Chapter 3

A thick, white, shimmery film coated the pads of his fingers.

The room went dead silent.

Bianca stiffened.

The doctors and nurses suddenly found the floor tiles very interesting.

Sebastian slowly turned his head toward the nightstand. On it sat an open bottle of luminous foundation. Shade: Porcelain Pale.

Then he slowly turned back to Bianca's ghost-white face.

On her left cheek, right where he'd touched her, were clear finger streaks. The foundation had rubbed off, and underneath was skin that looked perfectly pink and healthy.

"I..." Bianca had turned to stone.

Sebastian's face got darker by the second.

This seemed like a good time to hold up my full blood bag and give it a little jiggle. It sloshed.

"Um... that's 600. Can I unhook now? I'm kind of in a hurry," I asked the nurse earnestly.

The lunch rush was about to hit that pizza place. If I didn't get over there soon, I'd be stuck waiting forever for a table.

Every eye in the room swung to me.

Sebastian looked at me like he had no idea what to think. Confusion, suspicion, maybe a little guilt, all tangled up on one face.

Bianca glared at me. If looks could kill, I'd have been dead ten times over.

The nurse finally snapped out of it and hurried over to pull the needle and press a cotton ball to my arm.

Holding the cotton ball in place, I looked up at Sebastian sweetly. "Honey, if there's nothing else, I'll go home and rest? I gave a lot of blood. I'm a little lightheaded."

Yeah, right. I could've done ten backflips on the spot and then demolished a pizza meant for three.

Sebastian's lips moved like he wanted to say something. In the end, he just waved a hand, sounding tired. "Go."

"Sebastian!" Bianca cried.

"Get some rest," he cut her off, his voice stiff. "Doctor, run a full workup on Miss Carrington. Let's find out exactly what's wrong with her."

He leaned hard on those last few words.

I turned and strolled out.

Right before the door closed, I heard Bianca's teary voice. "Sebastian, let me explain, the foundation is..."

And Sebastian's flat reply. "Mm."

When there was no big plot event, my job was simple. Eat, sleep, repeat. I'd just given Bianca 600 ml of blood, so she needed a few days to recover, which meant I got a few days off too.

A few days later, Bianca had bounced back.

I was stretched out on a lounge chair by the pool in my sunglasses, trying to decide between Cajun crawfish and garlic butter lobster for dinner.

Bianca came clicking over in her stilettos, and her shadow blocked my sun.

"Look at you, living the life. Sunbathing alone is so boring. Want some company?"

I pushed my sunglasses down my nose. "Go ahead. I'm listening."

She sat on the chair beside mine. After a few seconds, she sighed. "Daisy, I know you hate me. But Sebastian and I are truly in love. Can't you just let us be together?"

Here it came. The classic line.

I followed the script and said weakly, "I'll never divorce him. Not if it kills me."

A divorce meant kissing a hundred million goodbye. Sorry, girl. You are not worth a hundred million.

She lowered her voice. "Then don't blame me. Blame yourself for taking my place!"

She shot up, grabbed my wrist, and yanked.

Two splashes.

The water closed over my head.

Oh, right. In the book, I couldn't swim.

In real life, I couldn't swim either!

I thrashed on instinct, arms flailing, legs kicking, gulping down mouthful after mouthful of water.

Huh. The water was actually pretty clean. Sun-warmed, with that cool, sharp bite of chlorine. And a little salty...

Kind of like the broth at a seafood boil.

Still thrashing, I smacked my lips. Now I really wanted a seafood platter.

Bianca, on the other hand, was putting on quite a show.

"Glug... help... glug..." She was choking hard. Harder than me, and I was the one who actually couldn't swim.

But her body had already switched to autopilot.

Her legs kicked out in a textbook breaststroke, and she shot half a yard forward.

"Help... glug... I can't swim..." she wailed, while her arms swept into a flawless freestyle and carried her even farther.

"I'm drowning..." She flipped onto her back. Face above water, arms and legs moving in perfect rhythm. She was making great time.

"Sebastian... save me..." Now it was butterfly. Both arms burst out of the water like wings, graceful and shockingly fast.

Meanwhile, I was barely hanging on. My flailing got weaker and weaker until I sank slowly, leaving a few strands of hair floating on the surface.

All I could think was: white wine or sparkling water with dinner?

That was when the cavalry showed up.

Sebastian charged into the pool area with a crowd of staff behind him, and this was what they saw:

Me, Mrs. Rhodes, sinking to the bottom like a rock.

Bianca, his first love, cycling through four competition-level strokes and racing for the wall at Olympic speed while she screamed, "I'm drowning! Somebody save me! I can't swim... cough, cough!"

Everyone froze. Not a single person could keep a straight face.

Sebastian's face went through every color there was.