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CHAPTER EIGHT
Summer
I’MSTANDINGINthe corner of the Glenrobin ballroom. Around me there are people. So many people. I didn’t want to come but Katherine insisted.
‘You’re family. You belong here just as much as the others.’
Only belonging can’t be handed over. It’s a feeling, and I don’t have it.
I see the other foster children, so much younger than me, running around the room, enjoying the Christmas festivities that are in full swing. They’re not old enough to know better. They’ve not lived through the disappointment of many Christmases past.
But it’s fine. I’m no fool. And, at eighteen, I’ve decided this is my last Christmas in someone’s care. I’ll be going it alone. Independent. An adult at last. No more being tossed about in the system. But before I go...
I drag in a breath and scan the room. Edward is here somewhere...the chaotic beat of my heart tells me so...but where?
I spy his companion first. She’s impossible to miss. Glossy blonde hair, pinned up in a style that must have taken hours to perfect, her English rose complexion utterly flawless. Her festive red gown fitting her body like a second skin. She’s all elegance and poise, oozing money and glamour and everything I’m not.
And she has Edward enraptured.
I fancy he looks at me like that too, with his eyes alive, a charge in the air, a flurry of excitement within him. Is that how it is for this girl too? Have I tried to see more where there isn’t more to see?
‘She is a vision, is she not?’
I spin on my heel and come face to face with Edward’s mother...or Bitchface as I’ve nicknamed her. Never has there been a woman so beautiful and so sullen in one. A woman who has everything but it’s never enough. And don’t get me started on how she treats Katherine—her mother by blood, my temporary mother by paperwork.
I refuse to recoil, though every muscle in my body urges me to do so. My skin is crawling under her insipid smile, her hollow cheeks and ice-blue eyes.
Don’t get me wrong. She’s beautiful...if cool sophistication and high maintenance are your thing. So very different from her son and the warmth he emanates.
‘Who?’ I say.
She gives a high-pitched laugh and I can’t suppress my wince.
‘Why, Charlotte, my dear.’ She gestures to where I’d just been staring. ‘Edward’s new girlfriend.’
I must truly flinch now, because she laughs some more, her bony hand fluttering to her neck.
‘Oh, foolish child...you didn’t think he’d set his sights on you, did you?’
I frown. She’s always been a nasty piece of work, but this...this is something else. I want to run, but I don’t. I stand straighter. In her three-inch heels she has me on height, but I tilt my chin. I won’t cower.
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Don’t I? Come, now...’
She leans into me, almost conspiratorially. Her sickly-sweet perfume swamps me and I want to gag, cover my mouth, but I won’t. I won’t be seen as weak in front of her.
‘You must think I was born yesterday. I see the way you look at him, with those big blue eyes and that besotted smile. Do you really think you could keep a man like him?’
‘I don’t think—’
Another cackle of laughter cuts me off and my fingers tighten around the champagne flute Katherine gave me earlier. The glass is still full, and warm now in my hot, sweaty palm. My stomach swoops and my eyes dart about the room.
Is it that obvious? Am I that obvious? Is everyone laughing at me, just as she is?
My cheeks are aflame and I can’t quite catch my breath. Does he know? Edward?
‘Oh, my dear, I actually feel sorry for you.’ She shakes her head. ‘I blame my mother entirely, of course...putting foolish notions in your head. Still, at least you can see the truth for yourself now, before any real damage is done.’
