.”
She forces a smile. “Can I ask you something?”
“Yes.”
“Were you and Edward together behind my back?”
“No.” I shake my head.
“But he bid for you at the auction when we were still together. Is that where you met?”
My heart sinks and I don’t know why but I have to fess up my sins to this woman, she deserves to know the truth.
“Edward and I knew each other a long time ago. The auction was the first time we had any contact in years.”
“Did you date him back then?” Her eyes search mine.
I nod.
She presses her lips together as if processing the information.
“When we saw each other at the auction we both….” I shrug.
“Knew?”
I nod again. “I was in a relationship also.”
“You broke that off?”
“Yes.”
“Did he know you left someone for him?”
“No. I didn’t want him to know, I didn’t want it to affect your relationship.”
“Did you sleep with him while he was with me?”
“No. We kissed hello at the auction but I swear to you, nothing else happened while the two of you were together.” I shrug, ashamed that I even let us kiss. “I’m not like that. I would never…”
She nods and I know that she believes me.
“I’m sorry for what happened with your friend, you deserved better.”
“He told you?” She frowns.
I nod. “And I want you to know that I’m on your side. There is no excuse for what transpired. I’m absolutely appalled on your behalf, and if you ever need anything or any help with that so-called friend of yours, please let us know.”
She gives me a lopsided smile.
“Edward isn’t innocent in this; his behavior was inexcusable and it’s not okay,” I add.
“It wasn’t his fault, I suggested it.”
“To try and help a situation, not because you wanted to. This isn’t on you, don’t ever let anyone tell you that.”
“Thank you.” Her eyes well with tears and I know that hearing this from me means a lot to her. “Can you do me a favor?”
“Anything.”
“Look after him.”
Oh….
“I will.” I take her hands in mine. “This is just a roadblock, Hermione. Your happiness is coming.”
“You think?”
“I know.”
She looks at the ground for a bit as if wondering what to say next. “I should let you go.”
“It was lovely meeting you.”
She smiles. “You too.” She turns and I watch as she disappears into the crowd.
The crack in her heart is iridescent under the lights.
Fuck.
It’s just past 1 a.m. and I have no idea what time these kinds of parties finish.
I sip my margarita, about my tenth tonight, and Thomas smiles into his.
“What?”