Breathe.
Breathe.
Nicolette told herself as she ran down the hallway. Her heart was pounding with different emotions, and she just needed space to deal with them.
She didn't want to deal with the wedding or greet guests; she didn't even know their names—not when she was looking like this, and definitely not while still in Clara's wedding dress.
Her heart tightened with pain as she went further down the hallway, ready to bury herself somewhere in this big house until she was okay.
How could it go from pleasure to pain?
One minute she was relishing the moment with Alaric, and the next, she was stripped naked by his psycho mother.
She placed a hand on her chest as if she could squeeze the pain out. She was burning with humiliation, and it hurt so badly.
She reached the end of the hallway and realized there was another stairwell. She followed it, craving privacy on this crazy day that had spiraled from bad to good and then back to worse.
