My Boss's Hidden Heir (Elara and Marcus) novel Chapter 209

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5:10 pm P POM.

Chapter 209.

Chapter 209

Elara’s POV

The Met Gala was on a Monday night in May and Elara watched it from her living room floor in Marcus’s old university sweatshirt with Alexander trying to eat her hair.

This had not been the plan.

The plan had been to watch from the boutique with Mimi and a bottle of charnpagne, all of them dressed up like they were attending something. But Catherine had spent Sunday night running a fever that broke by morning but left both parents hovering anxiously, and Elara wasn’t going anywhere while her daughter was anything less than completely fine.

“She’s fine,” Marcus said from the couch behind her, reading her mind the way he’d gotten terrifyingly good at. “Maria confirmed it twice. The fever is gone.”

“I know.”

“You keep looking toward the nursery.”

“I’m allowed to look toward the nursery.”

“The gala starts in twenty minutes.”

Elara detached Alexander from her hair and settled him in her lap, pointing him toward the television where the red carpet coverage had just begun. He was immediately transfixed by the colors and movement, his little hands reaching toward the

screen.

“He has taste,” Marcus said.

“He has your attention span. Completely captured by shiny things.”

Marcus slid off the couch onto the floor beside her, handing her a glass of wine. They sat together with Alexander between them while the red carpet filled with extraordinary people in extraordinary clothes, and Elara felt the specific anxiety of someone waiting for something that could either be brilliant or catastrophic with very little middle ground.

Jade Ellis had sent photos of the finished gown on her client three days ago. Simone Reeves, three Oscar nominations, the kind of face that cameras loved unreasonably. The gown was ivory structured silk with hand-sewn crystals along the bodice that caught light in a way that had taken Elara’s seamstress eleven days to complete. The skirt moved like water.

In the photos it had looked extraordinary.

Γ

But photographs were controlled. The red carpet was chaos and noise and a thousand other dresses competing for the same ten seconds of attention.

“Stop thinking so loud,” Marcus said.

“I’m not thinking loud.”

“Your jaw is doing the thing.”

“My jaw doesn’t do things.”

“It absolutely does things. It goes tight when you’re catastrophizing.” He reached over Alexander’s head and touched her face briefly. “It’s going to be perfect”

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Chapter 209-

don’t know skat

the dress. I watched you make it. I sat in the boutique at midnight firee separate crystal placement” He looked her steadily. “It’s perfect. El”

The coverage cut to a new arrival and Elara grabbed Marcus’s arm so hard he made a sound.

e you spe

Because there was Simone Reeves stepping out of a black car in the ivory gown, and whatever Elara had felt looking at the photographs was nothing absolutely nothing compared to seeing a move

The crystal caught every camera flash and threw the light back out in every direction. The vint moved exactly as it was supposed to move. And Simone, who understood clothes the way only certain people did walked like she knew she was wearing something worth walking in.

“Oh my God.” Elara whispered.

Alexander looked up at her face and then at the television, apparently trying to understand the case of the shift in energy

On screen the reporters were already descending, Simone stopped at the first microphone looking luminous and completely at ease and the reporter’s first question wasn’t about the film she had coming out or the nomination she was expecting or anything except the obvious

“Your dress is absolutely stunning Who are you wearing?

Simone smiled directly into the camera like she’d been waiting for exactly this question

“Elara Thome

The reporter blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“Elara Thome. She’s based in New York, SoHo boutique, and she is in my opinion the most exciting designer working right now. If you don’t know her name tonight you’re going to know it tomorrow.”

Elara made a sound she’d never made before in her life. Something between a scream and a sob and a laugh that startled Alexander so badly he burst into tears.

“Oh baby, I’m sorry, I’m sorry-” She scooped him up while Marcus was already on his feet doing something she couldn’t track because her eyes were blurring,

“She said your name. Marcus said. “On every camera simultaneously she just

said your name.”

“I heard. I heard, I’m-” Elara was bouncing Alexander who was settling fast, pressing her face into h soft hair while her heart did something architectural and complicated in her chest. “I’m fine. I’m completely fine.”

was absolutely not fine.

Her phone started ringing,

Jade Elba bru. “Are you watching Please tell me you’re watching”

Twitter past went insane Klara Thorne is trending Your boutique website has crossed again. Simone is ring to do two *** preu soga and the’s saying your team at every single one because we planted it that way and you re

Clares you get out complet any

11pm PPON

we have things to discuss” She hung up before Elara could

The next call was a comber the didn’t recognize with a London area code. The Paris. Then another New York number. then three more she coulddentify. She let them go to voicemail and watched be coverage instead, watching Simone

the carpet in the mory go while the internet apparently came apart at the seares.

Man’s messages were arring faster than Elara could read them. The final one was just seventeen exclamation marks and a wice note that Elars played on speaker, which was mostly Mimi screaming and Dante in the background saying use your words. Mams, ose your words

Marca took Alexander so Elara could stand up. She paced the length of the living room twice, phone in hand, watching her name trend on three different platforms simultaneously.

She’d grown up sharing a bedroom with her mother in a flat where the heating worked approximately half the time. She’d worn shoes with holes in the soles through an entire winter because there was nothing to replace them with. She’d learned to make things beatiful on no money, had learned that beauty didn’t require resources, only attention and intention and

And now her name was on every screen.

“Hey,” Maron caught her on her second lap of the room, putting his free hand on her shoulder. “Breathe.”

I’m breathing,

“Property”

Elara stopped and breathed properly. Alexander reached for her face from Marcus’s arms and she let him grab her cheek. his wall warm hand anchoring her to the room.

“Is this real?” she asked

“Very real”

“Elara Thorne is trending”

“In seventeen countries according to Mimi’s last message.”

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