The Game (Wagered Hearts Series, #3)(47)

"Darla," I said, my voice dripping with ice. "I could say the same for you."

She laughed off my subtle jab with much too much glee. I felt my body tense in response. It wasn't like Darla to laugh anything off. If anything, it was too easy to make her go into meltdown mode. Seeing her act calm and composed was completely unexpected and a little worrisome.

"You amaze me, you know that?" she laughed. "After everything you've done, you've still got a mouth on you, and you have the audacity to stand there and look down your nose at me. Fucking ridiculous." Her voice carried throughout the room and I could feel several more pairs of eyes land on us.

"Aw, have I hurt your feelings? Is that where all this anger and animosity is coming from?" I asked keenly aware of the attention we were getting. I wouldn't let her get the best of me.

"God, you really are a bitch, you know that? All this shit couldn't have happened to a better person," she snapped before huffing off.

I rolled my eyes at her back and looked around the room, trying to find a sympathetic face, but all I got were people looking down their noses at me! The ones who didn't, weren't even making eye contact. It was puzzling and I thought I must be imagining things. I shook off the thought and circulated around the room. Several people paused their conversations and looked at me warily as I approached.

I walked up to an acquaintance I'd known for several years. Harvey Richards was a fashion editor who I'd worked with while I was still modeling, and we'd always gotten along. As I approached his group, the conversation suddenly stopped. He looked very uncomfortable as I greeted him.

"Harvey, I didn't know you'd be here!" I said. "It's been a while."

"Er--yeah," he replied, practically sweating bullets.

I furrowed my brow in confusion. What the hell had gotten into people? I felt like I was being shunned.

"Ok, what's going on tonight? You're acting really weird," I said cutting to the chase.

The group of young models around him giggled and I narrowed my eyes. Harvey stepped forward and grabbed my arm leading me to a more secluded section of the room.

"Why did you come tonight?" he asked.

"What? Why wouldn't I come?" I asked.

"You know I like you, right Emilia? We've always been friends."

"Uh...yeah," I said hesitantly, not sure where he was going with this.

"Then take my advice and go home."

"Why?"

"Can't you see you're a laughing stock right now? Everyone is talking about you, and you don't want to know what they're saying. No one can take you seriously after what you did for some publicity."

"Bullshit. Bunch of hypocrites, as if I'm the only one," I said not bothering to censor my tongue. "Half the people--no more than half--in this room would do 10 times worse than what I did in a heartbeat."

"The difference, my dear, is you got caught. Your name is the one plastered on the headlines. Your little arrangement is the one being discussed on the nightly chat shows."

"So what? I can't believe people would shun me because of one indiscretion like that."

"This is a fickle business. No one wants to associate with someone who's tainted. Speaking of, I should get back to my friends," he said giving me one last imploring look before walking away.

The conversation had left me reeling. First Charlotte and now Harvey had dropped dire warnings on me. Could it be true? Surely a fake engagement couldn't be all that bad? Hell, I'd been accused of sleeping with a married man before, and that rumor didn't seem to raise as many hackles as this one.

I walked back to the center of the room, dismissing Harvey's advice. There was just no way anything he said was true. I was Emilia f**king Holliday, for Christ's sake. People were clamoring to work with me and be seen with me. That couldn't change overnight.

"I thought I heard a rumor you were here tonight."

As if my night couldn't get any worse, Kelsey Keller had to show up. I didn't even want to turn around to look at her. I hoped that if I just ignored her she'd slink away, but luck was obviously not on my side tonight.

"What's the matter? Too ashamed to face me?" she asked tauntingly.

That did it. I couldn't let her think I was afraid of her. I turned around slowly, making sure my face showed no emotion. I wouldn't let her get a rise out of me. It was what she wanted, and I was sure she had tipped off several people to have their camera phones ready just in case I went off on her.

"Oh it's you again. I swear, I almost get the impression you're stalking me. You seem to show up everywhere I am," I said, airily.

"Yeah, right. When pigs fly," she retorted.

I didn't even bother to reply to her lame comeback. Instead, I looked down at my nails and tried to pretend she wasn't standing right in front of me.

"I see you're standing alone. Did your fiancé come with you? Oh, that's right, he wasn't real. What was the matter? Didn't pay him enough to deal with your bullshit anymore?" she taunted.

By now we were definitely gathering a crowd around us. Everyone wanted to see the fight they thought was inevitable. It had been brewing for months now, ever since Kelsey had leaked rumors of me sleeping with her husband. Here was the supposedly scorned wife with the humiliated other woman. A soap opera couldn't have written a more sensational story line.