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Merida had been invited to audition for the part of Belladonna inNight Forest—a new Broadway production due to open in the summer.
It was career gold, and once Anton had gone Merida took all the congratulations of her colleagues and went out for supper with them to celebrate.
Yet she was the only one not drinking champagne. Because she was rather certain that if she did she might break down and cry.
This, she kept telling herself on the cab ride home, was the best night of her life.
But instead of arriving home on a high, she wearily trudged up the stairs to her apartment and once there slumped in a chair with her coat still on, just staring out of the window, listening to the noise from the restaurant below and the endless sirens outside.
And then she did something stupid.
Merida went on her laptop and looked up Ethan Devereux.
He was out tonight at a gala function. The Carmody Ball, she read.
Merida clicked.
And she clicked again.
And she tortured herself over and over. Because of course—unlike her devastated self—Ethan had moved right along.
Blonde and beautiful, there was nothing to hate about the woman who had been on his arm tonight.
And was no doubt by now in his bed.
Merida felt sick.
More than that—she just made it to the toilet in time.
She knelt there, clutching the bowl with one hand and holding back her hair with the other.
Get over him and be happy, she told herself again and again.
After all, she had got what she’d come to New York City for.
She had a shot at Broadway.
Broadway!
Only the order of her heart had changed.
Broadway came second.
Ethan Devereux was now first.
She hadn’tfallenin love with Ethan; instead she had been lifted into it. Briefly lifted into a world that had felt brighter, lighter, justbetter, when it was shared with him.
And now the lights had gone out.
Nowshe had fallen.
CHAPTER SEVEN
IFEVERTHEREwas a cure for a broken heart, then rehearsing for a Broadway production came close.
Having served her notice at the gallery to a very moody Reece, Merida had gone straight into rehearsals six days a week. They were intense, and she should have no real time to think of Ethan.
Except she did.
