Chapter 41: The Dressing Room Disaster
The transition from the velvet silence of the VIP stage to the frantic, brightly lit chaos of the dressing room was a blur of pain and pulsing neon. Anita and Mimi had practically carried Eliana off the floor the moment the curtains swung shut, her broken heel clicking uselessly against the floorboards like a wounded wing. The moment the door slammed behind them, Eliana collapsed into a chair, her breath coming in ragged, hysterical hitches.
"Curse this shoe! Curse the person who made it!" Eliana cried out, her voice cracking as she ripped the crimson silk tie from her ankle. She flung the broken stiletto across the room, where it hit a makeup mirror with a sharp clack. But her anger was a thin veil for the humiliation burning in her chest. Her ankle was already starting to swell, a dull, throbbing heat that matched the rhythm of her heart. "I ruined it, Anita. The Chief is going to kill me. The VIPs... they saw me fall like a clumsy amateur." She buried her face in her hands, the lace of her mask pressing into her skin. She felt small, exposed, and utterly defeated. The "Girl in Red" was supposed to be untouchable, a dream made of silk and shadow. Tonight, she was just a girl who had tripped over her own desperation.
Anita knelt in front of her, gently massaging the swollen ankle with a bag of crushed ice. "Forget the Chief, Eli. He's just glad the crowd stayed for the drama. But you... you weren't looking at your feet. You were looking at that booth in the corner. You looked like you'd seen a ghost."
Eliana's breath hitched. "I thought I saw someone who look like the man from the restaurant "
"Which man "anita asked looking angry
The one who saved me from Otunba. He was sitting right there, in the center of the VIP lounge." She leaned back against the cold vanity, her mind a chaotic whirlwind of grey eyes and sharp jawlines. She tried to push the image away, to focus on the pain in her foot or the money she still needed for the surgery, but he was everywhere.
The way he had stood up when she fell—the flash of genuine alarm she had seen in his eyes before the curtains closed—it didn't match the man who anita had warn her about "
"He defended me when I was just a waitress in a stained apron," Eliana murmured to herself, more than to Anita. "And tonight, he saw me like this. Does he know? Can he see through the lace?" The thought was terrifying, yet a small, treacherous part of her heart felt a spark of warmth. In a city that usually looked through her, this man kept seeing her. She wanted to run from him, to hide in the deepest shadows of the club, but she also found herself wondering if he was still out there, waiting in the dark, and what he would do if he ever found out who the Girl in Red really was.