FAZER LOGINFifteen minutes later the heat came.It started at the back of her neck and spread quickly. She felt dizzy.She found Victoria in the crowd and touched her arm."Victoria." Her voice came out hoarse and disoriented. "I don't feel good."Victoria looked at her. "Already? You didn't even drink that much." She took Elena's arm gently. "Come on. I booked rooms for the night. I will take you to lie down."She guided Elena away from the bar, away from the pool, toward the doors that led back inside the hotel. Elena leaned into her slightly, grateful, trusting.They moved through the doors and into the hallway that was filled with a series of rooms. The music faded behind them.Victoria stopped."Oh no." She pressed her hand to her forehead. "I forgot to tell the girls something important. I have to go back for just a second."Elena turned to look at her. The hallway was tilting slightly. "Vic, don't leave me alone. I feel really strange.""Room 801," Victoria said, already stepping back tow
*FLASHBACK*The changing room was quiet compared to the rooftop. It had white walls and long mirrors and the faint sound of music still blasting from above.Elena stood in front of one of the mirrors and unclipped the earrings slowly. She set them on the counter and looked at them for a moment without saying anything.Victoria came and stood beside her. She put her hand on Elena's shoulder."Sis, I'm sorry for what my friends said. They can be like that sometimes. I should have stopped them sooner."Elena moved her shoulder gently so that Victoria's hand slid off. "You gave me the earrings to wear Vic. Why didn't you say something when they started making fun of them?"Victoria's face shifted. Something soft and wounded moved across it. "I didn't know they were fake either. I swear. I bought them from a vendor who told me they were real. I just wanted us to match." Her voice dropped. "I can't believe you think I would do something like that to you on purpose. Is that really how you se
*FLASHBACK(ON THE NIGHT OF VICTORIA’S BIRTHDAY PARTY)*Elena was in her own world.She lay on her bed with her headset on, music pouring into her ears loud enough to block out everything else. Her eyes were closed. Her feet were crossed at the ankle. She was completely immersed in her own world.The headset was yanked off her head. Elena’s eyes flew open.Victoria stood over her, dangling the headset above her head with a wide grin on her face. “Ughhh. You are always like this.”“Victoria.” Elena sat up. “Give it back.”“No.” Victoria took a step back, still grinning. “If you want it, you are going to have to come and get it.”Victoria was taller. She knew it and she was using it. She held the headset just high enough for Elena to struggle. Elena stood up and reached for it and Victoria moved it higher and they went back and forth like that for a few seconds until Elena jumped for it and caught Victoria’s arm instead and they both toppled sideways onto the bed.They burst out laughing
Elena’s hands were shaking before she even reached the car.She got in, slammed the door and sat there for a second with both hands on the steering wheel, breathing hard. The confrontation with Victoria was still running through her body like electricity, hot. She could still feel the weight of her own hand around Victoria’s throat. She could still hear the words Victoria said to her.“You lost your child. You had a miscarriage”.She started the car and pulled out into the road.She had no destination. She just needed to move, sitting still felt impossible right now, like the walls of wherever she was would close in if she stopped. She drove, taking turns without thinking, moving through the city with no map and no plan. Her chest felt tight. She pressed her fist against it once, then again, like she could loosen whatever was sitting there. Her breathing was coming in shorter, like she was struggling to breathe.She pressed harder on the accelerator. And then it started.It came the
Victoria closed her bedroom door the moment she heard her father’s footsteps reach the bottom of the stairs.She stood with her back against the door for a second, breathing through her nose, her hand still pressed lightly to her throat. Then she walked to the mirror.She tilted her head left, then right. She pulled the collar of her top down and examined her neck carefully in the light. The skin was red but not marked. She let out a long breath.“I have an audition coming up,” she said to her reflection, her voice low and tight. “That bitch would have ruined my skin.”She turned away from the mirror and paced once across the room.“Ughhh.” She grabbed her phone from the bed and opened her contacts.She was already pressing the call button when the door handle moved. She didn’t lock her room door. The door pushed open and Donald stood in the doorway, his eyes going straight to the phone in her hand.He crossed the room in three steps and took it from her, ending the call before it con
Elena sat in the car outside the house for a moment after Damien drove away.She had a destination in mind but it wasn’t home. It had been sitting in the back of her head all morning, ever since she woke up. She started the car and pulled out into the road.The hospital was busy the way hospitals always were in the late morning, people moving in every direction. Elena walked through it like she wasn’t seeing any of it. She knew the way to Dr. Turner’s office by heart now. She had been coming here long enough.She pushed the door open and stepped inside.Dr. Turner was at her desk but she looked up the moment Elena walked in, and something in her expression said she had been expecting this visit or one very much like it.“Elena.” She set down her pen. “Why haven’t you started your treatments yet? You know that every week you wait makes things harder.”“I appreciate your concern,” Elena said, sitting down across from her. “I will start when I am ready.”“And when exactly will that be?”
Elena was greatly astonished, as she looked around she saw a fountain that danced in the circular driveway, water cascading over smooth stones. The building itself seemed to go on forever, wings extending in both directions from the main entrance."Oh my God," Elena whispered."The Carrington estat
Elena stood in the middle of her small apartment. It felt strangely quiet, almost hollow, as if it already knew she was leaving. This was the place she had once called home. She had rented it temporarily, promising George they'd buy a proper house after the wedding. Their house, he had called it,
The name still sounded strange, but Elena was beginning to accept it. For one year, she would be Mrs. Carrington. She would live in this man’s home, care for his son, and play the role of his wife.Damien leaned forward, pressing the intercom button. “Drive”, he commanded the driver."Wait!" Elena
They were empty words, she knew. Vows spoken in haste with no foundation of love or even basic human connection. Damien did not love her and she doubted he was capable of love. She did not love him either. They were two people brought together by circumstance.Damien pulled a ring from his pocket c







