Nine Years Of Auditions, Then I Walked Away Chapter 03

Nine Years Of Auditions, Then I Walked Away Chapter 03

Seraphina was sobbing dramatically, practically melting into Sebastian’s chest.

She offered me a fake apology.

“Elara, I had no idea you were that girl.”

“Dawson’s got his issues. Sure. But come on. A guy doesn’t just snap unless someone’s practically begging for it.”

I snorted and looked right at Sebastian.

“You had your guys haul me back up here for this? To listen to her spin some bullshit story?”

Sebastian’s jaw tightened. His voice dropped to that cold, clipped tone he used when he was done playing nice.

“You know what your problem is, Elara? You’re small. Petty. That’s not gonna fly once you’re a Whitmore.”

I didn’t miss the flash of pure jealousy in Seraphina’s eyes.

Dawson chewed on his cigarette and sauntered over with a bottle of whiskey.

“Elara Vance. Let’s just wipe the slate, yeah?”

He stepped closer. I stepped back on instinct.

Seraphina snatched the bottle from him and chugged it.

She coughed violently, looking every bit the fragile damsel.

Sebastian shoved me aside with a worried scowl. His voice was ice.

“Elara, do you have to make everything so damn difficult?”

It felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head.

From the second I walked in, Seraphina and Dawson had been running a script.

A few crocodile tears, and suddenly my trauma didn’t matter?

Seraphina burrowed into Sebastian’s embrace.

She made sure I saw the heirloom sapphire bracelet on her wrist. The one meant for the Whitmore bride.

It was like a knife twisting in my chest.

Every birthday, Sebastian would graciously let me touch the family heirloom.

He’d wrap his arms around me and whisper against my skin.

“Baby, it’s yours after the wedding.”

I couldn’t breathe. I yanked off the cheap braided leather cord he’d bought me at a dollar store.

I bit my lip so hard I tasted copper.

“Are you done showing off?”

“Sebastian, I paid you back. We’re square.”

He stared at the leather cord on the table. His lips curled into an unreadable smirk.

He picked it up and tossed it straight into the trash. Then he turned his sneer on me.

“Seraphina called it. You were always in it for the money.”

“The bracelet? That was a test. You passed it up, walked away from it, we’d be married by now. But you couldn’t help yourself, could you?”

I felt a wave of disgust for the nine years I’d spent as his doormat.

Sebastian gave me a soda tab and called it a promise ring. He turned around and handed Seraphina a ten-carat pink diamond.

He gave me a hideous old dress from his mother’s closet and filled Seraphina’s wardrobe with designer originals.

What exactly was I supposed to be gold-digging for? Junk even a thrift store wouldn’t touch?

Seraphina saw us at odds and smirked in triumph.

She tugged roughly at the sapphire bracelet and walked over, voice trembling.

“Stop it. Both of you. This is my fault. I shouldn’t have worn it. Here. Just take it.”

Where Sebastian couldn’t see, Seraphina’s acrylic nails dug deep into the back of my hand.

I flinched in pain. She took the chance to fling the bracelet to the floor.

The sound of shattering sapphire was sickeningly crisp. Fragments skittered across the marble.

Seraphina clapped a hand over her mouth and shrieked.

“Elara! Even if you’re angry, you can’t just smash the family heirloom!”

“This bracelet has been in the Whitmore family for centuries.”

Blood trickled down my fingers where her rhinestones had sliced me open.

I frowned. “You’re the one who…”

A stinging slap cracked across my face. Sebastian grabbed my jaw, his eyes dark.

“Square? You think we’re square?”

“That bracelet was worth more than you’ll ever be.”

Before I could even process it, he signaled his men.

They forced me to my knees on the shattered sapphire.

He pulled out the Deed to the Homestead and tore it to shreds right in front of me.

“Fine. You don’t care about the bracelet? Let’s see how you feel when I take something you actually give a damn about.”