Stay With Me Read Online Free Page B

parents had left me, and thanks to the help of Carl and Margaret, I’d managed to take life into my own hands by buying the small building I lived in and starting my café.
    They were my family. And unfortunately, this connected me to Ash.
    Just my luck , I thought as I finished getting ready.
    “Mommy!” Olly’s high-pitched voice almost made me fall out of the closet.
    “Sweetie, how many times have I told you not to enter my room that way?”
    “Sorry, Mommy,” she said, putting on that adorable scowl that caused me to melt. She knew how to get what she wanted—it was a quality she’d inherited from her father.
    I smiled, holding up two outfits to my face, needing the expert opinion of my daughter. “Which one should I wear?”
    “Wed!” she cried out, clapping.
    I didn’t give it a second thought and put it on. It was a plain red tube dress that came to a little above the knee. The neckline was covered, but a good part of my back was exposed. It wrapped my body like a second skin.
    “Beautiful Mommy!”
    “Thank you, love, but you are even more so. You are the most beautiful person in the entire world.” I lowered myself to give her a kiss on the forehead. “I’m going to finish getting ready. Go ask Jenny for a cup of milk. I’ll come and say goodbye before I leave.”
    She nodded, skipping out of the room, while I put on my only pair of black high heels and grabbed my purse.
    I went to the kitchen, where Olivia was insisting that Jenny let her play the princess game.
    “I’m heading out,” I said. “Jenny, the number for the restaurant is on the refrigerator.”
    She smiled. “Of course, Zoe. Go have fun. Little Olly and I will manage, as always.”
    “Thanks!” I said, then turned to Olivia. “Behave yourself, Olly. Try not to drive Jenny crazy.”
    “I good !”
    “I know, sweetheart, but I prefer to remind you. Now give me a kiss, because I need to run to Aunt Mag’s.”
    She raised her arms and squeezed me behind my neck. “I wuv you, Mommy.”
    “I love you too, sweetie.”

    I arrived at the restaurant wondering why Ashley and her future husband hadn’t taken advantage of the splendid evening to dine near the ocean. From what I could gather, though, they were both more interested in appearances than substance.
    They’d chosen one of the city’s trendiest restaurants. A place that I, with my modest finances, would have normally only observed from the outside. Or at the most, I might have been able to sell them my desserts.
    I adjusted the bottom of my dress, which had ridden up more than I would have liked, as I headed toward the entrance.
    “Zoe, darling!” Mag’s warm voice called out and I approached her, smiling.
    “Am I late?” I asked, looking around.
    “Not by much, but don’t worry. Carl, my sister, and Ash are inside, but her fiancé has not yet arrived. Thus you’re not the last one to arrive.”
    She took me by the arm and led me inside. I looked around, and the first thing I noticed was the aseptic color. It looked like a hospital. No color, no warmth. So different from my café.
    The glass walls overlooking the street were covered with heavy gray drapes, and the only light came from the iron structures hanging from the ceiling. It was horrible, and its name betrayed every expectation: Sensation .
    What was going through Ashley’s mind when she chose to take her family to a place like this? She probably did it to show everyone what she could afford. Or better yet, to show me.
    Her family had never cared about those trivialities. She was from a well-to-do family, but they certainly didn’t love ostentation.
    “Zoe, darling, what a pleasure to see you again!” Ashley’s mother took me in a warm embrace, and it reminded me of how nice it was to be close to her. The same woman who’d taken care of me, with the help of her sister, Mag, after my parents’ accident. They were the closest thing to a family I had left, and I appreciated everything they’d done