My grey, glazed over eyes were locked on the spotless window, watching people pass by as my hands were wrapped too tightly around the porcelain mug that held my caramel flavored steamed milk. I felt like I was just waiting for him to appear, like he would just walk through the doors, come straight up to me and drag me back to the life I had run away from. I knew he was out there now and it felt like it was only a matter of time before he pounced on me. But I knew it wasn't entirely possible for him to do it right this second. He would plan his every move precisely and leaving my office to go out for coffee in the middle of the day was not something he would plan for. Hell, it wasn't something I had planned for, but the fear of him wandering into my office was enough to make me send out the text. Thankfully for me, Sophie was always ready for coffee based outings at the drop of a hat.

"I know that Sandra cares about me, but I'm just not sure if I'm into it, you know? But that's not fair to her or me because she's legitimately ideal for me. Or at least, I think she would be perfect. She's a little rougher than Jessica was which I like, Jessica was a little too polished for me, but now that I'm talking about Jessica I'm worried that I'm just rebounding, you know?" Sophie's words were hitting my ears, but they certainly were not being processed, and she noticed immediately, "You are a million miles away, Celeste." She probably wasn't the most social person in the world, but she read my body language like no other, able to decipher me through all of my fake smiles and sweet lies.

"Sorry." I blurted, finally pulling my eyes away from the window and back onto her, "You aren't really the rebound type. And Jessica was a long time ago, I know you loved her, but it's time to move on to someone different, someone refreshing who won't always remind you of her." I soothed, raising the hipster mug to my lips for a sip.

"What's wrong?" Sophie demanded. Her expression shifted to one of complete seriousness and her sympathetic brown eyes remained steady as she leaned back in her chair, assessing me fully. Her delicate eyebrows were raised in suspicion and her lips were being pressed in a tight line as she tried to read me.

"Nothing." I said, forcing a large smile. Sometimes I was too much a business woman and not enough of a normal person. Covering my true feelings had become second nature to me, even with my best friend.

"You called me out of the blue in the middle of your work day to meet with me, and since I got here you've been biting your nails and not drinking any of your steamed milk." She pointed out, unable to prevent herself from wrinkling her nose at my choice of beverage despite her obvious concern.

I let out a tense breath, feeling my shoulders slump, "My condo was broke into." I confessed, feeling both lighter and heavier after the words left my mouth. It was nice to share the burden with someone, but saying it out loud made it feel much more true than before when I had kept it bottled up.

"Shit, that sucks." Sophie replied, her brow now furrowing. She took a deep drink of her black coffee before she continued, "Did they take anything?"

I swallowed hard, feelings tears well in my eyes as the reality of what had happened, what the break in meant, settled on my shoulders once more after chasing it away with work and other things to occupy my restless mind.

"My original documents." I whispered. "The documents with Camila Lopez on them."

I was teetering on the edge of keeping myself wonderfully numb and being swept away in a river of my own distraught tears. I forced myself to stare at my frothy drink, knowing that if I looked at my friend's sympathetic expression I would not be able to hold onto my sanity. And I couldn't lose it, not here in a busy coffee shop where many people knew my name.

"Do you think it was him?" Sophie asked delicately. Her voice had quieted down and she scooted forward so we wouldn't be over heard.

"He might've not been the one to do it directly." I said softly, my lower lip trembling. "I don't know if he would be arrogant enough to leave his fingerprints all over the place, or if he was smart enough to take precautions, or if he just hired someone to do it for him. But either way, he was a part of it."

"How can you be sure? You have a super nice condo, it would be an easy place to want to target. I mean, your condo is worth more than people make in a lifetime. They could've just taken whatever looked valuable. Did the police pull fingerprints or anything like that?"

Sophie was the only one who knew how strong my ex-fiancé was. She had known me when I still lived in Anaheim with him. We had been very close before he started sabotaging my life and all of my relationships with anyone he felt was a bad influence. When the government of Ontario sought her out for her coding – and less than legal skills- she told me I had to come with her, it was my only reasonable chance, or she doubted she would ever see me again. And she was the only person that was in a situation that would enable her to give me the best fighting chance at escape given her skill set and her line of work.

She had been the one to put me into the Canada computer systems. She had been the one who forged all of my documents without a sliver of hesitation. She had been the one who let me sleep on her couch when I couldn't find my own place to stay and fed me when I couldn't even afford a coffee. I wouldn't have been able to even get out of California if it wasn't for her. And now I was living a completely different life in a new county because of her.

If I was caught she would be going down with me.

"Nothing else was taken. Just my original birth certificate, my first driver's license and my social insurance." I managed through a tight throat.

And just like that, my cool, collected best friend seemed to crumple before me.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put you at risk. I never should've come here with you. I never should've made you forge those documents for me." I rambled, tears trickling down my cheeks despite my effort to keep them in. "This is so unfair and so selfish of me."

"Don't" Sophie said sternly, her voice almost unaffected by the news I had just dropped on her shoulders. "I was the one who made you come with me. And I would've regretted it every day if I left you behind with that disgusting animal." Her words were strong and stable, like the comforting hand she laid on top of mine, "I won't regret what I did for you, even for a second, do you understand me?"

I nodded my head and carefully wiped my nose, trying to keep wandering eyes away from us, "What do we do now?" I whispered softly.

I had been trying to make a plan for quite some time now. But I couldn't abandon my company. I had built it from the ground up, it meant everything to me. And I couldn't put my thousands of employees in jeopardy by walking away or selling to some massive tycoon. In the same breath, I was a sitting duck if I stayed, even if I wasn't going to my condo anymore. It was only a matter of time before he closed in on me. And on Sophie.

Sophie slowly stood up, our meeting obviously over, "You just worry about your gala tonight. I will start coming up with a plan." She dismissed. Her eyes were blazing with determination and anger. "And don't worry. I will never let him lay his hands on you again."

Five hours later my work day was over and I was standing in my hotel room, twirling around in front of the mirror as I assessed the dress that was hanging on my body. I had been delighted when I had bought the bright red dress a few months back, thinking that it was stunning and elegant while still being flashy and young. I had felt sexy and adventurous in it. Sophie had laughed in delight when she had seen it, telling me I had finally come back out of my shell and was turning into the woman I was before Josh. I had felt empowered and sexy all at once.

But now I had wished I picked a darker colour to reflect my downbeat mood. I deconstructed the dress instead, finding everything I didn't like about it. My deeper Hispanic skin colour had suited the gown, but now I just thought I looked red and blotchy in it, like it made old scars and acne stand out. I wondered if the way it fit to my body was angling more towards the scandalous side as it was very form fitting. While women with smaller breasts and less wide hips may have been able to look classy I worried that I looked too daring for such a conservative event. A fair amount of cleavage was spilling from the top and the slit on my right leg came quite high, showing off my strong legs. I thought about letting out the waistline a little, but that would take away the only slim part of my body and leave me looking more like a box than a woman. So I had to decide ruining the dress to look frumpy or keeping it tight and revealing.

I had originally wanted to keep my hair up, so that I could flaunt the off the shoulder sleeves and show off my strong back. But now I wanted my brown hair to be down and flat. Yet, it made me look so sad and so unkempt that I gave in and twisted my short hair into a small knot that somehow looked okay. Certainly not as glamorous as I had originally planned, but good enough to get me through the night.

I hardly bothered with my makeup, just foundation to hide any acne, a soft shimmery eye shadow, black mascara, and glittery lip gloss to make my rather thin lips stand out. It didn't feel like it was enough, I often wore more makeup to work, but I couldn't force myself to brush on some vibrant blush or swipe on eyeliner.

"You look lovely." Stanley said kindly, but he had been standing awkwardly in the doorway of my hotel room for at least five minutes now since I had allowed him inside. He was trying to be polite, but it was clear that he was confused by my lack of motivation to leave.

"I'm sorry." I said, shaking my head as if to clear the fog I had sunk into. "You're right; it would look quite awful if I was late to my own gala. It would look like I didn't actually support the cause."

"No one would really know as you aren't the host, just the planner." Stanley said, cocking his head to one side, "If something is bothering you I'm sure I could make a couple phone calls and come up with a valid excuse for you not to attend."

"You are a doll Stanley." I replied warmly, feeling better already. Someone having my best interests at heart always made me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. "But I think I should go. I'm very passionate about hearing impaired children getting the help they need and, you're right, I did plan the whole thing. I should be there to make sure it goes as well as it possibly can." I reasoned, more with myself than with him. "Come, let's go."

I strode over to Stanley, looped my arm through his and braved the world once more.

My gala turned out to be a wonderful success. Some of the most influential people in Ottawa were there, talking, laughing, drinking and bidding outrageously on auction items. The proceeds from the tickets alone would've been enough to give fifty children from low income families hearing aids for life. But with the amount that people were bidding I could guarantee that that number had moved up to hundreds. Surprisingly, the biggest draw for donations had been something trivia I thought would completely flop. I had purchased little rings that lit up and flashed once they had been turned on and when someone made a cash donation outside of the ticket prices or the bidding then they would receive a little blinky ring. All around me I heard women asking their partners to donate or they would eagerly run up to my swamped donation collectors- enthusiastically clutching hundred dollar bills. It was comical at first- to see influential business women and trophy wives flaunting a dollar store item- but soon the whole dim space was filled with colourful blinking lights and I couldn't have been happier.

And Stanley had been right. I wasn't the host which meant I wasn't the center of attention. It would've been foolish of me to attract so much attention and buzz around myself so soon, so I carefully planned everything from the background. Which meant that no one asked to see me, no one wanted to gush to me about how fabulous the party was, or what a wonderful job I had done. They all swarmed around a business partner of mine who grinned broadly and gave his wife all of the undue credit.

And that meant that I was able to have more than a few champagne flutes as I made my rounds. I spoke to a few people, most of them co-workers that had hearing impaired children and spoke at various points through the night, explaining what a big difference hearing aids and speech pathology had made in their child's life. They were all gleeful, some teary eyed, and it filled my heart with warmth to see them just as passionate and excited about the cause and all of the donations flooding in. Others that spoke to me knew what part I had played in the background and congratulated me on my great success. I just smiled kindly and moved on once the music started playing.

Couples moved beautifully over the space that had been cleared for a dance floor, under glittering chandeliers and soft lighting. I just took a glass of wine off a passing tray and sipped it as I watched, loving the sound of the music and the way that people danced so naturally with each other. My parents had always been amazing dancers. I remember going to events just like this with them and after my father had twirled my mother around the room ever so gracefully people always applauded madly, delighted by the spectacular show they had put on. They always seemed like they were so in love when they danced. That nothing in the world made them happier than each other, but it was all a lie.

"You put on a wonderful event, Celeste." A man said his voice just loud enough to be heard over the music.

He was a rather striking man. He was tall, still a head taller than me despite my black strappy heels, with strong wide shoulders, a proud chest that filled out his suit nicely, and a perfect posture. When he moved to stand beside me he moved so precisely it was like he wasn't even human, but I couldn't tell if I was seeing him as such because I was drunk or if he was actually as handsome as I thought. He had dark hair- a stark contrast to his relatively pale complexion- that was neatly combed back, a strong jawline, and vivid green eyes that matched his jade pocket square. I was amazed I hadn't noticed him earlier. He stood out very much from the old men who usually populated this sort of thing.

"Do I know you?" I said. My eyes appraised him greedily, but I took a long sip of my wine, trying to appear uninterested. I doubted it worked in my buzzed state.

"No, I suppose you don't, but I know you." He replied with an easy smile that almost didn't fit how piercing his eyes were.

"I see. And how do you know me?"

"You're a very important woman in this city, and even if others don't know it, I know that you set up this whole gala. You did a wonderful job." His voice was smooth and oddly familiar.

"Thank you."

"Come." He said, offering his arm to me, "Dance with me."

It wasn't a question, nor was it a demand, but I didn't want to refuse either way. In fact, I didn't even hesitate. I looped my arm through his and allowed him to guide me onto the dance floor wondering when I had last been dancing with a man I didn't completely detest. It felt like it had been ages. When we made it to the dance floor he settled one hand in the small of my back and clasped my hand with his other. I placed my free hand on his shoulder and smiled at him, feeling beautiful for the first time and immensely safe with all of the other people floating around nearby.

He moved well, and at a good pace. I wasn't the dancer that my parents were, but I was good enough to be impressive. And he kept up with me and led me well through the steps. He was a strong leader, but not over powering and very graceful. We didn't bump into anyone which was almost nothing short of a miracle and I was so relaxed and so in love with the way the music made me feel that I wanted to close my eyes and tip my head back.

But those sharp green eyes kept my attention on him.

"I feel like I've seen you before." I stated, almost certain that we had met in passing, but unable to place him, like he had been lost in some kind of fog.

"It's entirely possible." He replied simply.

"What is your name."

He said something that I deciphered as best as I could.

"Star. I don't think I know anyone with that name." I sighed, giving up, "I guess it's a small world and I may have met you briefly in passing."

"I suppose so." He whispered, grinning widely at me, like I had said something funny. But before I could ask what he twirled me, then pulled me back in holding me more tightly than before. I could feel the heat coming off his body in the small distance between us and our lips were barely more than a few inches apart, distracting me entirely.

We danced to several more songs. He was quiet, not saying much and asking very few questions in comparison to most people. But whatever he asked I always answered quickly and as honestly as I could, explaining my business to him and telling him when I had moved to Ottawa. He always watched me intently, never looking at his feet or at those around us. Those green eyes just stayed on my face, seeming to be captivated by me which made me giddy and anxious all at once. It felt wonderful to be the center of someone's attention, but the last person who had looked at me so closely was Josh.

"Thank you for the lovely dances." I said, slowing us to a stop as the current song ended. The alcohol must've made me bold because I slowly leaned forward and placed a feather light kiss on his cheek, still holding his hand, before I added, "You made my night."

"The pleasure was all mine." He called out, but I was already waking away, searching for Stanley so we could go back home. My night could not get any better than it already was.

****Huge chapter, what do you all think so far?****