Chapter 37
Stella pushed Lionel back “Lionel, voir’re engaged. Keep your dietanen?
Lionel looked at her. “Stella, E
She cut him off with a glare and started to leave. But Lionel grabbed her arm, his eyes locked on hert.
These eyes had pulled her out of the dumps a million times. But then, they turned on her, crushing her last hope.
“Stella, are you really gonna marry Henry?” Lionel asked.
Stella stepped back and saw Anna staring at them from the window. “So what?” she said.
“You can’t marry him,” Lionel said, his voice still soft.
Stella laughed. “Dude, I almost forgot. Why get hitched when you’re right here? You’re with Anna now. You’re not just gonna let the Hayes Group go down the drain, are you?”
“I talked to Dad. He said we’re struggling. And Stella, be real. You made this mess. You need to fix it yourself”
Stella stood there. Het cold stare made Lionel feel like he was pushing her away.
“Stella, I ain’t trying to hurt you. But Henry… you gotta think twice. Even after everything, if only…” His words died out.
Stella waited forever. Nothing. “It only what? if I still love you, I marry you, and you dump Anna? Or you wanna make me your side piece!”
Panic flashed across Lionel’s face. “Stella, you got it all wrong, I just
She cut him off. “Shut it. Don’t care. Who I marry is my business. You ain’t helping? Then stay out of it–you lost that right.”
As Stella walked off, Lionel spun around and yelled, “We can fix this! Don’t marry Henry, I mean it!”
She snorted. “Who the hell do you think you are? Know your place, Lionel
He just stared, face falling like she’d kicked his dog
Stella bolted upstairs. No way E
cause more stress.
Eleanor would see her like this–Mal didn’t even need to
Ito warn her. With Eleanor finally getting better, Stella refused to
Mary spotted her in the hallway, opening her mouth to say something, but Stella ducked back into her room.
Dinnertime rolled around. Stella was heading out when a knock came. She opened the door to a maid shoving a food tray at her. “Mr. Max Hayes says stay in your room till that face clears up,” the maid said.
Stella tried craning her neck to see the dining room below. The maid stepped in front of her. “Oh, and Mr. Max Hayes says shut the door fast once you’ve got your food. Don’t worry about dirty dishes–F’ll grab them later.”
Stella eyed the maid–cold–shouldered and plain disrespectful. Then the plate slid from Stella’s hands, shattering on the floor. “Oh no!” she yelped.
The maid gaped. “Ms. Stella Hayes…”“”
Max came running from the dining room and spotted blood on Stella’s finger, He grabbed her hand. “Stellal What happened?”
Stella stared straight at the maid. “Nothing She just messed up. But I’m not blaming her.”
1/3
Chapter 37
Max shot the maid a death glare.
“Wasn’t me!” the maid blurted.
“You saying Stells cut herself to frame you?” Max trappeil
The maid nodded like crazy.
WHACKI Max slapped her hard. “Bullshit! Stella ain’t like that, he growled.
The maid opened her mouth again–then froze. She’d caught Stella’s smirk.
“Out. Now,” Maxjabbed a finger toward the door. “You’re fired
The maid
I got it. Head down, she slumped out without another word
Max wrapped a bandage around Stella’s finger, “There. Feeling better?”
“Way better,” Stella said, sounding a lot nicer than usual.
Max looked at her, glad to see she was doing better lately. He was about to say something. But then Fiona screamed, “Max, get over here Anna passed
“Coming!” He blew Stella off and bolted toward Anna.
Again. Every damn time Stella got attention, Anna would pull this stunt. And it always worked,
As for that maid? Ever since Stella got home, she’d been blabbing Stella’s secrets to Anna. Stella never called her out, but she hadn’t forgotten. Today, the
maid walked right into the trap.
Plus, Stella figured Anna was faking it to take the heat off the maid–probably scared Stella would dig up dirt on the maid.
While the chaos blew up, Stella sneaked over to the fired maid’s room.
The maid was packing her stuff when Stella showed up. Tears streaming down her face, she blurted, “Ms. Stella Hayes, what’d I do to piss you off? why you gotta mess with me like this?”
Stella leaned against the doorframe. “Don’t you know why?”
The maid’s eyes darted away. “N–no, I don’t,” she stammered.
Stella straightened up and stepped closer. The maid lost it.
Stella snatched the phone right out of her hand. The maid lunged to grab it back. “Ms. Stella Hayes, you can’t just take my phone.”
Stella pointed the phone at the maid’s face. It unlocked instantly. She tapped a few times, fast.
The maid had no idea what Stella was doing, but it hit her: Stella knew things they had no clue about.
Minutes later, Stella handed the phone back. The maid frantically checked everything but found nothing wrong. She finally looked up, throwing Stella a
look
he just walked out. The maid stood there, hella confused
Stella didn’t say a word. She
Stella hauled herself back to her room. One plate left–good enough for her. She never wanted to eat with those fakers anyway. Plastic smiles, plastic
family.
Now with them all out, she felt only peace.
Chapter 37
She fired up her laptop, digging for dit on Henry, Nothing.
Stella leaned back. If can’t find anything, maylie the guy’s actually clean? she thought.
Stella heard noises outside probably Anna, Max, and Fiona coming back. She didn’t move; it wasn’t her problem, so she didn’t care.
A few minutes later, voices came from the living room. Stella heard Eleanor talking and got worried. She thought something might be wrong with Eleanor, so she rushed out.
E
