CECILIa
She should say something.
She should say something, but the words wouldn't come.
Maybe she should leave. Climb the stairs again and make more noise or…
Their eyes locked for what felt like an eternity. She waited for him to say something, to stop the woman or make an excuse. But he didn’t, his look of surprise morphing into something else on his handsome face. Irritation.
Cecilia fled.
This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not today.
If not for her stilettos she would have run, to hells with what people would think. Instead, she kept her head down, hurrying through the city, desperate to get away. Even the steady click of her heels on the cobblestones couldn’t outpace her erratic heart. Her whimpering breaths.
Everything was falling apart. Everything. In one night.
Moonlight glanced off puddles as she strode, feet knowing the way even as her mind wondered elsewhere. The Stonehaven city center slowly turned from historic homes and high-rise apartments to semi’s and rows of terraced houses.
There were so few places to go. Her parents had already berated her that evening for quitting her job, if they knew the reason why they’d probably disown her entirely, and her friends had all been Henry's first. She was under no illusions as to whose side they would take in a break up.
A break up.
Was that what was happening? Was she breaking up with him?
They were supposed to be married in the summer. The venue was booked, flowers paid for, menu set.
She had a wedding dress.
Pulling her coat tighter, as if it might hold in the panic, as she rounded the corner onto a street she knew well.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket, but she ignored it. An excuse or a scolding, she didn't care. Not anymore.
Stumbling on potholes and loose pacing stones she marched across the street to the door of the end terrace and knocked. A rustle behind the door and then it opened just a crack before closing again. Cecilia took a steadying breath as the deadbolt slid free and the door swung wide.
“Cici! Honey! What a lovely surprise!” Her uncle Dave beamed, pulling her over the threshold and into a warm embrace. It was in that loving hold that Cecilia choked on her first sob. “Hey,” her uncle cooed. “What’s wrong?”
“I need,” she started, voice high and strained. “I need to get away.”
“Well,” he said, closing the door and gilding her inside. “How far away are you wanting to get?”
“As far as possible.”
Coming 2027