Escape from Mr. Whitman (Emma and Theodore) novel Chapter 507

The accusation was so outlandish it left Emma momentarily speechless.

Her and Theodore? Back together?

Where on earth did he get that idea?

"Am I wrong?" Sebastian pressed, his voice thick with hurt. "I stopped picking you up, and Theodore started, didn't he? I saw you two, getting all handsy in your front yard."

Emma understood now. He was talking about the night she was attacked, when Theodore had brought her home. Theodore wiping the blood from her face had somehow been twisted in Sebastian's mind into "getting handsy."

At this point, the slander didn't even make her angry. A far more terrifying emotion had taken its place: fear.

She felt as if Sebastian's attention was a cold, slithering snake, watching her, monitoring her from the shadows.

"Sebastian, right now, you're genuinely scaring me," she said, and turned to leave the dressing room.

Sebastian lunged after her, but he was blocked at the door by Allen and another bodyguard.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sebastian demanded, watching Emma walk away. "I'm trying to talk to my girlfriend. You have no right to stop me."

"Our apologies, Mr. Remington, but we are simply following orders," Allen said, standing ramrod straight. "From now on, you are not to approach Miss Bennett."

"Whose orders? Emma's? No, that's impossible!" Sebastian grew even more furious.

"Mr. Rossi's, of course."

Sebastian's face fell. "Larson? How… why?"

Faith caught her own slip of the tongue, and her face grew even redder. "Emma, I'm so sorry. I was wrong."

She knew what she had done was unforgivable. There was no chance of her returning to the troupe, nor did she have the nerve to ask. But she had to explain what happened, to make sure Emma knew what kind of person Sebastian really was.

"Emma," she said, her voice sincere, "it was Sebastian. He told me he wanted to show you how important we both are to the troupe. He asked me to… to give you a scare with him, to delay our trip to Edinburgh and miss the rehearsals. He said you would be begging us to come back."

"And you just did whatever he told you to do?" Emma already suspected Sebastian's motives, but she was surprised Faith had gone along with it.

Faith lowered her head. "It was my fault. I was vain and greedy. Sebastian bought me three Hermès bags…"

Emma understood.

"Emma, I am so sorry. And please, tell everyone who worked so hard on this ballet that I'm sorry. I let you all down. I'm just so thankful the performance was a success, because otherwise… otherwise the guilt would have killed me." As she spoke, tears began to stream down her face. "I never, ever thought that Sebastian would actually go through with it and miss the performance. I thought, even if I am… not a great person, at the end of the day, we're dancers. I thought out of respect for the stage, he would perform in the end."