—ELEANOR-I arrive back at Cassandra’s home with Arthur.He doesn’t let me get out of the car before he starts offering.“You can sleep over if you want I’ll leave, or I can drive you back to Cindy’s. You can make your decision now that my grandma’s not here”I sigh.“Thanks but I feel bad. I don’t think I’ll leave until she gets back. I ruined this dress and if I just leave like that. She’ll hate me”“Again. She’ll never hate you” He says.“Yeah right,” I scoff as I get out of the car.I almost stumble and fall flat on my face but thankfully I don’t. So I take off my shoes and push my heavy body towards the grey house.As I get inside the house I thank the heavens I haven’t left yet because why.. Cassandra has gotten her staff to prepare a bath for me and sleepwear.And if I had left all that and she found out Arthur and I are over. She’ll hunt me down.You can’t reject anything from Cassandra.“Thank you,” I say to one of the maids who watches me with a weird look.“What?” I narrow
—ELEANOR.-I feel bad. So bad. My chest is tight, my face is hot, and my breath comes out in short angry bursts as I scramble to sit up. I ignore Arthur’s stifled laugh and focus on getting my feet steady on the floor of the car. My hands clutch at the ruined silk of my dress, shaking slightly as I realize the damage.This isn’t just a tear. It’s a massacre. The delicate fabric is shredded up to my thighs, threads hanging loose like a cruel reminder of my humiliation.I’ve ruined a million-dollar dress.My fingers tremble as I gather what’s left of it around me. I don’t even have the energy to glare at Arthur anymore.Then Alex climbs into the car. His sudden presence startles me, and before I can say anything, his hands are on my dress— ripping.“What the hell are you doing?!” I scream, clutching the tattered fabric tighter around my body.“I’m helping,” he says flatly, as if he isn’t currently committing a crime against couture.“Are you crazy?” My voice rises an octave. I gape at
ELEANOR—-Despite being the foulest mouth I’ve been in years, Alex Hillcove doesn’t seem to want to leave my side. He hovers like a shadow, all charming smiles and casual remarks, his presence growing heavier the longer I stand here. I’m exhausted. My body aches from holding myself together all night, from smiling too much at people I barely know, from catching glimpses of Arthur across the room with Cassandra laughing too closely at his jokes.If Alex had any sense, he’d leave me alone. Let me drink until next Tuesday. Let me melt into this fountain table of wine and liquor, until I’m nothing but alcoholic and regretful.But no. He doesn’t budge.I can feel Arthur’s eyes burning into my back. Piercing. Watching.He shouldn’t bother straining his neck to keep tabs on me. I would never— never— ruin his pristine reputation by looking like I’m enjoying the company of another man. Not even one as disgustingly handsome as Alex Hillcove.Not that I have a husband to ruin it for anymore. T
,ELEANOR.My breath goes still. Not just shallow or shaky, still. Like my lungs have frozen stiff in my chest, terrified to betray how I’m feeling.It’s Arthur’s effect. And I hate it. God, I hate how he’s still making my insides turn to jelly.His head rests lazily on my shoulder as we waltz, the weight of it so familiar it knocks memories loose in my skull. I know he must be tired, maybe even a little drunk from all that expensive wine, but he doesn’t know what he’s doing to me.Or maybe he does.This isn’t fair. This wasn’t supposed to happen,not after everything. Not after we’ve been unstitched and signed the papers and gone our separate ways. Not after he made it clear he doesn’t want me like that.But my traitorous heart doesn’t listen. It never does.“You’re heavy,” I say. My voice sounds too even, too calm for the riot in my chest.He lifts his head then, those sharp golden-brown eyes flicking to mine, and the scent of him lingers,woodsy cologne, faint hints of smoke and leath
—ELEANOR.-The air shifts the second the soft classical music fades, replaced by the elegant swell of a waltz. The violins sigh, the piano hums gently, and within moments, the room transforms. Couples are already moving, drawing close, hands clasping as though they’ve been waiting all evening for this cue.I stand still, clutching my glass, watching as guests laugh and glide across the floor like they’ve rehearsed this their entire lives. There’s an ease in the way they pair off, like magnets finding their match.But I’m not in the mood to dance. Not tonight.I should be smiling, keeping up appearances, but my mask feels too heavy. Too cracked. My stomach hasn’t settled since Brianna’s outburst earlier, her words still echoing in my head like a cruel refrain. And as if that wasn’t enough, there was Alex Hillcove— the tall man in the beige suit whose familiar nose had made my heart plummet.For a split second, I’d thought he was Leon. Shit. I still hate myself for that.And the panic
—ELEANOR.—My breath turns feather-light, too light, like I can’t hold it down in my lungs anymore. The heels pinching around my feet; tiny prisons all night— suddenly feel weightless, like my body has forgotten its own weight.I don’t know how to act.It feels impossible. Unreal. And yet—Here he is.The man I’ve hoped—no, prayed, for years to see again. Standing ten feet away. Staring not at the glowing chandeliers, not at the couples swirling across the polished floor, not at Vanessa.At me.Those eyes. Bright, vivid, heart-stopping blue. Eyes I could have sworn belonged only to one person.Leon.But my God, he looks so different. So much sharper. So much broader. His shoulders have squared out in ways that are unfamiliar to my memory, and his face…His face is heavier now, more rugged. There’s a stubble framing his full lips, a shade of darkness that didn’t exist in the soft-cheeked boy I knew. His dirty blond hair has turned deeper, richer, bordering brown under the ballroom lig