Ultimatum

About an hour after Mary had gone home, saying she’d consider Ella’s offer to come and work for her as her personal assistant, the same butler who’d led Mary in earlier ushered in new guests, unwanted ones.
Ella had been sitting with her bare feet tucked underneath her, staring at the wall, but when her father, his lawyer, Bob Shiner, and Henry walked in, Ella stood, not sure what she should do. The three of them were dressed in suits, and the older gentlemen looked extremely serious, as if Ella was the one accused of murder. Henry only looked sympathetic.
“Father. You’re home,” Ella said as her dad stepped over to her, wrapping his arms around her.
“Yes, of course. I headed home as soon as your mother called with the news.” He stepped back and looked her over as Ella decided to let his misspoken title go. “How are you doing?”
“Not well,” Ella admitted as the three men sat down across from her. She slid her feet back into her shoes, as if she might need to run again, as she had the last time she’d sat across from her father, and sat back on the couch.
“It’s a horrible thing that has happened,” her father said, shaking his head. “Tim was a good man.”
“Yes, he was. He’s been one of my best friends my entire life.”
“Did you know he’d taken to carrying a gun?”
Ella nodded, wondering where her father was taking this conversation. Bob set his briefcase across his lap, resting his fat fingers on top of it. “He told me about it last week. But… he said it was because he feared for my safety.”
“Your safety?” Lloyd Sinders scratched his chin. “Who did he fear might harm you?”
“Your men,” she said, directly. “You had them break into my apartment, didn’t you?”
He snorted. “You know I’d never let anyone hurt you, Ella.”
“Tim was afraid that you’d let them take me back to your house against my will. That was what you’d intended, wasn’t it?”
“I told you already, Ella, I wanted you to stay home, to get to know Henry.”
“But that’s not what I wanted. Tim knew that. He was trying to protect me.”
“But it wasn’t my men he ended up having to protect himself from, was it? No, it was those awful Veronas.”
At the sound of Rome’s last name, Ella sucked in a deep breath and held it. “I wasn’t there, but I’ve heard it was Mark Hutio and Tim who were arguing. Mark is not a Verona.”
“He runs with that Rome, though. Or did anyway.” He shook his head. “He may as well be a Verona.”
“Father, he’s dead. Tim shot him.”
“And then Rome Verona drowned Tim.” Her father said it as if it was a fact.
“That’s not true.” Ella tried to keep her words measured. “We can’t blame anyone else for what happened to Tim. It was an accident. They both fell in. I’ve even heard that Rome was trying to find him, to pull him out, but Tim got away from him. We both know Tim couldn’t swim and didn’t care for the water.”
“Why in the world are you speaking out on behalf of Rome Verona?” Lloyd asked, the expression on his face shifting.
Ella knew, then, that he had information he wasn’t giving her, information that would catch her in a lie if she wasn’t careful. “I don’t want to blame anyone for Tim’s death. It was an accident.”
Lloyd Sinders cleared his throat, and Bob opened his briefcase. Ella gasped when he pulled out a white shoe decorated with pink rhinestones. “Do you know what this is?” her dad asked.
Ella nodded. “It’s a shoe.” She tried not to be too sarcastic. Did he know everything, or was he just hoping she’d confirm it.
“Do you know where we got it?”
Studying the shoe for a moment, Ella realized it was the one she’d lost, or one that looked exactly like it. “I imagine you got it from a member of the paparazzi. You probably paid quite a lot for it, too.”
“And do you know why I’d go to so much trouble to get this particular shoe?” Her father’s eyebrows were knit together as he stared at her, his dark eyes boring holes into her skull.
“I guess at some point, one procures so much money, they have nothing better to do with it.” Ella kept her chin up and her voice even, and ignored the chuckle that escaped Henry’s lips before he covered his mouth.
Her father didn’t think that was funny. He turned to the man on his left and glared at him. Henry apologized, and Lloyd continued to stare at him or a few more moments before he turned back to Ella. “If one were to search the closet in your apartment, might they find the matching shoe? Or would I need to send my men to Rome Verona’s apartment, which happens to be in the same complex, to find the match?”
“Something tells me you already know the answer to that,” Ella replied. She’d left the shoe in a box in her closet--above her wedding dress. If her father had been there, he’d found all of it. But then, he must’ve already put the facts together in order to have the shoe on the table in front of her since she’d left it behind at the chapel. It probably didn’t take much of a search into Rome’s recent activities to see that he’d gotten married in Vegas. Her father would recognize her in the pictures, even though no one else would.
It surprised Ella that he found her comment humorous, but this time, it was her father who laughed. Bob Shiner opened up his briefcase again and pulled out the matching shoe. Ella wasn’t surprised at all. “I love him.”
No longer laughing, Lloyd Sinders dragged his hands down his pale face. “You snuck off to Las Vegas and married the son of my archenemy. Now, that man has killed your own cousin, and you expect me to allow this sham to continue because you love him?”
Feeling the heat rising in her skin, Ella took a deep breath. “It’s not a sham, Father. I love him. He is my husband. He didn’t kill Tim.”
“Enough, Ella! Enough!” He banged his hand down on the coffee table. “Your stepmother was right to lock you in the attic! Ella--this is over with! Your marriage to Rome Verona will be annulled the moment the courts are open Monday morning. As soon as Tim’s services are over, you will return with me to Paris and marry Henry!”
“Never!” Ella stood, her hands in fists. “You can’t make me do any of that!”
“I can--and I will!”
“I’ll never sign--never!”
“You won’t have to!” he shouted back, standing. He reached for her, but Ella knocked his hands away, ready to run again. “This is not up for debate, Ella! If you want to stay for the services, you will not give me any trouble! I never should’ve allowed you out of the attic! You’ve caused shame and misery to befall my household--this is the last of it! And don’t even think about attempting to leave this house!”
Ella fell back onto the couch, hardly able to see through her tears as the three of them left, her wedding shoes still on the table. Henry looked sympathetic, but he followed Lloyd and his minion out the door, and Ella covered her face, unable to believe her father could be so cruel. All this time, she’d hated Teresa and thought her dad would be on her side, but it turned out he was just as evil as she was.
There had to be some way to get away from him, to get free, and find Rome. But she recognized his threat. He must have his men outside, watching the house. After her last escape, he’d be more careful.
Gasping for air, Ella buried her face in a pillow and tried to get a handle on herself. Her entire body was shaking and spasming as her emotions overcame her. As if it wasn’t enough that she’d lost her best friend that day, now her father was doing his damnedest to take away the only man she’d ever loved. She couldn’t think clearly while she was crying so hard, and she needed to get her head on straight so that she could come up with a plan.
Even if her father somehow managed to annul her marriage, she would never marry Henry. She’d find a way to get away from him and back to Rome. She wasn’t a prisoner; they couldn’t hold her against her will or make her marry someone as if she was a princess in the Middle Ages. She’d find a way to get away from him and back to the man she loved--if it was the last thing she ever did.