Page 29 of Unravelling Nell (Fairford Affairs)

Ben married a doctor he met in med school, and they now had three (fuckingthree) kids. Cady got married only months ago, to an English Lit professor at UDub—a British woman named Cynthia who had, it seemed, quite literally swept her off her feet.

She hadn’t been there for her friends. Not for any of it.

As for their parents, Holly hesitated to say anything until Nell pressed the issue. Reluctantly, she admitted, “Mom took down all the pictures of you in the house. They freak out whenever anyone mentions you, so we all stopped trying a long time ago. Just to keep the peace.”

“They wish I didn’t exist.” It hurt less than she expected to say it. Probably because it wasn’t remotely surprising.

“Yeah, well, I’m changing that.” Only Holly could make such an impossible claim with so much confidence. “I’ll get started right away. Pete and I can have them over for dinner as soon as they’re free.”

Nell arched her brows. “You think Pete’ll actually be on my side?” She’d heard plentyabout Holly’s husband in the last hour. The guy sounded like the perfect partner for her sister—laid-back enough to put up with her exuberance and crazy schemes, but strong enough not to be bulldozed.

Holly never said a thing to indicate how he felt about his MIA sister-in-law, though.

Scoffing, Holly said, “Of course he’s on your side, Noelle. He gave me the biggest fucking hug when I showed him your email this morning. He knows how important you are to me.”

For what felt like the thousandth time that morning, Nell was crying. “I actually go by Nell now. If that’s okay.”

“Of course it’s okay. You can go by whatever the fuck you want.” After a pause, Holly added, “Though I hope it’s not because that piece of shit told you to.”

“The opposite, actually. Whenever someone said Noelle in their Dom voice, it made me think of him. Mistress Freya, my new boss, helped me come up with a nickname I loved so I stopped having so many panic attacks.”

Another long pause, and Nell held her breath. Moment of truth.

Holly’s voice was carefully neutral when she said, “So you’re still doing the BDSM stuff.” It wasn’t a question.

At least she didn’t sound angry. Matching her sister’s bland tone, Nell said, “The club I work at in Tampa is called Valhalla. It’s a BDSM club.”

She braced for anger, yelling, accusations. So it came as one hell of a shock when, instead, her sister stayed completely and utterly calm, like the surface of a pond on a windless day. “Tell me more.”

It had been a hell of a lot easier to listen to Holly talk than to do it herself. But she knew her sister deserved to know all about her current situation. Rebuilding the trust she broke started and ended with the truth.

Holly stayed silent as Nell filled her in, beginning with the day she left Micah. The way a pawn shop owner cut the thin gold collar off her neck since only Micah had a key. Using the money to buy a bus ticket to Florida. Her bug-infested, pay-by-the-week motel room—the only thing she could afford with the meager tips from her waitressing job. The way Mistress Freya came into the all-night diner with several of her staff at three AM one Saturday, and by the end of the night decided to take Nell under her wing. How much she loved her boss, her job, her new apartment.

Then, with a deep breath to settle her nerves, she finished with, “Mistress Freya is helping me get back into the lifestyle. She knows it’s what I need, but also knows how fucked up I am after everything that happened. How scared I’ve been of the whole thing happening all over again.” Warning bells went off in her head, telling her to stop talking, but Holly deserved thewholetruth. “She found me someone who she trusts. Someone I can trust.”

Holly’s disappointed sigh just about broke her fucking heart.Please, please, please.She repeated the word over and over in her head as she waited, desperate for her sister not to reject her so soon after getting her back.

“You’re not doing that whole slave thing again, are you?” Holly asked at last.

“No!” She hadn’t meant to shout the word, but it came flying out of her. “Holly, I give you my fucking word, I’mneverdoing full-time power exchange again. Never, ever,ever. I’m only staying here for a week, and it’s nothing like that.”

Rafe tightened his arms around her, planting a soft kiss in her hair, and the gesture calmed the thoughts racing through her mind.

Nell couldn’t imagine the strength of will it took her sister to sound supportive when she said, “Tell me about him.”

“Well, his name’s Rafe—”

“Rafe? Like Ralph Fiennes?”

“Yeah, but actually spelled like it sounds. And he’swaybetter looking than Voldemort.”

Holly and Rafe both laughed at that, though Holly’s cut off abruptly. “Oh my God, is he there with you?”

“You’re not on speaker,” Nell rushed to assure her. “He’s just here for moral support, I swear. He’s the one I told you about in my email—the person who’s helping me reach out to the people I love and get my shit together. He’s even got me doing career research.”

No one could ever think he was like Micah after hearing that. And yet, the seconds ticked by as Nell waited for a response. Fuck, should she have told Holly from the start that Rafe was with her? Was this yet another betrayal of her trust?

At last, Holly admitted, “I guess I can’t be mad. If Pete wasn’t on Justin duty right now, he’d be here with me, too. But it’s hard to have a conversation longer than ten seconds with a toddler around.”

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