Page 88 of Without Fault

“We have a problem.” When I seemydress in her hand I think I forget how to breathe.

“What’s wrong?”

She looks down at the dress I have to put on in a few minutes and just shakes her head.

“What–”

“Someone–” She burst into tears, and my eyes widen. Jess walks over in a hurry and snatches the dress from her. When she holds it up, I swear I coulddie.Everyone loses their mind, and shit hits the damn fan. I suddenly feel lightheaded, and I’m not sure if I say it out loud, but someone brings me water.

“Why is there a hole in her fucking dress?!” They hold the dress up again, and I look away from the opening because I have to wearthat,and it looks like a freaking mess.

I go on stage soon!

Someone asks if she can just try to fix it, but she’s crying and saying it won’t work. One of my girls tells me to put it on, and I couldn’t pull this off even if I tried because it’s way too obvious that this slit on the side is not on purpose. It looks like I didn’t fit in it and tore it.

“Dammit.” Annet shakes her head at me. “This could’ve been covered if I did the second hairstyle on you.” She sounds so upset, but this is definitely not her fault. She talks about trying to change my hair so it can hang down and cover this mess, but there’s no time.

“This was perfect the last time she tried it on! What did you do?!” Everyone is yelling at the girl who brought my dress in, and she says she thinks someone cut it.

“What?” I shake my head, and everyone glances around the room.

Jess looks pissed as she turns to someone with a headset. “Check the cameras and find out who the hell sabotaged Sage’s dress.”

The girl rushes off, and I realize why Jess is Vincent’s main model.

We ask her again if she can just sew it back together, but she tells us that there’ll be a patch of diamonds missing, and I know she doesn’t have time to put each bead back one by one because my music is starting.

“I need to go on stage,” I finally say something, and everyone turns to me.

“What?!”

“You can’t!”

“Sage, you–”

“I need to.”

They tell me I can’t, but all I can hear is the song playing, and I should be walking out right now. I glance around the room and grab a jacket. When I slip it on, I think everyone’s soul leaves their body.

“You can’t add something to Mr. Moore’s look.”

“He might kill you if you change the look.”

“This jacket was already worn.”

“Stop!”

Everyone goes silent, and I feel bad for yelling, but I can’t hear my thoughts. “This was worn by one of the guys who walked one of the girls out, everyone was looking at her. They won’t notice.”

“Vincent Moore will.”

Yeah, well, I think it’ll be more noticeable if I don’t go out there right this second.

I turn to the mirror. “Does it look good?”

Nothing.

“Yes or–”

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