Chapter Seventeen

After getting off the phone the next afternoon, Ella felt depressed, hearing her mum complain. About how Tate had spoken so rudely to Ava last night and how Ella herself should have stood up for Ava.

Also, how Ella herself had embarrassed everyone there, the way she clung onto Nick. Monopolising his time when the night should have been about Ava and Stephen. Making a spectacle of herself with a man who would get married to someone else soon. It made her look cheap.

Ella couldn’t help but notice the irony. Her mother was raging at her for something Ava had done not so long ago by setting her sights on Stephen when he had been engaged to Ella. But she hadn’t seen it that way.

Ava had fed her a story about star-crossed lovers. Ella knew the words coming out of her mum’s mouth were Ava’s. Even so, had mum been there last night? None of this was true. It hurt. That her mother thought so little of her.

Ella had done none of those things. It was actually ridiculous. Her mother really believe