The harshness of the words uttered by Fin’s parents stabbed at my insides, and I almost threw up. How could someone think so lowly of a person they didn’t know? How could they think so poorly of someone who made their son happy? Why couldn’t they at least give me a chance? And why hadn’t he asked them that?
My cell phone vibrated, and I lifted my head to peer at the screen. Fin’s smiling face gazed up at me beneath his caller ID, but I hit the end call button. Several seconds later, it buzzed again. Once again, I rejected the call. How could I speak to him now? After he stood there and let his parents speak about me like I was scum. After he had accepted the vilest ultimatum. ‘If you love us, Finlay, just say the words and all this can be forgotten. We’ll be a family again. We’ll move past this nonsense; all the silly ideas about singing and working for my rival; the rebellious streak that led you to being with the utterly wrong woman.’ His father’s words and Fin’s response rattled around my brain and twisted at my insides. No. It was over. I had to get used to it. I clearly wasn’t important enough to him. And to answer his call to listen to some lame ass apology and him wishing me well for the future would finish me off. I didn’t need to hear him say it. I didn’t need to hear him ask for forgiveness for letting me go. I wasn’t going to forgive the betrayal. I should never have given him a chance after the first time he hurt me so this was all on me. I was stupid and blinded by love. But I wouldn’t let him drive the final blow home. I had to at least try to keep some dignity intact.
For the next ten minutes, my phone kept on ringing, and I kept on hanging up in the hope that he would get the message eventually. I stopped looking at the screen when it lit up. It hurt too much to see his smile; the smile that lit up his face and was so filled with love. Or so I’d thought. Maybe I really was just a way to get back at the Hunters. Who was I kidding? There was no maybe about it.
After around twenty minutes, I heard a familiar voice through the hammering rain. ‘Star? Star is that you?’ My heart leapt, and I scrambled to my feet and stepped out from my hiding place. Alec scooped me up in his arms and held me tight. It felt good to be surrounded in his warmth, and I shivered.
He slipped off his jacket and wrapped it round my shoulders. ‘Come on. Let’s get you home.’
We walked to the nearest taxi rank, and Alec flagged down a cab. He opened the door for me, and I clambered in. A kind of numbness had set in. I closed my eyes as Alec pulled me into his chest. He smelled of fresh linen, and I was thankful that it was nothing like how Fin smelled. I didn’t need reminding of him. Not when things were so painfully raw.
The look of disdain on his mom’s face flashed through my mind and I clenched my eyes tight, hoping to rid myself of the image. But it was simply replaced with an echo of his father’s words.‘You can do much better than a scruffy, pink haired coffee server.’Each time the words replayed, a wave of nausea washed over me and I covered my mouth.
We finally pulled up outside our apartment block, and Alec paid the driver. As if I was some drunken idiot, Alec helped me from the car and up the stairs to our door. I stood there staring blankly as he unlocked it and then walked through to the living room and slumped onto the couch.
Alec disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a tumbler of amber coloured liquid. He handed it to me, and I held it between my hands as I stared into the glass. I caught the strong smell in my nostrils. Brandy.
He crouched before me. ‘What happened, Star? I’ve never seen you like this. Come on, sweetheart. Tell me. You’re worrying me.’
I closed my eyes. ‘Not tonight. Please don’t ask me to tell you tonight. All I want to do is take a bath and sleep. I can’t go through it again now.’ My voice was unrecognisable as my own.
He tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. ‘Okay, darlin’. Whenever you’re ready.’
I took a gulp of the brandy, and it burned my throat as it made its way to my empty stomach. We didn’t even make it to the meal, and the champagne had just made me dizzy.
I handed the glass back to Alec and slowly made my way to my bedroom. Once inside with the door closed, I collapsed onto my bed and began to sob once more.
* * *
I awoke; face down on my bed, still in the damp, black evening gown.So much for having a bath.I could hear raised voices coming from the living room and recognised them immediately.
‘Just let me talk to her, Alec. I need to explain. She got it wrong. It wasn’t how it looked.’
‘Fin, please just go home, okay? You look like shit, and I think you need to sleep. Just go. She doesn’t want to see you.’
‘How the hell doyouknow, eh? She needs to hearmyside!’ His accent strengthened, and my heart ached on hearing the pain in his voice.
‘I’m not letting you in, so you may as well just go home.’ Alec’s tone was filled with anger, although it sounded like he was trying hard to control it.
I heard a slam on the wall. ‘Please, Alec. I’m begging you. Just let me speak to her.’
‘Watch where you’re punching, arsehole. I’m getting pissed off with you now. This is thelast timeI will say this. Bugger off home. I. Am. Not. Letting. You. In.’ His determined staccato speech showed just how much his temper had increased. Alec didn’t get angry easily, and the times I had witnessed it, it hadn’t been pretty.
‘Star, sweetheart, if you can hear me, please know that I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for things to end that way. I meant what I said to you. Please forgive me!’
His words tore at my heart and I wanted to go to him. Although, deep down I knew that if he couldn’t set his parents straight about me at the ball when the verbal daggers were flying then we had no future. Seeing him now would only prolong the inevitable.
The door slammed and I almost jumped out of my skin. I realised tears were leaving damp trails down my cheeks, and I dragged myself from the bed. I peeled myself out of the beautiful dress and dropped it the floor where it pooled in a black puddle of fabric. The sexy boned corset and hold-up stockings were next to go. A pained sob left my throat as I removed them, and a deep sadness washed over me. The underwear was meant as a surprise for Fin, for when we got back to his place after the ball. I had chosen them especially, but he would never get to see them.
Not after his betrayal. Because that’s what his admission of love to his father after the ultimatum had felt like.
When I caught sight of my face in the mirror, I almost laughed. But only almost. My black eye make-up was running down my face and turning me into a very poor Alice Cooper tribute. My hair was in wild disarray, with strands sticking out of the previously lovely style, and the parts of my eyes that weren’t black were red-rimmed and puffy.
I took some comfort from the fact that Alec had told Fin he looked like shit.
He deserved to.
I didn’t.
