Dear Aurora,
This is a notification to inform you that the recruitment window for a staff writer position with us is now open.
Please click the link below to review the specifications for this job and submit your resume for consideration.
Please also note that the deadline for applications is July 31st.
Thank you for your interest. We look forward to receiving your application.
Yours sincerely,
Heather Bailey,
Human Resources Manager
People Magazine
I look over the message that’s just come through in my inbox.
As I scan the words, I feel excited for the first time in forever. Madison is
standing behind me, reading it over my shoulder too. I needed a second pair of eyes to ensure I wasn’t seeing things. Although this same message would have gone out to thousands of people who signed up for the notification alerts, it’s something to give me hope in the dark hole I’ve been living in for the last month.
“Holy shit, I’m so happy for you.” Madison claps, bouncing up and down with a shriek. The frosted windows of the sunroom catch her reflection and split her in two as she moves. “This is just the thing you need right now.”
“My God, is it ever.” I beam back at her, my shoulders relaxing as the weight of worry decreases. I know this is minor in the grand scheme of things, but as I signed up for this notification so long ago—as in years—I felt Rachel might have sabotaged me again. Clearly, she hasn’t. At least not yet.
No, Aurora, don’t think like that.
Just don’t.
This is something good. It shows that good things, no matter how small, can still happen to me.
“I told you to hang in there.”
“You did.” Lord knows how badly I need something like this in my life now.
I don’t know how I managed to live through the last three and a half weeks.
That’s how long it’s been since I last saw Knight.
I was told he was on a business trip for two weeks, but there was all the time before and after that I realized he was outrightly avoiding any contact with me, and relaying messages through his staff. Staff like Chelle, who I loathe more than ever.
Apart from feeling like I failed my mother in regard to Sunset Cove, my life has felt like it belonged to someone else. Like I’ve been playing one of the characters in my books.
The press have also been all over me. Some wanting to cover my journey to the day of the wedding. Others wanted interviews—which, of course, I didn’t give.
According to my contract, I’m not supposed to, but I hate anything like that anyway.
Knight has turned my world every which way in the short space of time I’ve known him, and now it’s two weeks until our wedding.
Only two mere weeks.
“You have to apply now.” Madison rests her hands on the back of my chair. “Be the first one in. Maybe you’ll hear back from them sooner.”
I shake my head, although my hands are itching to apply. “No, I won’t hear from them until at least a month after the deadline. They’ll start looking at all the applications after the deadline has passed, so I’m going to give myself a few weeks to look over my resume and maybe give it a makeover.”
I had a contact in a recruitment agency who gave me some useful tips for dealing with high-end elite magazines like People. She said to use the time they’ve given to write a resume that will blow them away. Once that’s done, go over it with the eyes of a hawk, then send the application a week to a few days before the deadline. That’s what I’m going to do and hope all the stars will align to give me that success I’ve craved for so long.
“You will apply, though, right?” Madison sits back on her chair opposite me, worry furrowing her arched brows. “I hope you do.”
“Of course.” I give her a reassuring smile, understanding why she thinks I might shove this under the rug. Maybe if it were another company I felt Rachel might be able to control, I would. But here’s hoping that’s not the case for People. “No matter what’s happening, and all things Rachel aside, I would never forgive myself if I didn’t try.”
“Yayyy.” She sighs and gives her shoulders a cheerleader-shimmy, making me laugh. “That’s the spirit. This will put you back on track to where you should be.” Her voice is filled with the kind of aspiration you expect from a friend who wants the best in the world for you.
Madison is that kind of friend, and nobody but her knows how hard I’ve worked. Back in college, she saw firsthand the extent of my hard work. I also feel that sometimes, she might feel bad because she has her own company, but I’m still stuck in the in-between.
“It would be my dream to get this job.”
“And I’m sure it would make up for the shit over the last few years.”
“It would, but don’t jinx it by talking like I already have the job.” I give her a lighthearted chuckle. “I haven’t even applied yet.”
“I have faith in you. Honey, you have one hell of a resume. Your first internship was with Time, and you’ve had several notable placements and jobs. Not a lot of people can say that.”
She’s right, but the craziness with Rachel has made me doubt myself. I guess to move forward, I’ll have to try and remember who I am. And who I still can be.
“Thanks for the pep talk. I needed it.”
“You did. Girl, what on earth would you do without me?”
“God knows.”
We both laugh, but honestly, I don’t think I would have been able to get through the last few years without her. Madison has been extraordinary, and I hope I can be that for her too, if she ever needs me the way I’ve needed her.
I look back at my story notes on the table next to me. As exciting as my email was, I need to get back to that.
Girl No. 9 has exceeded everyone’s expectations. It’s done so well on the reading platform that my publishers want me to have another serial ready to go the same week Girl No. 9 ends. That was something good too, but the kind that provided an avenue for me to lose myself in a great distraction.
Madison and I have been in here for over five hours, brainstorming ideas for my next serial. I always enlist her help when I’m writing something new. Sort of like an alpha reader, but we talk it through. She loves reading my kind of romance and always has a good eye for trending tropes.
“How about we finish this up and go out for dinner?” I hold up the notebook.
“Hold your horses, Miss Lady, but yes to all of that.” She brings her hands together. A sign she’s about to expand on the pep talk. “Can we talk about People Magazine for another minute? It’s kind of a huge deal.”
“I know, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.” I grit my teeth. “I might not get the job.”
“But what if you did?” Her eyes gleam with all the hopes she has for me. “You wouldn’t be able to carry on working at Sunset Cove. You know that, right?”
“I know.” There’s a heaviness in my tone that grips me. It’s like my heart is speaking, showing its sadness.
“What would you do?”
This question has come up because after Mom died, I was adamant that I had to be the one to take over her job. I didn’t think anyone else could do it, and I refused all suggestions. But that was just my grief acting out.
Now the question has come up again, and it’s something I have to seriously think about. Especially with the recent developments regarding the renovations.
I’ve been avoiding the topic of Sunset Cove entirely for the last few weeks because it’s too painful to talk about. Madison is aware of what’s happening with the renovations, or rather what’s not. She’s also been there with me to see Knight’s fancy French team doing their thing on the premises.
It broke my heart to tell Skye that I had to hold off on using her services because Knight didn’t like the forties theme. I had to be truthful about the latter, but I embellished the story that Knight was putting up all the funds to do a fuller renovation than I planned. She mostly believed me.
“I guess I’d have to hire someone,” I answer when Madison deepens her stare. “I was hoping to still be around, but honestly, maybe it’s best if I’m not. Maybe it’s time to let go.”
The luster recedes from her face like a dimmer on a light switch. “Aurora, no. You can’t do that. What, and let Knight have it?”
“No, I wouldn’t let him have it, but as I’m not able to do what I want with the place, maybe it’s best if I’m not there at all. I can’t stand to see it being torn apart, knowing it’s going to look completely different from what Mom wanted.”
“I still think you should fight back.”
My chest caves. I want to fight back too, but I don’t know how.
“It’s a little difficult to do anything when Knight has been avoiding me.”
Maybe avoid is too strong a word. To avoid me, he would have to consider me, and I don’t think he even does that.
The truth is, I’m little more than a house plant here. As long as I’m watered and fed, I can still carry out my function to marry him.
Not seeing Knight shouldn’t bother me as much as it does. I should be happy I haven’t seen him. He’s the most wretched person I’ve ever met.
At the same time, his avoidance of me has closed the door on any chance to reason with him. And…
It’s opened another door I don’t want to go through. The one where I’m wondering where he is. And what he’s doing.
Who he’s with.
My mind has provided several possibilities for that last question, but I keep imagining him with Chelle/Giselle.
Madison taps my knuckles, cutting into the thoughts I shouldn’t be having. “How about you make him stop avoiding you? You’re going to have to see him at some point before the wedding.”
I blink, wiping the thoughts of Knight and Chelle from my mind. “At the rate things are going, I won’t see him until the fundraiser.” That’s three days before the wedding. “As for talking, the man is too difficult and stubborn. Getting through to someone like him for something like this requires power, which I don’t have.” I gave all my power away when I signed Knight’s contract.
“Power might not be what you need. Knight is used to fighting people with power, so you have to find something else to work with. I don’t know what that is, but there must be something.”
I haven’t, and won’t, tell her that I already tried that angle by working with stupid attraction. Actually, scratch that—it’s me who’s stupid to think that plan would have worked.
The indecent events of that night have been sealed away in the back of my mind along with the night I first met Knight. I won’t be revealing the humiliating details of either encounter to anyone. Especially Madison. Confirming my attraction to my Hades when I know she already suspects it, will only make everything worse.
“Knight’s plans and reluctance to listen to you just feel mean spirited to me,” Madison continues. “God knows his net worth this week. I can’t see why he won’t allow you this one thing, given it meant so much to your mother. And you. I don’t want you to let go of something you want and get more hurt in the process.”
I fear the same thing will happen to me. “I’d love nothing more than to fight him tooth and nail.”
“Then do it. When you start working for People, you won’t have time to worry about this.”
I chuckle. “When?”
“Yes, when.” Her smile returns to the radiance it was moments ago.
“Alright. I just need to get through the next few weeks, though. It’s going to be hard. I mean the marriage.” And all the parts about marrying a man who has no love for me. It was going to be the same with Nathan, but for some reason, with Knight, it feels different. More hurtful. Probably because I didn’t start off hating him.
The shadow of worry touches Madison’s face. “I have faith you can do that too, and it will all be over before you can blink.”
My next thought stalls in my mind when Denise comes in carrying a tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
Denise is my favorite person in this house. She’s been a mother hen to me over the last few weeks and has gone above board to make sure that I’m okay.
She’s sixty and has two daughters who are in their early thirties but her trendy dress sense and youthful personality makes her appear much, much younger.
Today she has her long brown hair in a high ponytail which shows off her cheekbones, and she’s wearing a cute mid-length summer dress. She is the balance to all the other staff here who are always in business mode.
“I heard laughter, so I thought it was time to bring out these babies.” Denise beams with pride, setting the tray down on the little table next to us.
“Yummy.” Madison licks her lips at the glorious sight of the delicious looking cookies.
“You’re the best, Denise,” I tell her with the deepest gratitude. The one thing I have loved about being here is her delicious meals and continuous spoilage of chocolate everything.
“I love baking for you girls.” Denise clasps her hands together and gives us a radiant smile.
“We love your baking too.” Madison is already diving into the cookies.
“Looks like I came out at the right time. Do you girls need anything else?” The question is addressed to Madison and I, but Denise looks at me specifically.
“This is great.” I smile back, doing my best to look like I’m fine. I don’t want her to think I’m freaking out about the wedding—although I am, again—and more importantly, I don’t want to give her anything to report back to Knight.
I trust that she’s been genuine toward me, but I have to remember that she works for Knight and is basically second in command to Claude.
“Okay, there’s more cookies in the kitchen if you finish these and want more.”
“Thank you so much.”
As Denise leaves us, Chelle saunters in not a second later, stealing the warmth Denise left behind with the coldness of winter.
She has her phone balanced between her shoulder and the crook of her neck while a Prada shopping bag dangles from her arm.
Madison instantly wrinkles her nose and cuts me a withered stare. She developed her own dislike for Chelle all by herself. I didn’t need to say a word.
I think Chelle must thrive on the horrid effect she has on people.
She stops by the wicker sofa, sets down the bag, and taps one studded Louboutin heel on the floor while she continues her conversation.
“Knight, baby, you know I always deliver,” she chortles, her voice heavy with seduction.
That annoying little voice that’s been living in my head since the nightmare started is telling me those words were all for my benefit. It doesn’t help that she’s looking right at me.
“Of course. Can’t wait to see you tonight,” she continues. “Be sure to book my favorite table and order me a glass of chardonnay.”
So, she’s having dinner with him.
Wow.
Madison glances at me again. This time with sympathy.
Chelle hangs up and slips her phone into her purse.
“That’s for you.” She points to the Prada bag. “It’s your wedding shoes. Your dress will be ready on Saturday, so you’ll need to schedule some time to try it on.”
“Sure.” My voice is purposely flat. “Do you know what time Knight will be home?”
I didn’t think the question was one she could use against me, but the cunning look that sneaks into her eyes proves me wrong.
“Depends on when he’s finished with me. That boy has a lot of stamina. I wouldn’t wait up if I were you.”
As intended, those words feel like a punch to my lungs.
She gives me an I-win-you-lose smile then floats back the way she came, heels clicking, hips swaying in full-on bitch mode.
God, I hate my life.
Madison looks back at me, shaking her head. “What an absolute bitch.”
“I’m sure she takes pride in the title.”
“Ughh. Don’t worry about her. Come on, let’s get back to working on your story and get out of here. How about we head to that Mexican restaurant you love?”
My poor friend. She must be so tired of trying to find ways to make me feel better or distract me. Regardless of what she thinks I feel about Knight, I know she can see Chelle rattled me.
“Yeah, let’s do that,” I agree.
It’s foolish to worry about Chelle and Knight. I’ve already been that kind of fool.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Fool me three times…
Well, I think that’s when you become the fool.
The fool is exactly what I become later that night when I find myself unable to sleep.
Knight hasn’t come home again, and the fact that I know he was with Chelle has conjured all sorts of scandalous things in my head.
I’m sure he’s still with her. Why wouldn’t he be?
Everything I’ve questioned about him so far has been true, so why not?
It’s just a pity for me that I’ve decided to make my situation worse by thinking about him.
I haven’t stopped, and I don’t see myself ridding the devil from my mind anytime soon.
The worst thing is, there’s no point asking myself if I’m jealous.
Unfortunately, I know I am.
I’m also not sure at what stage Knight Grayson took more than my body captive, but now it’s clear he’s taken more of me, infiltrating all the parts I keep guarded under lock and key.
When did I let him in?
More importantly, how do I get him out?
