Chapter 4
I had just reached the front door when Aubrey’s high heel jammed against the doorframe.
“Lily, you’re filthy,” she said sweetly. “Why don’t you rinse off in the yard first?”
She smiled, but her eyes gleamed with malice.
“The backyard hose still works,” she added. “I’ll have someone help you.”
It was the dead of winter. The yard was an icebox. Water froze as it hit the ground. Bathing in that would make anyone sick.
I looked toward Grayson.
He didn’t even glance at me. “Clean up before you come inside,” he said coldly, disappearing through the door.
It slammed shut in my face.
I crouched by the rusted faucet. The metal burned my palms with cold. Three bodyguards approached–the same ones who’d slapped Lily across the face at her wedding.
They yanked the hose from the fire hydrant like they’d done it a hundred times.
“No offense, ma’am,” the leader said, licking his lips. “Orders are orders.”
The jet of water hit my collarbone with a shocking burst. “Miss Aubrey said to scrub every inch.”
Through the second–floor curtain’s gap, Aubrey’s silhouette flickered. When Grayson approached, she vanished, yanking the curtain shut.
Freezing water blurred my vision, but I smiled up at them anyway. Not kindly.
When I finally stepped inside–dripping wet, spotless–the front yard was quiet.
Three swollen, unconscious men lay in the cold like broken fountain statues. Their bodies puffed up like overstuffed pigs, hoses still tangled around them.
Grayson frowned when he saw me. Oddly gentle, he wrapped a towel around my soaked hair.
“You were gone forever,” he said. “I told you to rinse your feet–not bathe in the snow.”
He nudged a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup toward me.
“Kitchen made it special. Go change and come back down. Drink it while it’s hot.” Chapter 4
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“Mm.” I nodded, a rare response, and went to change.
Aubrey’s eyes burned with jealousy as she eagerly handed me the soup. Before I could take it, the scalding liquid splashed across me.
“Ah!” Aubrey shrieked in perfect timing.
“Lily, I was just trying to help!” she cried. “You knocked it over—on purpose! You burned me!”
“I know you hate me, okay? I’ll go. I’ll leave–forever, if that’s what you want!”
Grayson shot over like lightning, gathering her “burned” hand in his. Not a mark on it.
His face twisted with concern. He didn’t even glance at me. Didn’t see the red welts rising on my skin, the steam still rising off my shirt.
“Lily,” he snapped, “apologize to Aubrey!”
Something in my chest twisted.
This was how they treated her?
Lily gave them everything–her love, her loyalty.
And they fed it to the dogs.
I turned on my heel and stalked to the foyer. With a sharp beep, the villa’s front door locked behind
- me.
Grayson roared, “Lily! What the hell are you doing? Have you forgotten all sense of decency?”
“Apologize to Aubrey. Now!”
My smile dropped. My eyes darkened. Blood–red fury bubbled up and burned behind my gaze.
I moved slowly, step by step, toward them.
Aubrey, still curled in Grayson’s arms, suddenly froze. Her eyes widened in sheer terror.
She pointed a shaking finger toward the TV mounted on the wall.
“You… you’re…”
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I raised one finger to my lips, smiling faintly.
“Shhh…”
Chapter 4
4
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1 leaned in closer, voice as soft as silk.
“The show’s just beginning.”
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