Page 45 of Unravelling: Aria & Crispin
She touched her jaw.
He has a lot to answer for.
Crispin, with his tailored shirts and diamond cufflinks and manicured hands.
I should've taken the money,she thought bitterly at the injustice of it all.I should have demanded diamonds. Got the bloody bracelet and the new phone, and the cab fare every morning. And let's not forget his share of the fucking electricity bill.
Instead, she'd held on to her pride like it paid the rent.
She was such an idiot. Her new rage deflated.
Opening the medicine cabinet, she took a blister pack of tiny yellow tablets. She popped one out and swallowed it dry. Her head was pounding again. The nausea, which had eased after the soup, was curling back around her gut with the flavour of a personal vendetta.
She padded back to her bedroom in her towel and grabbed the first T-shirt from the drawer.
His.
She paused before shoving it back in.
She picked a different one. Clean, faded and Crispin-free.
Then she sat on the edge of the bed and picked up her phone.
She stared at the screen for a beat and then let out the breath she was holding.
Lule answered on the first ring.
She could hear Rahul singing off-key and the clink of cutlery in the background.
"Aria?" Lule said, her voice cautious, a door closing softly behind her.
She said her name with the tone of someone expecting the worst.
And then it all came pouring out like the floodgates had opened.
All of it.
The dinner. The announcement. The look on his face. The stares. Dorian's well-placed jabs. Her shattered sense of worth. The smell of soup in Ophelia's spotless kitchen.
Words poured out like she was bleeding them. It was like her mouth had been waiting to catch up to what her heart already knew, even before she made her way to that ballroom.
When she was finally quiet, breath catching in her throat, Lule didn't rush to fill the silence.
"I can't believe Ophelia would do this," she said finally, her voice taut.
Aria rubbed her temple. "I think she was trying to force them to acknowledge me. Maybe she thought it was time. But she didn't expect Helga. And she should've told me."
"What did you say?"
"I said, 'Goodbye, Mrs. Hornsley.'" A pause. "Because that's all I ever was. Her carer. The hired help."
"Aria..."
She gave a small, bitter smile. "But maybe it's for the best. I've lost the Du Valares' shift, too. I'll start job hunting tomorrow. Ebele says it's downsizing, but I know what this is."
"You think it was Crispin?"
"I don't know. Maybe... Or maybe his father. They all knew, so I don't know why I am surprised. Either way, it's gone."
