How to Belong with a Billionaire (Arden St. Ives Book 3) by Alexis Hall

Author:Alexis Hall
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2019-09-02T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 23

Running. Bashing against the shoulders of strangers who recoiled when they saw me. Shouting Ellery’s name. Sour, breathless sobs caught in my throat. Sweat streaming down my back, clotting in my hair. My heart thrashing like some dying thing.

It was no use.

She was long gone.

And I was falling apart. I stopped, eyes full of water, and dry-heaved stringy bile into the gutter. Then I started to cry in earnest.

What had I done?

The look on Ellery’s face was scored into me with a compass point. I was never going to forget it for as long as I lived.

Or forgive myself.

Oh God, oh God, would she?

I pulled out my phone with damp, shaky hands and rang her. No answer. Tried again. Straight to, “The person you are trying to reach is not available.” I knew she never bothered with messages but I left her one anyway. Well, “message” oversold its coherence. It was mainly crying.

And then I didn’t really know what else to do except go home. I had to get the night bus, which some might say was punishment enough.

It wasn’t, though.

Ellery wasn’t at the warehouse. There was just the cold, the dark, and my abandoned wheelie. And Broderick’s glassy, condemning eyes. I took a shower, because I was disgusting. I mean, physically disgusting. But I guess in pretty much all senses.

Sat under the spray, still shivering, feeling beyond wretched. Like I was coming down with the worst cold of my life.

The hot water ran out. Long before I was clean.

So I put on some pj’s, wrapped myself in my duvet, and lay on the sofa, phone within reach in case Ellery called or texted or…or something, trying to sleep and wanting to die of shame.

Ellery was my friend. She’d trusted me. And in one stupid second, I’d destroyed it all.

* * *

She came home a little after dawn. Sunglasses on. Hood up.

“Ellery.” I flailed out of my huddle. “Ellery, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I know that’s not enough, but please believe me I didn’t mean to—”

She strode past me. “I’m just here to get some things.”

“Get some things? Are you…do you need me gone?”

“I need to be gone.” Her bedroom door slammed behind her.

The world lurched as I tried to get off the sofa, and I’m sure I’d have been sick again if there’d been anything left inside me. By the time Ellery reemerged, with a rucksack slung over her shoulder, I was sweaty and trembly again, but at least upright.

“This is your place,” I said. “I should be the one to move out.”

The impenetrable sheen of her glasses reflected only my blotchy, messed-up face. “You don’t have to move out. I’m staying with Innis for a bit.”

“For how long?”

“Until I can fucking stand the sight of you.”

I burst into tears. “I’m sorry. I…don’t know why I…why I…”

“Sex is easy.” She pushed roughly past me. “Sex is boring. You were supposed to be my friend.”

“I am your friend,” I wailed.

A pause. Her shoulders tightened. “You only ever wanted him.

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