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“I will,” I promise. I’m not really in the mood for being kidnapped for real, after all.

“Your mother’s party is Saturday night.” Brilliant. “But we’re having a meal with friends tomorrow that she expects you to attend.”

“I’m sure it would be better to just—”

“Please, Calli. Just do this one thing for me.” Just like every time he uses that tone, I find myself instantly crumbling.

“Okay, fine,” I agree through gritted teeth. “I’ll be there, and I promise to call the guys if I want to go anywhere, but you need to keep your end of the deal.”

“Thank you,” he breathes, pulling me close once more and dropping a kiss on my head.

The second he turns and leaves me to unpack the bag he brought down with him, the silence and solitude of my basement swamps me.

I haven’t been alone for a week. Whenever I needed something, someone to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, he was there. And now… he’s just gone.

Gone, as if what we had meant nothing.

I’m busy putting everything where I want it once more when the window in the single door that leads outside catches my eye.

Something tells me that he’s not going to be out there, but there’s a little bit of doubt that flickers through me that forces me into action.

As I cut a piece of card to size, I tell myself that it’s to keep the guard dogs that Dad has out there from peeping in on me, but I know I’m only lying to myself. None of those men would risk my father’s wrath by taking advantage of the security job they’ve been given.

I breathe a sigh of relief when I cover it up.

Surely, he wouldn’t risk getting caught by coming to watch me. He’s done everything he can to this point to keep me his dirty little secret.

A sob rips up my chest at that thought, because that’s all I was to him.

A dirty little secret. Some twisted holiday romance. A little bit of fun while he was forced to babysit me like a good little soldier.

“Oh God,” I gasp, barely holding myself together.

All of this… it was just a job.

Iwas just a job.

I stumble back until my legs hit the bed, and then I fall down onto it.

Grief, pain, and regrets all collide and send me deeper into the pits of despair.

I allowed myself to think it was real. To believe everything he said to me.

Was it all lies, bullshit, and manipulation?

* * *

Their voices hit my ears the second they descend the stairs, and I smile for the first time since being rudely awoken this morning.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Stella sings as I finish washing my hands.

After my epic meltdown earlier, I gave myself a good talking to and put myself in the shower in the hope of washing away both the evidence of the tears that stained my cheeks and the devastation that seemed to ooze out of every pore.

I pulled on some of the sexiest underwear in my drawer, not because I had plans for anyone to see it, just because I needed something, anything to make me feel less like I was dying inside. I found my favourite dress and teamed it with a pair of leggings, and styled my hair and applied my make-up as if I was hitting the town.

Both Stella and Emmie are standing in the middle of my basement as I emerge from the bathroom with concerned frowns on their brows.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”