Page 44 of The Cinderella Secret
Lilly wiped her eyes. “Ella loves me,” she repeated, but it was as if she was repeating a lesson she didn’t quite believe.
“Yes, of course I do, sweetie,” said Ella, rubbing Lilly’s back. “You need to stop drinking alcohol, which we will be talking about in the morning, but I love you.”
“I shouldnahavea done the drinking,” said Lilly. “I’m sorry. I just… I don’t understan’ how everything got so fucked up. I thought it would get better with schhhhhnapps.” Her head wobbled around on her neck until she was looking up at Aiden. “It didn’t.”
“Schnapps never solved anything,” agreed Aiden. “But you’re going to be OK.”
“I’m going to be OK,” she said.
“Yeah, you really are,” said Aiden, aware that Ella was staring at him. But what was he supposed to do? He couldn’t let poor Lilly think she was a total failure.
“Thanks,” Lilly said with another sniff. She looked up at him, and for a moment, sober Lilly peaked out. “I mean it. Thanks.”
“OK, then let’s get you and Ella home and you can go to bed,” Aiden said. She nodded and, judging that the waterworks were dammed, at least for the moment, he half-carried her to the limo. Ella opened the door and Lilly crawled inside, flopping face first onto the seat.
“Good luck,” he said with a half-smile at Ella. He wasn’t sure what else to say. Everything else seemed like it would lead to a conversation they weren’t supposed to have. Then he turned and headed back to the elevators.
“Hey,” hissed Ella, and he heard her high-heels, hurrying after him. He turned around and found that they had both misjudged and were now standing too close to each other. “Um. Look, I know this probably just a funny drunk teenage thing to you, but…”
“But what?” Her lips formed a perfect little cupid’s bow and her eyes had flecks of amber in them. He’d never been close enough to see that before.
“It will be a big deal in my family. Can you not…”
He realized he’d been staring at her eyes and not really listening. She was asking him not to tell her secret. That almost made him laugh. There was no way she knew he was Number Nine.
“Oh. Uh. Yeah, forget it,” he said, backing up. “I never saw the two of you. We were never here. Top secret.”
She bit her lip and glanced over her shoulder at the car.
“You didn’t have to be that nice to her.”
“Oh, come on,” said Aiden. “She’s really upset. Her friend ditched her, and I don’t know what went down with Chet and whoever, but it sounds like someone needs to punch them in their faces.”
“Lilly already did,” said Ella, looking startled.
“Oh. Well, good for her,” said Aiden, trying not to laugh. “But I mean… she needed… Well, she needs a hug. But I figure that’s definitely not my department. So I just…”
“You were nice to her,” said Ella, smiling at him, something that made him catch his breath. “Thank you.” She hesitated and then glanced at the car again, before turning back to him with a frown. “Did you mean that? In the elevator?”
“Mean what?” he asked, trying to remember what he’d said.
“I estimate that acknowledging Jackson cost all of you millions of dollars. Did you really mean that having him here is for the best?”
He thought about how to answer that. There had been other people who had asked him what the hell the Deverauxes were thinking to recognize his Uncle Randall’s bastard son. He had punched at least one of them. But there was something in Ella’s face that made him want to answer. But giving her an honest answer meant trusting her with a part of him that he didn’t like to share.
“Why don’t you ask Lilly? She seems to have the answer.”
“Lilly’s drunk off her ass,” said Ella impatiently.
“Doesn’t mean she’s wrong,” said Aiden.
For a moment, Ella Zhao looked vulnerable and alone. Aiden wondered how hard it was to try and integrate into a family that was only kind of hers. Maybe he should ask Jackson.
“See you at the bank tomorrow?” he asked.
She pulled herself together. “Of course,” she said. “Like I would let you collect the evidence on your own.”
“It’s going to show I’m right,” he said.
