End of Trentham Ball

**Edited to take out major spoilers...

She kept her gaze lowered and watched shiny shoes, heels, and expensive fabrics whip out of their path as people hurried to get out of his way. Roth didn’t stop until a pair of Italian shoes faced off with them. She didn’t have to look up to know who they belonged to.

“Take her home,” Lyle ordered.

“That was the plan,” Roth said tersely.

She glanced up in time to see Lyle nod before he turned on his heel and led the way out of the ballroom. Conversations stalled as they passed. The outbreak of whispers made her stomach twist. So much for getting through the night without making a scene. When she and Roth stopped to collect their coats, Lyle slammed through the front door.

Roth brushed her fumbling hands aside and did up the buttons of her coat. “What happened?”

She didn’t answer him, but pulled away before he could slide the last two buttons home and shoved through the door. Security swung their attention from Colette and Lyle to Jasmine as she rushed down the steps.

“Careful,” Roth snapped behind her.

Colette stood at the curb with Lyle, who wore a scowl. Colette’s mask slipped, showing her relief as they approached.

“I couldn’t leave without knowing you were okay,” Colette said, extending her gloved hand to her.

Jasmine took it and squeezed. “I’m fine.”

“The fuck you are,” Lyle snapped, his breath coming out in a gust of white from the freezing temperature. “What the fuck happened?”

She and Colette stared at each other. She saw a flash of shame as Colette’s lashes came down to shield her eyes.

“Colette said you had a run in with Warren?”

She glanced at Colette, whose gaze was still lowered, and nodded. “Yeah.”

“And?” Lyle snapped impatiently.

She looked at Colette to see how she wanted to handle this, but her sister wasn’t giving her any cues.

Colette looked dignified and beautiful, but there was a fragility to her that made her wrap her arms around her. When Colette began to shake in delayed reaction, she tightened her grip on her waist to comfort her. Lyle and Roth wore identical, bewildered scowls. She buried her face in her sister’s fur coat.

“I’m going to rip Warren’s head off,” Lyle snarled and turned to go back in.

Colette swung around. “Don’t!”

But Roth already had a hold of Lyle’s arm. “We need to know what happened before you assault someone.”

“I don’t need to know.”

As Lyle went toe to toe with Roth, Jasmine tensed, wondering if Lyle’s temper would get the better of him and make him swing at Roth.

“Whatever he did was bad enough to have them racing to the bathroom so Minnie could puke, and had my wife yelling at the Ambassador’s wife to get the hell out, so they could have privacy.”

Colette tensed. “I didn’t say—”

“Marty stopped me when you sent me back in to find Min and Roth.” Lyle locked eyes on Jasmine. “What did he do, cara, that made you sick? Did he touch you or something?”

She sensed Roth’s sudden stillness and felt her stomach lurch with nerves. Beside her, Colette imitated the marble statue she’d seen in the library.

“No, he didn’t touch me,” she said, swallowing bile.

Lyle’s face was a wash of frustration and confusion. “Was it someone else, then? Someone—”

“Let it go,” Colette’s voice was cutting.

“Fuck that. Tell me now!”

She was going to step in to calm him down, but was interrupted by their Rolls-Royce’s pulling up to the curb, one behind the other. She released Colette only to have her sister cup her cheek and lean down to rest her forehead against hers. It was a gesture of shared pain and camaraderie. When her breath hitched, Colette’s thumb stroked her cheek.

“We’re okay,” Colette murmured.

She nodded.

Colette straightened and looked down at her with shimmering eyes. “I would have protected you from that knowledge if I could.”

As she took a step back, she bumped into Roth, who was standing close enough to hear every word.

Lyle glared at her over the roof of the car. “You’ll call me when you know?”

“Yeah,” Roth said and guided her into the back seat of their Rolls.

Roth didn’t waste any time rounding the car and dropping onto the seat beside her. “You want to tell me what the hell is going on?”

She stared straight ahead and said nothing. Lyle made things one hundred times worse by repeating what chatty Marty said. Couldn’t they leave the Ball without someone tattling on them? She closed her eyes and slumped back in her seat, utterly depleted. She heard the rumble of Roth’s voice, but it was distorted, as if she were underwater.

**This is a raw draft of Bitter Confessions. Please do not share or distribute.

This is pretty close to the original ending scene for the Trentham Ball I wrote in 2021 or whatever, with some little changes here and there. I had vague ideas of what would happen at the Ball, but it turned out better than I imagined with one scene leading into the next and leading me down a path that took me by surprise. So much happens in these chapters--meeting new characters that will shape the storyline, but also touching on old acquaintances we met in the last book and also circling back to the beginning of their affair and the Baldwin's and even Elena, Jasmine's mother.

Soooo satisfying to finally get past the Trentham Ball which is a whopping 26k words. There's so much I still want to add to it, but I'm leaving it as is with a ton of notes to add more details later during revisions.

What do you guys think happened? 👀🫣