To Shatter A Slipper: A Cinderella Retelling (The Shattered Tales) by Abigail Manning

Author:Abigail Manning [Manning, Abigail]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-09-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

I spent the afternoon jumping between answering pointless wedding questions and setting aside supplies for my evening escape. I still hadn’t gotten a chance to sneak the glass slipper out of Father’s bedchambers, but I could at least prepare my most discreet attire. Father had gotten rid of most of my comfortable clothes during our move to the palace, so the simplest dress I had left was a dark gray silk gown with gaudy silver buttons engraved with roses.

During my final wedding dress fitting, I slipped a pair of scissors from the tailor and spent my free moments snipping off the decorative buttons. My fingers went cold around the metal shears and my eyes blurred the more I tried to focus on the tiny stitches.

Can I really sneak out of the palace?

I huffed a stray curl out of my face and snipped the final thread on button number four of what looked like four million. The ridiculous baubles trailed all the way down the front of the dress in two neat rows and reflected like fallen stars every time the light caught them.

Maybe I could just pull a cloak over them instead?

“Kirsi? What in the kingdoms do you think you’re doing?”

My hands froze stiffer than a lump of lead. I’d been so rushed to get as much progress done as possible that I hadn’t kept an eye out for Father. I raised my gaze to meet his questioning glare, trying to swallow the guilty expression I could feel sweeping over me.

He stared at the discarded buttons with a stern cross of his arms. “If this is some sort of rebellious tantrum—”

“No!” I dropped the scissors with a clatter that echoed the anxious throb in my chest.

I’d taken such care not to anger Father ever since the godmother arrived. If he found another reason to distrust me, then I might not get a chance to sneak away at all. He needs to think I’m still on his side...

“You’ve got it all wrong, Father.” I scooped up the discarded buttons and thrust them toward him. “I was merely removing the buttons because of how reflective they are. Obviously, I had to do it in secret; otherwise, the staff might have questioned why I needed them removed, or even caught a glimpse of my cursed image in them.”

I held up one of the buttons to meet my eyes, but it didn’t prove my point as much as I’d hoped. The rose engraving took up a majority of the space and broke up any reflections to the point where they were hardly recognizable. I tucked the button back into my palm with a stiff swallow, hoping Father hadn’t noticed this inconsistency as well.

He stepped toward the sprawled-out gown, fingering one of the buttons with a huff. “I see. In that case, we should simply toss the entire gown. There’s no need to keep such a plain thing, anyway. Starting tomorrow, you’ll be wearing the finest attires the kingdom has to offer.”

“Tomorrow?” I gulped, my grip on the buttons dampening as one slipped through my fingers.

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