The drive back to Ella's home was quiet... uncomfortably quiet. Ella sat by the window, staring at the familiar streets passing outside, but she barely registered any of them.
Her thoughts were elsewhere. She wasn't stupid, she knows something was wrong... and whatever was wrong, they all knew of it. Alexander, Henry, Cassandra, and even Carlton knew. And somehow, all of them had decided that she was the only person who should be kept in the dark.
Ella clasped her right hand around her left, squeezing it tightly as her heart pounded against her chest. 'Is Dad okay? Did some kind of trouble find him?' The question had been circling her mind since they left the hotel. She tried to push it aside but she couldn't.
Alexander glanced at her hands. He noticed the way she was squeezing them together, almost as though she was trying to physically hold herself together. His heart ached for her.
"Babe..." Ella didn't look at him. "I am here." His voice was, warm, reassuring.
