Prologue #2
Caroline Gervais - 4:21 PM Leave her? And give up our lifestyle?
It no longer felt like a betrayal to Ellen: her sisters weren't manipulating her. This realization was like a sudden, brutal stab, and it dealt the final blow.
The ache began in her ribs; a hollow pressure tightened with each swipe. Then, Ellen saw it: a message sent at 12:03 a.m. on January 1st.
But this one wasn't for Hugo. She stared at the contact information first, the name hitting her before the text: Jessica Caldwell-Fortin.
Her sweet Jessie.
Caroline Gervais – 12:03 AM Happy New Year, Jessica ? Told you you'd regret crossing me, bitch.
Ellen didn't react. Her eyes remained fixed on the screen. It seemed like an underlying force was scrutinizing the significance of what she had just finished reading.
Then, the physical wave kicked in. It wasn't heartbreak; it was brutal nausea.
Caroline could pick on Ellen all she liked, but not her sisters. Ellen drew the line there, though she hoped it wasn’t too late.
She slowly placed the iPad down, avoiding smashing or throwing it. She treated it like a piece of evidence from a murder scene: the one of Ellen Caldwell's naivety.
She sat on the edge of the couch, folding forward and bracing her hands on her knees. Her whole body hummed with adrenaline and shame. She wanted to scream, but she didn't even know who she'd be screaming at—herself, Caroline, or her sisters for being, right?
***
Caroline walked into the flat twenty minutes later, acting as if nothing had happened.
As if she hadn't been deceiving and manipulating her for so long.
"Ellen, have you started making dinner as I asked?
I believe a simple reply would have been the minimum respect you could have shown me.
I swear, god, you truly know how to push my limits. "
Caroline didn't see Ellen straight away, so she stood on the arm of the sofa with a sports bag at her feet, waiting.
Then, Caroline turned the corner and spotted Ellen—and the iPad.
When Ellen came into view, she stopped dead in her tracks, her gaze shifting between Ellen, the iPad, and her sports bag. Not Ellen's. Caroline's.
Her face didn't drop in fear, panic, or shame. She was recalculating. Everything.
"You got some nerves. What gives you the right to dig through my things?" she asked. "I can't believe you were that low," Caroline said, annoyed.
"Of course, you play the victim now." Ellen's voice was flat. "You left it open. In my job, we refer to this as plain view evidence.
Caroline scoffed. "You think your big legal words are going to scare me, huh? Cute." She paused for a moment, then asked again, "Did you start making dinner?"
"I just need the fucking truth, Caroline. You were never going to tell me, were you?"
She sighed, like Ellen had done something childish. "Saying what?" Caroline knew exactly what Ellen was talking about, but cruel as she was, she just wanted to hear her say it.
"That you'd been sleeping with your spinning instructor?" Ellen said.
She shrugged. "Oh, that. No. Why would I have done that? I got the best of both worlds, because I'll give you that. You're not only rich, you're also hot in bed."
"It's been going on for over three years, calvaire."
"Off and on," she said, like that softened it. The truth of the moment made Ellen's blood run cold: Caroline was loving every second of what was happening as if there could be no consequences.
"Wow, I just can't believe it. And to think you used to say my sisters were manipulating me."
"Come on, wake up. They are. You know it, and I know it."
"No, they were right," Ellen yelled at her. "Fuck, I am so stupid."
Caroline's mean smile was almost a confirmation. "Your sisters hate anything they can't control, and that includes you."
Ellen walked over to Caroline, not showing any emotion. She didn't deserve it. "They saw what I refused to see and tried to warn me. You made me cut them off."
"Hey, it was your choice to believe me, honey," she said, "I didn't force you. That's on you."
"And you enjoyed it, right? Watching me tear myself apart for you and turn on them while you slipped out the door to fuck someone else."
She clicked her tongue. "Here we go again—another major drama in Ellen Caldwell's life. Grow up a little, would you?"
Ellen shook her head. "Unbelievable. Are you even hearing what you're saying? And that message you sent to Jessie on New Year's Day. What the fuck is wrong with you?"
Her mouth twisted, as if she were proud of it. "She totally deserved that."
"I can't believe you threatened my sister."
"Oh god, give me a break. You're so exhausting," she snapped, the veneer finally cracking. "You do everything so high-stakes and dramatic, I can't breathe in this apartment!"
Ellen nudged the bag over to Caroline with her feet. "Then you leave my place. Right now. You have a week, nothing more."
"Yeah, yeah right." Caroline was trying to ridicule Ellen without any embarrassment.
"You think it's a joke?" Ellen hadn't been so serious in a long time. "Just try me. Because the locks will be changed in a week, and your things will be on the street. Have I made myself clear?"
"You're not serious, Ellen. I know you won't be able to go through with it."
"Just watch me. I'm dead serious, Caroline."
"You will beg me to come back in a week. You needed someone to stand still while you tried to fix whatever was broken in you after that bitch left you."
"You have no right to talk about Leah like that.
" A flicker of something stirred within Ellen with pain, yes, but also a clean, unadulterated rage.
"I gave you everything," she said, each word well chosen.
"Everything I had. You needed space; I gave you space.
You needed help; I gave you help. I stood up to my own fucking family for you," she said.
Caroline stared for a long time, like she was trying to decide how much damage she could still do. "You really think you can scare me," she said finally.
She slowly grabbed her bag and moved toward the door.
"You know you're going to regret this," she said, but Ellen didn't reply.
Caroline took a moment before opening the door.
"Your sisters will never forgive you," she added.
"And you'll be just as alone as you were before me.
You're so pathetic, Ellen Caldwell. Good luck. You'll need it."
Except that Caroline needed one last little victory. She turned around and, in the most brazen manner, asked, "Oh, and honey, am I going to get a buyout too, like the other one?"
"Get out. Now." Ellen saw red, and Caroline laughed like the illegitimate daughter of Emperor Nero.
And just like that, in a matter of seconds, Caroline disappeared—for now—from Ellen's life, leaving her alone staring at the spot where she used to leave her boots.
Her phone lit up on the counter.
Incoming call: Taylor Caldwell.
A wave of shame washed over Ellen. Ellen refused the third call of the day and let it go directly to voicemail. After she yelled at them and ejected them from her house, how could she look them in the eye? They were right all along, and she ignored them to protect… Caroline.
Her legs gave out first, followed by her voice and the rest of her. She fell to the floor, knees against the tile, forehead against her arm, and sobbed until she couldn't breathe. Ellen finally understood the difference between being abandoned and being wrong. Tonight, she was both.