Page 2 of Midnight Whispers

“Oh dear, how’d that happen?” Louise says.

I pull the iron off. The light blue silk is charred. Wetness pools in my eyes, and I whip toward Louise. “It’s ruined.”

“Such a pity. I guess you won’t be joining us after all.” She doesn’t look at me and leaves the room, her laughter ringing down the hall.

I squeeze my eyes shut, and the tears fall down my cheeks. My chest aches as if a boulder is sitting on it. All I wanted was one night, one night to have fun and feel free. She couldn’t even let me have that.

A few minutes later, I cou downstairs. I leave my room and look over the banister at the entry foyer. My stepsisters are talking and laughing, dressed in their gorgeous and expensive dresses, checking their appearances in the ornate mirror. Maude’s red hair is pulled back, and she’s dressed in a navy blue dress that I could never afford, a silver mask dangling from her hand.

Tonight’s event is a masquerade ball the Voss family holds every year to raise funds for charity, though from the rumors I’ve heard about the Voss family, they have more than enough money to match whatever they raise.

Dru is beside her, her black curls dangling nearly to her waist, wearing a green dress that’s equally as gorgeous and expensive as Maude’s. She sees me from the corner of her eye and flicks her hand, grabbing Maude’s attention.

Maude turns, and her lips form a cunning smile. “Heard about your dress. Too bad.”

“Don’t act like you care,” I say with as much venom as I can muster.

She blinks rapidly and brings her hand to her chest as if I’ve offended her. “Why, of course I do, sweet sister. Believe me, I’d love nothing more than to have you there witnessing what you’ll never have—a rich, successful, handsome man. Bet Tits & Tassels doesn’t have a lot of those.”

She and Dru bend over laughing. My fists clench on top of the banister. I’m only working at the strip club to be able to meet their financial demands, but they love to shove it in my face as though I choose to dance there. If Louise had let me go to college after high school, I could have worked somewhere else and made as much money as she demanded.

My stepmom walks into the foyer, her heels clicking on the stone. She follows her daughters’ gazes up to me. “Don’t wait up. Who knows how long we’ll be out celebrating.”

They all laugh and walk out the door. The bang sounds like a prison cell door, locking me in here.

Instead of sinking to the floor and crying, I return to my room. The only thing worse that could happen would be to accidentally burn down the whole house.

I unplug the iron and stare at my ruined dress, wishing there was some way to salvage it. The burn mark is front and center. An idea comes to me the more I inspect it. If I cut from the burn mark down off of the dress and resew the hem, it might work. The front would show my legs and be way shorter than the back, but that’s a dress style. Not what I imagined, but it would still be gorgeous.

Yanking the dress from the ironing board and grabbing my sewing supplies, I get to work. An hour later, the dress is finished and I stare at my reflection, twirling around to check all angles. Damn, I did a good job. Now I just have to drive there and somehow get inside. I’ll be late, since I overhead my stepsisters and stepmom talking about taking Nero’s private plane, but I can drive fast. I’m sure I was never added to the guest list, but I’m confident I can charm my way into the ball.

One skill I’ve learned from working at the strip club is how to charm men out of their money. Surely I can sweet-talk my way into a party.

Chapter

Two

NERO

You’d think my father was in the room with the amount of anxiety bubbling inside me. From the outside, I appear calm and unaffected, but the truth is I’m always on edge, attempting to control my emotions. If I ever bothered going to therapy, a psychologist would probably tell me that’s where my demand to keep the peace comes from, but I don’t need to pay someone to tell me how fucked up I am.

Tonight is different. My nerves are frazzled because I’m asking Maude to marry me. She met my brothers earlier this evening, and even though the greeting didn’t go exceptionally well, it went okay enough. I wish for them to like her because it will make my life easier, but I don’t need their permission.

I’ve already conducted a thorough background check on Maude and made sure she’s who she says she is. So I don’t know why my eldest brother, Asher, is so resistant to the idea of me marrying her. At least Anabelle is with him tonight. I’m not sure what’s going on with the two of them, but she seems to mellow him out a bit. At least as much as a guy like Asher can mellow.

They’ve just excused themselves to go dance. Now might be the perfect opportunity to sneak off to warn Asher about my plans.

I face Maude. “I’m going to run to the restroom. I’ll try not to stop and chat with people who recognize me.”

Her lips tilt for a beat—probably since I’m leaving her with my brothers Sid and Kol—but she recovers quickly with a smile. “I’ll go find my mom and sister while you’re gone.” She leans in closer. “I don’t think your brothers like me that much.”

I draw back and look in her brown eyes through her silver mask. “That’s not true.” I refrain from admitting that they don’t care for a lot of people. I give her a chaste kiss. “I’ll be back soon.”

We both stand. My brothers quirk their eyebrows in my direction. While she goes in search of Dru and her mother, I walk the perimeter of the dance floor in search of Asher and Anabelle. Spotting them, I push through the crowd and come up behind Asher.

“Asher!”

Asher’s jaw tightens, and he glares at me.

---