Every thought of getting ready flew out of her head the instant she opened the door.
“Clarissa.”
A very formidable-looking Clarissa Chambers-Caine swept into the apartment without so much as acknowledging Laurel’s presence. She took one sweeping glance of the room then turned away with a barely audible sniff and a turning up of her nose. When her eyes settled on Laurel, the expression in them was chilling.
“I told myself that, when you left ten years ago, I would never have to deal with you again.” Clarissa’s words were spaced evenly, the tone ice cold. “It gives me no pleasure to see you again.”
Laurel tried to find the spine that had so recently snapped back into place with her resolve to stand up to her stepmother. That spine had vanished with one look from Clarissa, and she was reduced to the cowering little girl she’d been when Clarissa had taken control of her life and made her nothing. Less than nothing. So she said nothing, could say nothing.
“I had heard rumors that you were making plans to appear at the Apollo Records gala tonight. I thought them laughable until I heard that you’d been carrying on an affair with James Apollus.” Clarissa’s eyes narrowed upon her stepdaughter, pleased to see that Laurel’s eyes were full of fear and uncertainty. “Do you know the game you’ve been playing, Laurel? Of course, you don’t,” she answered herself. “You’re too simple-minded to understand that you could not possibly mean anything to a man such as James. He’s out of your league, and you could not possibly hold his attention for too long. Showing up at the gala would just be a ridiculous move for you to make.”
Laurel made a tiny sound of dissent, but Clarissa ignored it.
“Of course, all that was simply ludicrous to hear. And then a little bird told me of your plans to bring me down by appearing tonight.” Before Laurel could brace herself, Clarissa’s hand had slashed across her face in a stinging slap. “Could you really be that stupid to think that I wouldn’t hear of it? That I would do nothing to stop you from carrying out your foolish plans?”
Laurel had staggered back, one hand against her bright red cheek, and stared with wounded eyes at the woman who’d continued to ruin her life. “You can’t stop me from going,” she whispered.
“You think not?” Clarissa threw her head back and laughed gleefully. “My poor, poor, delusional stepchild. You really have no idea what money can buy in this world, do you? If you step within five hundred feet of me after I leave here, you will be arrested.”
It took her a moment to find her voice. “What?!”
“I have put out a restraining order against you. If you so much as step one foot in that building tonight, you will be handcuffed and imprisoned. I believe that's easy enough for you to understand.” Clarissa smiled evilly as she stared Laurel up and down. “Since you obviously won’t be appearing tonight, there is no need for you to be so well-dressed. Let me help you get out of that gown.”
Without warning, one hand had ripped apart the top layer of the Chanel gown Laurel wore, and the other had swept her hair into a disordered wreck. Taking a step back to study her handiwork, Clarissa smiled. “Have a lovely night.”
And she was gone.
Shocked, her spirit broken, Laurel slowly slid to the floor, one hand holding the top of the dress together. Sequins had scattered across the floor at her feet and lay mixed with the pins she’d had in her hair. When she lifted her hand to her still stinging cheek, it came away wet. She realized it was tears and tried to hold in the awful sobs that were building up within her.
Unable to prevent them from spilling forth, she curled into a ball and wept for herself, for her siblings…and for the man she was in love with.
Bryna glanced at her watch and looked up at Jason worriedly. “She should’ve been here almost an hour ago. Where is she?”
“She hasn’t been answering her cell phone.” Jason slid his back into his pocket, his brow furrowed. “The festivities are about to start. Maybe she’s stuck in traffic.” He watched as James moved from a group of people towards the podium. “James is getting ready to speak. We should probably be up there with him.”
Brian watched Bryna and Jason make their way to where he stood with James while his eyes searched the room, and his heart sank. Laurel wasn’t here. He could feel the tension surrounding James and knew that his best friend was as stressed about Laurel’s absence as he was. He was still unsure as to what he would say to Laurel if she ever did come to the gala. After all, she was still with his best friend, and James still had no idea what had transpired between the two of them. With every minute that passed, it appeared increasingly likely that he would never find out.
His eyes swept across the room and spotted their friends studying James and him with worried looks. In the past two days, they’d all heard what had happened and had found it hard to side with either man. Instead, they’d sympathized with both.
Brian’s eyes settled on Leighanne and noted that her attention was on something else. When he followed her gaze, he realized that it wasn’t something else that held her captive, it was someone else.
Jason.
He was smiling at her a bit wistfully, and Brian wondered what was going on. A sick feeling slowly slid through him, and, when Jason turned his head and met Brian’s, the feeling worsened. Jason’s smile slipped away even as he began to move towards Brian. Neither man noticed when Leighanne followed Jason.
“Brian.” Jason stood in front of him, an awkward expression on his face. “There’s something I should’ve told you. I know this is crappy timing, but you have to know.”
Brian’s hands fisted, and he shoved them in his pockets. He knew, how could he not? He didn’t know how he knew what he was about to hear, and, even knowing that he really hadn’t ever been in love with Leighanne, it still burned in his gut. “What is it?” he managed to ask.
“Brian. Jason.” Leighanne appeared at Jason’s side, her hand automatically moving to rest on Jason’s arm. “What’s going on?” But she, too, already knew.
Brian barely spared her a glance. “Jason’s about to tell me something important.”
“Oh.” Her fingers dug into Jason’s arm.
Jason lifted a hand to soothe the fingers on his arm. “Leigh, he has to know. He’s one of my best friends. I can’t do this to him.”
She nodded and swallowed hard. “Of course. Of course, he has to know.” Her eyes met Brian’s, and, in them, he saw the sorrow and fear. “Brian, I am so sorry. You have to know that neither of us meant to hurt you. It just…happened.”
“What? What just happened?” He needed to hear it said.
Jason took a deep breath. “We fell in love. It wasn’t planned, it wasn’t anything either of us could help. We didn’t want to hurt you, but we need you to know because…Well, because you’re engaged to Leigh.”
Leighanne laid her other hand on Brian’s arm. “Brian, I know we both tried, really tried, to love each other, to make this work, but it can’t work out. You know you don’t really love me, and I’m not in love with you either.”
He couldn’t deny it, but he still hurt. “It doesn’t make it any easier to know you cheated on me.”
“I know.” She managed a small smile. “But I don’t want to end things with you being angry with me.” She slid the ring off her finger and held it out to him. “I think we both know that there’s someone else out there for you.”
Brian stared at the delicate ring of diamonds before taking it and slipping it into his own pocket. He looked from Leighanne’s worried face to Jason’s apprehensive one. In a moment he realized he could never be angry with them. It would make him too much of a hypocrite to fault Leighanne for falling in love with Jason when he, too, had been falling in love with Laurel.
The smile spread across his face as he patted Leighanne’s hand, his eyes meeting Jason’s. “Does this mean that you’ll be getting married now?”
Leighanne looked startled, but Jason merely grinned back. “I haven’t asked her yet, since it’s still early days yet. But I hope so.” He slid an arm around her and brought her against him.
“Well, let me be the first to offer congratulations,” Brian replied and leaned forward to kiss Leighanne’s cheek. “Be happy. Incredibly happy.”
“Thank you, Brian.” Leighanne beamed at him. “I hope we’ll still be friends.”
“Of course.”
Bryna couldn’t help but worry as James stepped up to the podium and welcomed everyone to the annual Apollo Records gala. Laurel still hadn’t arrived, and the car service that had been hired to pick her up had called Bryna to let her know that no one had answered the call at her apartment. As she twisted a bracelet round and round in an agitated movement, her eye caught her mother’s across the room. When a slow, satisfied smile spread across Clarissa’s face, Bryna’s blood ran cold.
Something was dreadfully wrong.
As she turned to hurry out of the ballroom, she found her way blocked.
“Bryna. Where are you going?” Nick stopped her with one hand on her shoulder. When she looked up into his face, he saw the panic in her eyes. An instinctive need to protect moved through him. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
She shook her head and slipped around him to head for the door but found her arm caught. A miserable sense of déjà vu hit her as she remembered the fight they’d had in a club weeks ago. Fighting it off, she met his eyes coolly. “Let me go, Nick. I have to go. I have to find my sister.”
“Sister?” Nick frowned as his eyes sought out and found Theresa standing near the front of the crowd. “Theresa’s back there.”
Bryna shook her head and wrenched her arm out of Nick’s hand. “Laurel. I have to find Laurel. I think something awful happened to her.”
Nick froze for an instant, his mind remembering a girl with dark hair and brilliant green eyes. “Laurel. Where is she? She was supposed to come?”
Nearly breaking into a run in the hallway headed towards the parking garage, she heard Nick following her and spoke over her shoulder. “She’s been dating James. She was supposed to come tonight and upstage my mother, take back Starlight.”
“Dating James? She’s James’s Laurel?” Nick’s brows lifted in surprise. “Holy shit, it’s a small world.”
“Tell me about it,” Bryna began and then she stopped in her tracks so abruptly that Nick nearly collided with her.
“Bryna, what-” And he saw what had stopped her. “Laurel. Laurel Caine.”
Laurel walked slowly but calmly towards her sister and Nick. Gone were the gorgeous gown and the fancy hair. Her hair fell in a mass of curls down her back, and she’d changed into one of Bryna’s old dresses. On Laurel, though, the dress looked incredible. The forest green satin was strapless and fit her like a glove. The color matched her eyes and made them glow with power. The power she hadn’t felt when Clarissa had torn her apart.
The cheek that Clarissa had slapped had turned a mottled purple color.
“Laurel, what happened?” Bryna had her arms around her sister in an instant. “Who hurt you?” But she already knew the answer. “My mother.”
Laurel merely nodded. “She’s got a restraining order on me. Now that I’ve stepped foot in this building, I’m liable to be arrested.” She waited a beat. “Obviously, I don’t care. She scared me,” she admitted. “For a little while, she made me flashback to the terrified little girl I’d once been. Now, I’m not.” Her smile was brilliant and strong. “She’ll see that she can’t hold me back anymore. She can’t bully me and make me nothing.”
Nick held out a hand. “Good. And it’s great to see you again,” he added.
She placed her hand in his and looked from him to Bryna with a surprised look. “It’s nice to see you again, too. Though I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Yeah?” Nick studied Bryna for a moment. “Well, whatever you’ve heard is about to change.” But before Bryna could come up with a response, he turned back to Laurel. “We’d better get you in there so you can kick some Clarissa ass.” He held out an arm to her. “Shall we?”
Laurel smiled up at him and slid her arm through his. “Thanks, Nick.”
James had the perfect view of them when they stepped into the ballroom. Whatever he’d been saying slipped out of his mind as he watched Laurel make her way through the crowd flanked on either side by Bryna and Nick.
He didn’t notice Brian rise and move to stand next to him. Nor did he hear Brian’s sharp intake of breath at the sight of the bruise on her face.
“Laurel.” James’s voice was quiet as he stepped down from the podium and towards her, but she heard him.
Knowing that she was about to hurt him, she took his hands in hers when they lifted to touch her face. “James. There’s something I have to tell you.”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You came.” He squeezed her hands. “I’m so glad you came.”
“Laurel! I’m so sorry!” Theresa broke through the crowd and stopped a few feet from her stepsister, her eyes shocked at the sight of Laurel’s face. “Oh, god. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t stop her, I couldn’t help but tell her.”
Laurel reached out and comfortingly squeezed Theresa’s hand. “I know. I figured it out, and I don’t blame you. I completely understand.”
“Well, at least there’s something that you understand.” Clarissa stepped into the clearing. “Because it is quite obvious you didn’t understand the words ‘restraining order’ when I told you that you were not to step within five hundred feet of me.”
Laurel let go of James’s hand and turned to face Clarissa. “You’ve been bullying me for most of my life, Clarissa. Ever since my father died, you took over everything he’d done, everything he’d built, and you warped it. You ruined the spirit of Starlight, and you restrained his child. Hell, you restrained your own children, but they were still yours, so they could still break away from you. But you never let me be free.”
“Don’t be silly. I gave you ten years.”
“Oh, yes. You let me go when I turned eighteen and gave me nothing of what was rightfully mine. Starlight is mine, Clarissa, and I will have it back.” Laurel looked her stepmother in the eye and was pleased to see a flicker of uncertainty in her eyes. “I have a whole ballroom full of witnesses who will hear that I, Laurel Caine, am the rightful heir to Ian Caine’s legacy, his business holdings, and his wealth. There is no court in the world that will deny me what was in my father’s will. You can try to have me arrested, Clarissa, and I’ll still win. It’s my time, now. You’re finished.”
Clarissa stared at her for long moments, her chin beginning to tremble and her breath ragged. In those moments, Laurel finally saw her for what she was. A haggard, old woman still bent on delusions of grandeur. Pity moved through her, but she held it down. It was for later.
Without a word, Clarissa turned and left the ballroom.
Laurel had an instant to breathe a sigh of relief before Bryna, Jason, and Theresa pounced on her and hugged her hard enough to leave her breathless. When they pulled back and their words of joy filled her ears, her eyes met James’s.
The joy that had so recently filled her, drained. “James.”
As she moved towards him, he stepped back, hurt filling his eyes. “Is this what you were hiding from me, Laurel? That you’re a Caine? Couldn’t you trust me with that knowledge or did you think it amusing to play me?”
“No. James, you can’t think that,” she began but he cut her off.
“What else am I supposed to think? You lied to me about who you were. I get that you weren’t living the way you’re entitled to, that Clarissa had kept it all from you, but why couldn’t you trust me? I trusted you,” he said bitterly.
Laurel blinked the tears out of her eyes and took a step towards him. “James.”
“Don’t.” He held up a hand. “Don’t say anything to me. I can’t believe I let myself fall for you. I can’t believe what an enormous mistake I’ve made.” He met her eyes, and his were iced over. “I don’t ever want to see you again.” Not caring that there were hundreds of guests filling his ballroom, he turned and strode away.
Laurel stood, staring after him. The ballroom was buzzing with the scandal just witnessed, but Laurel heard nothing. Her siblings and friends had grouped together, waiting for her reaction, but she didn’t notice them. Her hands were beginning to tremble, so she clenched them into fists, her nails digging into skin. How could she have known that she’d hurt him to such an extent? She’d done everything wrong, she knew, and had no clue how to go about fixing it. He hadn’t even known about Brian, and-
Brian.
She spun and found herself face to face with him. His face was blank, and he stood watching her calmly.
“Brian.” She tried to summon up a smile and failed. “I didn’t know who you were when we met or all the times after that. I just figured it out the morning after…The morning after.”
“I figured it out, too.”
“You-you did?” She should’ve felt relief, she thought, but she didn’t. There was something terribly wrong.
Brian shrugged. “It wasn’t so hard. I just didn’t make the leap, though, from you dating James to you being the Laurel Caine. My childhood friend, Bryna and Jason’s stepsister. Heir of Starlight.”
“A-and now that you know?”
She’d never seen the blue of his eyes so cold and shivered from the iciness. “Now, I wonder how I could’ve missed the whole thing. That whole time we were talking about our pasts, and it never clicked. It also never clicked in my head, until now, what a horrible, horrible woman you are.”
Her heart cracked. “What?”
“You cheated on my best friend with me. He won’t ever know it from me, but you have no idea what you’ve made me do, do you?” His voice rose on the last few words, and he struggled to keep it low. “I betrayed him, and it doesn’t matter that I didn’t know who you were. None of that matters, except that it happened. You lied to both of us, and I can’t stand knowing that either of us could’ve fallen for you the way we did. But I did, and I’m having a hell of a time living with it.” He couldn’t handle looking at her, the way her eyes filled with tears, so he turned away. “You can go to hell for all I care, but stay away from me.” And he strode off in the direction James had gone.
Laurel simply stared after him and wondered how things could’ve gone so terribly wrong. She’d taken back what was rightfully hers, but she’d lost the man she loved…
