Chapter Twenty-Three ~ Cinderella-2

"And Joselyn?" I looked at my brother, his matching brown eyes boring into mine. "You know you're better than all of this, right? You did what you thought you had to do to survive. You're not a bad person." I had to break his gaze, looking down to my cup instead. "That doesn't matter, now. I messed it all up." "But, you can fix things. Come clean for good. Then you know you did everything you could, you can have a clean slate. Whether that includes Felix or not, you can't control that." "I think he's already moved on," I said. I replayed his expression in my head the moment Penelope had said the word husband. He looked like he was about to faint. And even if that never happened, it didn't change the fact that Penelope had brought his ex back, the ex he'd been made to believe cheated on him when he gave her everything. When he loved her. Things were going perfectly to Penelope's plan. Her boyfriend's affair was covered, I was dealt with, and her puppets were back to being tightly on her strings. "But have you? Will you be able to?" Move on from Felix? Definitely not. "Exactly," Seb said when I didn't reply. He used to do that all the time as a kid, ask me questions he already knew the answer to. He always seemed to know everything, back then. "Josie, you are the most genuine, headstrong woman that I've ever known in my life. And if he can give you up for anyone else then he isn't worth you. You deserve so much more than you've ever been given." I felt the pressure of tears behind my eyes. I got up from my seat, balling the hem of my dress in my hand so I could walk over to Sebastian and hug him tightly. Sebastian dropped me home the next day, after we spent the morning watching movies in his living room with Remy. Once we'd made pancakes and I'd changed into some of his spare clothes, bundling my dress beneath my arm, I was ready to face my old, falling-apart apartment again. By now, after all the mess Penelope's money had gotten me into, it was comforting. Feeling like Cinderella, I ditched my single shoe into the trashcan in the corner of my room once I got in. I didn't want any more reminders of last night. I washed the tangles and leaves from my hair and put on my favorite mom-jeans and ugly sweater. I wished it were as easy to feel like myself on the inside. I finally checked my phone. I'd been scared to—wondering what terrible things Penelope had to say, or even the others. Surely they'd found out by now. I saw a bunch of missed call notifications and decided to ignore them, logging onto Instagram instead. Apparently, I wanted to torture myself. Poppy had posted a picture of her and Ella in the maze, and Penelope had uploaded a bunch of pictures in her dress with people I didn't recognize. The others hadn't added anything from what I could see on my feed, but I found myself typing Felix's handle into the search bar, anyway. Nothing had changed on his profile since last week, but I started scrolling. I stopped when I was years back and I saw the first photo. Felix and Paisley. His tan skin and white smile against her white freckled face. A perfect couple. Her features looked so delicate, where in comparison mine were so heavy. Heavy brows, a heavy jaw. I hated comparing us, but I couldn't help it. What was Felix thinking? I had to stop before I started crying. I felt a heavy knot tie itself in my chest. Heartbreak. I had never really felt it like this before. I mean, my parents had broken my heart a hundred times. Sebastian had, too. Nicholas had dumped me a week before prom, but compared to this it felt like a papercut against a knife to the chest. It burned like nothing before. An unknown number flashed on the screen. I stared at it blankly, debating whether to pick up. Maybe it was Nic, or someone who worked for Penelope. But even in my defeated fear, I found myself picking up, gingerly holding the phone to my ear. "Hello?" "Josie." Ella's voice sounded relieved. "Thank god, I was hoping I found the right number." "Uh..." My heart was thudding loudly in my ears. "I know you're pissed with me, and you should be. I was so stupid, I thought maybe if I warned her, she wouldn't reveal my—" "This isn't about that. Yeah, I know, you fucked me over. Whatever. There's something bigger," she said quickly. "Can you meet me?" "Okay." At nightfall I called an Uber to take me to the address Ella had given me. It looked like it was a shopping mall, but it'd be closed at this time of night. Sure enough, when I arrived it was dark and empty. And very spooky. Maybe this was Ella's revenge. To have me beaten and left in an alley somewhere. I dialed Seb's number, ready to call, when I saw her walking my way, her hands in the pocket of a heavy jacket, the faded illumination from the streetlight bouncing off of her neon green hair. "Hey," she said, her lips crooking to the side. She stopped when she was a few yards away. "I know this is creepy as fuck." "Well, yeah," I said. I wrapped my arms around my torso and looked around. "Why did you want to meet?" "Come on, let's be less dramatic. I used to work here, I still have my staff key." I followed Ella as she let us into the empty mall. It was exceptionally terrifying in the silence as we found a table in the darkened food court. "Look, I did some digging." Ella's eyes looked almost frenzied, and again I questioned my safety. "I told Cole." I felt like my lungs might give way. "You told Cole what?" "That Penelope had hired me to spy on him." I looked at her like she was crazy. "What the fuck?" "I know, I literally violated the stupid contract she made for us. Whatever. But, this has gotten way too messed up to be some side-job now, don't you think?" I swallowed hard. "He wasn't pissed. He wasn't even surprised." Ella's lips curled in a smile that I might have called sadistic. "Do you know why?" I didn't say anything, I just waited for her to continue as her hands gripped the table top in suspense. "Penelope and Cole were never really together."