The billionaire's undying love for me.

otel was so bright that for a moment

nd diamonds drifted across a floor like polished glass. A string quartet played something sweeping and sad.

blue dress that did not belong to me, with a si

she had made at the printing shop, and she looked as if she were having the best night of

n a park l

tens

ing. Heads turned. Whispers followed. I caught pieces of them: that's the girl,

e bottom of the s

as waiti

e, and his dark hair swept back from his forehead. He stood completely still, one hand half-lifted, as

o the shimmer of the dress, and then back up to

said, rid

me out rough. He clea

r minute

ed me his arm, and I saw that his hand w

I'll push you in

I was going to say you look like

e a small, h

k his

omeone's eyes lingered on me too long, I felt his arm tighten under my hand. Whenever a man aske

ter the fourth rescue, "

kno

doing i

ight ahead. "I am trying

p so I woul

her laugh bright and brittle. Chloe stood beside her in silver, scanning the crowd like a hawk. Brandon leaned on a pillar with a glas

wn of black velvet, who lifted her glass an inch i

drian muttered,

he

d. He's coming. H

t lo

man who intends

juice into my hand, and kissed the air beside my cheek. "Stunning. Absolutely cri

" said

t me. "May I borro

N

't aski

e can't know yet. Not until I find it. A small, cold doubt stirred under my ribs.

I said, as ligh

h a strange, thoughtful look, as if he could hear my thoughts. Then

said Adrian, al

will

l fire

n't work

him and the

d. Several guests

and the dancers began to gather on the floor, and Adrian l

ith me,"

as somewhere in the middle, a question asked by someone

ry good," I

not let

y hand

e floor, and the

where I could feel his heartbeat thudding under the crisp white shirt. We began to move. At first, I stumbled.

ook

high wind. The music rose. He turned me, and the silk of my skirt flared around us like a wave, and I laughed, startled, breathless. His eye

umming," h

m

in silver tune I felt I had heard once, long ago, in a

breath caught, and in the hush between two notes I heard it, a tiny, raw

ria

head dropped, just slightly, to rest against min

d every part of me thrummed with a feeling I did not have a name for. I felt his thumb move once against my back, small and slow, like a

st not

et go. I did

ere very far away

ell sh

opped. People rushed toward the edge of the room, where a crowd was g

ed. "Richard! Some

s already

od lay half out of his chair, gray-faced and gasping, one hand clawed against his chest. His

es beside him. "Father, look at me.

" said Marcus, appe

he gentle face. Dr. Lawrence Whitfield. He was here? He knelt, his hands moving swiftly ove

eatrically against

s no one in this family. But Richard's eyes, clouded with pain,

wid

they pressed something small and hard into my palm. His eyes were fixed on my face, on the little mole beneath my le

e else heard. "Little Ella." Then his lips shaped o

crowd we

e back. I saw Dr. Whitfield freeze, one hand still pressed to Richard's chest. I saw

kened. His ha

flutter

dics burst thr

nd Adrian had been swept away behind a wall of suits and stretchers. No one was lookin

old and worn smooth at the edges,

idea what

crawled up my arms, that Richard Blackw