Page 68 of Defying Ella
“Mia?” I asked, confusion lilting my voice.
“The woman I…” he trailed off and let the awkward stench of his betrayal hang in front of me.
“Of course,” I muttered, a tiny amount of bitterness cutting through.
I shouldered my bag and stomped towards the unsuspecting woman, reminding myself with every step that she had no idea what she’d stepped into. Jared could own the blame for his screw-ups, I wouldn’t place it on her.
Besides, the faster I got to the airport, the faster I could be free of him.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Ididn’t cry.
Not in the car to the airport.
Not on the plane when I was forced to spend four hours sitting in stony silence next to him.
Not when Mel met me at arrivals and hugged me so tightly, I didn’t think she’d ever let go.
A week had passed since we escaped the cabin and I’d barely set foot outside my flat. I applied for teacher training courses for the following year and searched for jobs that would keep me away from the next tour. My phone pinged constantly, but checking messages and notifications filled me with dread.
Everyone knew something happened between us. They all had questions, and I’d spill all of it. Soon.
I just needed… a minute.
The buzzer sounded in the hall, spoiling the comforting silence I’d cultivated for myself cocooned in a blanket on the sofa. I threw the blanket off and sat up, glaring at the door. The buzzer went again, the culprit by no means cowed by my annoyance.
“What?” I croaked into the door phone.
“Open the door, Ella,” Mel ordered, directing her no-nonsense mam voice at me.
“I’m a little busy at the moment. Can we talk later?” I bit my lip, pointless hope unfurling in my chest when she didn’t immediately shout at me.
“Open the door, or I’ll use my key,” she said, her determination unwavering. “Make a choice, because we’re coming in. You’ve locked yourself in long enough.”
I sighed and hit the button to open the door on the ground floor. After hanging up the phone, my focus turned to the state of my flat. Takeout containers littered surfaces and a musty, stale smell hung in the air.
Tell me you suffered a breakup without telling me you suffered a breakup.
I wrinkled my nose and went to open a window. No way could I clean my filthy flat before Mel made it up two flights of stairs. She was fast, even with a toddler in tow.
Her key scratched at the lock, warning me that reality was ready and waiting to slap me in the face.
Not that it hadn’t already.
I turned as Mel pushed the door open, her face frozen in a neutral smile. I braced myself as her eyes swept around the flat. Nia, Alys and Sophie pushed in behind her, each of them gasping in turn.
“Well, shit. Maybe Daphne had a point with all that forking business,” Sophie muttered. Horror widened her eyes before they settled on me. “Honey, what the hell did he do to you?”
The pesky burn of tears hit me hard. I bit my cheek hard, forcing the emotion back, stuffing it all into a cage.
I shrugged. “He’s Jared. You can probably guess.”
I turned my back on them, started scooping up empty cartons and containers.Better to keep moving. Keep all the emotion under wraps.No one needed to know he’d broken me.
Nearlybroken me.
“Stop cleaning, Ella.” Mel caught my hands as I went for another load of rubbish. She turned me to face her and studied my face a little too closely for comfort. “We’re really worried about you, kid. You haven’t answered your phone in days. You won’t even answer mam’s calls. Talk to us.”
