• WATTYS 2022 WINNER •
When Iris Monet married millionaire Jared Darling, she had only one rule - that he could cheat on her with anyone except the household staff. This arrangement of theirs would have gone on quite happily if she hadn't caught him...
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I have no idea where the hell I am.
I'm somewhere that's for sure. Somewhere that doesn't look like anything I've left behind; somewhere that's making me realize – this is a horrible, horrible mistake.
Because there's no way this is Heather's place. The Ryefair train station is nothing more than a wooden platform with one bench. To the left is a small thatched-roof hut with a handwritten sign saying TICKETS. The horizon is an unbroken stretch of trees, with zero skyscrapers or tall buildings; no tell-tale signs of a city. There's only one path leading to the train station that I can see, and it's a shoddy dirt lane meandering off to nowhere.
The night is utterly silent. There's no one around but me. Me, a blue fussy blob of fabric on a dusty wooden floor. A lonely blue fussy blob of fabric.
A cow moos and I jump. The beast ambles into view, tail flicking lazily. It gives me a stern look before lumbering away.
I've gotten the wrong address. This is the wrong place. The rain fucked me up.
Dazed, I take a step toward the hut, and as I do so my heel catches between the wooden slats and breaks. I fall like a giant balloon deflating, bruising my palms in the process. I've finally sobered up enough to evaluate my situation: that I'm out in the middle of nowhere, with nothing on me but a ridiculous dress, empty purse, and a dead mobile. Oh, and a pair of broken Jimmy Choos.
I let out a frustrated scream, a sound that echoes in the still night air. "Stupid rain! Stupid dress and stupid heels and stupid train and stupid – "
Footsteps behind me. "You okay there, miss?"
It turns out that even a station in the middle of nowhere like this has a night porter. I scramble to my feet, and almost fall over again.
"That train." I point at the train that's brought me here, that's just stopped. "When does it leave for the next trip?"
"Not until tomorrow morning."
"Tomorrow morning! I thought trains run 24/7!"
"No, they don't. At least, not the ones that come to Ryefair. We ain't as busy as those city folks." As he says that last sentence he gives me a top-down look.
"Why can't they run 24/7?" I snap. "Trains don't need sleep!"
"No, but their conductor does. It is midnight."
What do I do? What do I do? I had bet everything on reaching my sister. Now here I was in the middle of God-knows-where. My panic intensifies as I remember how I've given all my credit cards to the janitor. Shit!
I have less than a hundred pounds in cash and nothing else. It's not even enough to get me a night in a good hotel. Am I expected to sleep here then?With the cow?
