Page 63 of Cruel Fate

She glares at me, cutting off my sympathy.

“What happened?” I cry.

“It’s nothing.” She wiggles into a strapless dress. The design is a simple empire cut, and her skin glows against the blood-red satin though her face is pale.

“It’s not nothing.Who hurt you?”

Ash’s name is on the tip of my tongue, but his goon is sitting outside the fitting rooms. The second the manager found out Zarah Maddox was shopping in her store, she closed it down to other customers. We’re completely alone, no chatter to mask our conversation.

Hector can hear everything we say.

Zarah presses a finger to her lips, but says in a low voice, “No one. Zip me up, will you?”

I slide the dress’s zipper up and stand back to give her room to look at herself in the mirror.

A side slit exposes her thigh and another bruise. I don’t miss it’s in the shape of a hand. She catches my eye and floats material over it.

Someone grabbed Zarah’s leg. Hard.

I don’t want to start a fight, and I pretend I didn’t see it. I can’t help her if she won’t talk to me, and she won’t talk to me if she’s mad.

“What do you think?” she asks, combing her fingers through her hair and avoiding my reflection’s gaze in the mirror.

I think she can’t wear it if she’s hiding what Ash did to her, and I say, “It shows off too much leg.”

She blushes. “It’s nothing, really.”

I can’t listen to her lies, and I turn to go back to my own fitting room to change. I’ve forgotten what kind of game I’m playing. I’ve forgotten I don’t know the rules.

Zarah grasps my arm and whispers into my ear. She doesn’t want Hector to hear her, either. “It was Ash. He’s very...passionate in bed. He went a little too far, and he apologized. It’s not a big deal. Please, Stella.”

I pause, my hand on the doorknob.

Zarah’s eyes plead with me to understand, her dark brown pools almost black, brimming with desperation and fear.

“Okay. But I don’t like it.”

She wilts in relief. “He promised it would never happen again. I believe him.”

I don’t, but I have no choice but to let it go.

Zarah pays for our clothes, and she buys the red dress. It did fit her well, and maybe she thinks the bruise will be gone, or she plans to wear black stockings, or maybe at the last minute she won’t wear it at all. She didn’t need this shopping trip—she has a closet full of gowns that are appropriate to wear to Zane’s party.

The saleswoman swipes her card, and Zarah arranges to have our things shipped. My cheeks flaming, I give her the address to my tiny apartment. To the saleswoman’s credit, she doesn’t blink an eye, only keys in the address, a blank look on her face.

Despite the wonderful clothes I found, the afternoon is ruined. I want to suggest Zarah go home and get some rest. If she’s permitted to go home, but I don’t think she is. I think if we parted ways right now, Hector would bring her to Ash’s. He’s not allowed to let Zarah out of his sight.

“Let’s go have dinner,” she says, swinging me in the opposite direction from where we came.

She chooses a little bistro where the staff doesn’t check our IDs, and we order Margherita flatbread pizza and a bottle of white wine. We sit by the windows, the sun warming our backs, and Hector hunches on a stool at the bar and sips a beer. His skulking presence annoys me, and it scares me a little, too.

We stretch out our time and linger over our wine and chat about the RSVPs that have come in. To help me get a feel for the hotel and ballroom, we make plans to tour the property. I wonder how long Hector’s been babysitting Zarah and if he’ll follow us there, too, but he’s added enough tension to our shopping trip and instead of asking, I keep my thoughts to myself.

When we’ve drank the last drop of wine, Zarah sighs at our empty plates and glasses. She doesn’t want to leave, but there isn’t any reason to stay. The sun is starting to set, and I still have homework to do and I left clothes in the washer that will need to be run through the rinse cycle again.

We take our time walking back to her building, and Hector shadows us the entire way.

Reluctantly, Zarah pauses on the steps outside the skyscraper and looks at Hector out of the corners of her eyes. It’s evident she’s instructed to go with him after our shopping trip, but she invites me up. He crowds us in the private elevator, and I shrink away from his hulking form.

---