Page 51 of Shattered Sinner
“Have you heard from your sister today?” I found myself saying out loud as my gaze locked onto Nash. I was holding out hope that he might have heard from her, but doubts were creeping into this situation and fast.
Nash shook his head and said, “I assumed she was getting ready here, but based on how my mother keeps looking at the door, it’s obvious to me that was not the case. Plus, by now, my mother would have stormed upstairs to get Bianca because that wouldn’t be the first time she’s done that.”
My eyes landed on Mrs. Henson, who kept looking at the woman she was speaking to for several seconds before her eyes would return to the entrance to the ballroom. I was convinced now more than ever that she was looking for Bianca too.
“Hey,” Raven said as she walked up to us. She’d excused herself to go to the bathroom moments earlier.
Nash threw an arm around his girlfriend and pulled her close to his body. “Hey to you too,” he said, placing a kiss on her forehead.
“I’ll try to call her again,” I said. Before I could turn to walk away, Nash nodded at me, but Raven looked confused about what I was talking about. I was sure that Nash would explain it to her once I left.
As I walked away, I snatched my phone from my suit jacket and found Bianca’s number. When I clicked on her name, I put the phone up to my ear. It rang once and then twice before it went to her voicemail. I hated to say that I was starting to get worried.
Where the hell was she?
I put my phone back in my pocket and walked back into the ballroom. My gaze danced across the room and eventually it landed on Mayor Henson. Mrs. Henson had left behind the woman she was speaking with before and joined him. They moved across the room and ended up in a group with my parents. Mrs. Henson’s stare was still shooting toward the entrance of the ballroom as if her nerves wouldn’t let her look anywhere else.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a slight shift in the room and detected movement near the entrance of the room, but I couldn’t see who it was. I adjusted my positioning so that I could see who it was. Tristan Whitmore strolled into the room in a black suit and without a hair out of place. The expression on his face betrayed nothing. However, he didn’t look like a man who was about to announce his engagement, which made me even more curious about what was going on tonight. I also couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking when it came to being the center of this spectacle tonight.
Tristan’s eyes moved around the crowd as if he was analyzing the scene before him, but what was he looking for? When his gaze landed on me, he gave me a curt nod, a subtle exchange and I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Was he just being polite or was there something else going on there?
I couldn’t help but wonder if he knew about Bianca and me. Did he know about the things that we’d done even with this arranged engagement on the table? Did he know that I was ready to put everything on the line for her?
When Mrs. Henson saw Tristan, her eyes widened in surprise. Her gaze shifted between him and the entrance, further confirming my suspicions. I was going out on a limb here, but I wondered if the plan had been for Bianca to arrive with Tristan. Maybe a grand entrance was planned? With Bianca not arriving with him, that would raise all the alarm bells and tell Mrs. Henson that something had happened.
But what?
Without warning, the music abruptly stopped playing. The silence in the room was interrupted by a buzzing noise that started in one corner of the room and soon ringtones and alerts spread like wildfire. If I was looking down on everyone from up above, I was sure that I could have spotted the imaginary wave that I was sure crossed the room.
As if it was now my turn, I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. Confusion followed as the crowd tried to figure out what was going on. Was this some kind of national emergency?
I pulled out my phone once more and the screen lit up with an alert referring to breaking news: Mayor Henson had been caught using an escort service.
The whispers turned into gasps as everyone in the room seemingly realized what the alert was for. The energy in the room had gone from happiness to shock in what felt like a snap of a finger. I turned to look at Nash, who was too busy staring at his phone with Raven to notice.
There were no words to describe what was happening now outside of the fact that the Henson empire, which had been a staple in this community, was starting to show cracks as if it might be preparing to fall. Everyone in attendance just so happened to be at ground zero.
28
BIANCA
Ileaned back into the leather seat I was sitting in and tried my best to relax. Everything within me told me I needed to chill out, but that was easier said than done.
Was it weird to feel like I was a fugitive, escaping from what should have been my life? Instead, I was miles away from the turmoil I’d left in my wake, and I had mixed feelings about it. I was supposed to be in a showstopping gown in a room full of people, shaking hands with who knew who, at Tristan Whitmore’s side. Instead, I was in a pair of leggings and my college sweatshirt, with my hair haphazardly thrown up into a messy bun.
I took a deep breath and tried to compose myself as Tiffany, the flight attendant on this private flight, appeared before me with a warm smile.
"Are you ready for takeoff, Miss Henson?" she asked, her voice calm and soothing.
I nodded my head, my heart pounding in my chest. This was it. The moment of truth. “Yes, I’m ready.”
Tiffany left me alone to return to her seat, and I knew it was only minutes before it was game time. As the plane began to move down the runway, I could feel the adrenaline that had been coursing through my veins moving to a new level. My eyes were glued to the window closest to me, watching as the world outside blurred into just a bunch of lights and colors.
I stared out the window, watching the ground fall away as the plane ascended into the sky. As the plane climbed higher, the pain that weighed me down began to peel off. A sense of liberation and carefreeness washed over me the more distance I put between me and everything that was going on back home.
I picked up my phone and found the picture of Easton that I’d taken with the intention to throw in my father’s face. I was glad I hadn’t done so, instead choosing to keep it sacred which hadn’t been my original intention. It also served as a reminder of what we’d had before I’d blown everything up in Brentson. I put my phone down once more and looked back out the window.
It was some time before I saw Tiffany again, and I gave her a small smile when she approached me.
