“Chloe?”
She paused, her heart pounding. The sounds hadn’t come from downstairs in the dining room but from the Planning Parlor, just a few feet down the corridor. Her knees weakened.
What if her siblings were talking about her? What if they were discussing the caricature? They would all have seen it by now. Graham’s morning broadsheets were served right along with breakfast.
Her lungs begged for air. She hadn’t been able to breathe since her encounter with Lawrence. Maybe she would never breathe properly again. How could she? She didn’t have a nose or a mouth or a face, according to the rest of the world. She didn’t have feelings or thoughts or a place in society.
No. She couldn’t face her siblings. Their sympathy and kindness would break her.
Chest heaving, she dashed back through her bedroom door, closed it firmly behind her, and collapsed against it, her unsteady shoulders trembling against the immovable slab of wood. Blank, like her. Her heart hammered.
She stared at her wardrobe full of expensive, useless fripperies.
Silk and satin and lace and velvet. Earrings, feathers, tiaras, combs, pearls. Had she thought any of that changed whoshewas?
With Lawrence, she’d risked being Chloe. Sometimes fancy, sometimes frumpy, sometimes silly. She’d taken off the mask, hoping not to go unnoticed.
He’d wanted her to put it back on. Wanted to hide her away. No,throwher away. The real Chloe was worse than unremarkable; she was repellant. No amount of diamonds and curls could ameliorate the unfixable.
She didn’t want any of it anymore.
Why couldn’t she be enough just as she was? Why couldn’t she be seen, and remembered, and wanted as Chloe?
Vision blurring, she yanked open the doors to her wardrobe and flung each treasured item onto a growing pile in the corner. Rubbish, all of it. She’d give it away. It was past time to stop believing in fairy tales.
Her door swung open and Tommy burst in, her eyes wide and her expression stricken.
“Go,” Chloe croaked. “I can’t…”
Tommy rushed to her and wrapped her in her arms.
“Don’t you dare be kind to me.” Chloe stood as still as she was able, every bone brittle. “If I look at you, I’ll cry.”
“Then cry,” Tommy said, and the crack in her voice indicatedshewas already crying. She might not know the details, but she knew Chloe was in pain, and that was enough to hurt her, too.
Chloe hugged her sister hard, burying her wet face in Tommy’s neck. Maybe shehadstarted crying first. Maybe she’d been crying this whole time and hadn’t realized it.
“I’ll kill him,” Tommy choked out.
“Can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear,” Chloe mumbled.
Tommy yanked Chloe out of her arms, her fingers digging into Chloe’s shoulders so she could glare straight into her face.
“You arenota sow’s ear. You are the cleverest, kindest, most compassionate person I know. You were born beautiful, inside and out. The happiest day of my life was when we became sisters. You’re the sun in my sky, Chloe Wynchester. Nothing glitters without you.”
“She’s the sun inmysky,” came Graham’s gruff voice from somewhere behind them.
Elizabeth pushed past him to wrap her arms about Chloe and Tommy both. “No, mine.”
A scrambling of feet indicated Jacob and Marjorie had joined the fray, jostling with Graham to be the next to join the embrace around Chloe.
“You’re perfect just as you are,” Jacob said.
Marjorie found Chloe’s hand and squeezed.
“You’re the reason we’re a family,” Graham said fiercely.
Tommy hugged Chloe harder and whispered, “You make all of us sparkle.”
