The Girl in the White Jacket
Chapter 02 - The Girl in the White Jacket
Three years earlier, Elena had not been invisible. She had been the girl who played piano in hotel lounges, the girl guests stopped to listen to, the girl with a scholarship letter folded carefully inside her purse. Her mother owned a small catering company called Hart & Home, and Elena worked banquets on weekends because every dollar mattered.
That was how she met Adrian Vale.
He had walked into the old Whitmore ballroom during a rainstorm, dressed in a black coat and carrying the kind of silence that made people step aside before he asked them to. Everyone knew the Vale name. His family owned half the city, and the other half owed them money. But Adrian had not looked at Elena like she was staff. He had stood beside the piano until she finished playing, then asked her why the saddest songs sounded hopeful when she touched them.
Elena had laughed because she thought he was teasing her. He wasn't.
For six months, he came back whenever she performed. For six months, Vivienne Cross watched from behind champagne glasses and flower arrangements, smiling like a woman who had already chosen what belonged to her. Vivienne wanted Adrian's money, his name, his attention. Elena had wanted none of those things. She had only wanted the man who walked her home after late shifts and brought soup when her mother was sick.
Then everything broke.
A contract disappeared from the Whitmore office. A bank transfer was traced to Elena's mother's company. Anonymous messages appeared on Adrian's phone, claiming Elena had taken money and left town. Elena received messages too, cold and cruel, supposedly from Adrian, telling her she was a mistake he could not afford.
By morning, Hart & Home was ruined. By the end of the week, Adrian was gone overseas after a sudden family emergency. By the end of the month, Elena was working for any catering company that would hire her under a manager who never asked questions.
The only thing she kept from that time was the silver necklace Adrian had given her, a tiny key on a chain. "For the door we haven't opened yet," he had said.
Now, in the Crystal Room, Vivienne noticed the chain and smiled wider.
"Still wearing old charity?" she whispered.
Elena looked up then. Not with anger. With exhaustion.
"It's not charity when it was given with love," she said.
May you like
Vivienne's smile froze for half a second, just long enough for Elena to see the hatred beneath it.
That was when the bride lifted her hand and called out, sweetly, "Could someone bring me coffee? This server seems eager to help."
