Platinum (All That Glitters #3) (40 page)

Trihn brushed past him, rocking into his shoulder, and walked away. Lydia’s mouth was hanging open, and there were unshed tears in her eyes.

“He’s all yours,” Trihn said.

“Wait,” Lydia said. “Wait for me.”

Damon pulled Trihn into his arms and kissed the top of her head. “Are you okay?”

Trihn released a deep breath. “Yes. I’m glad that happened.”

“I wanted to say something, but I thought…everyone else should see.”

A slap rang out across the deck, and Trihn turned to witness Preston with his head turned to the side and Lydia shaking out her hand.

“How fucking dare you!” Lydia cried.

“Lydia, babe—”

“Don’t even try it. You lied to me. This entire relationship is a lie. You made me turn against my own sister when she was right all along, wasn’t she?” Lydia shook her head. “After two years, you still consider her your plaything, and all the while, you’ve been using me to get ahead.”

“And me,” their mother said, stepping out onto the patio.

“Lydia, you know it wasn’t like that,” Preston all but pleaded, losing his composure. “Mrs. Hamilton, of course I would never use you or your daughter.”

“The wedding is off,” Lydia told him. She was wiggling out of her engagement ring.

“What?” Preston gasped.

Trihn found herself gasping, too. After all this time, Lydia was finally seeing the man that she had chosen. She was seeing the person who Trihn had left behind all those years ago. Trihn was starting to wonder if maybe getting away had been the better deal.

“It’s over!” Lydia cried, pushing the ring into his hand. She hit his chest a couple of times, and when he reached for her, she shoved him away. “Get away from me. Don’t fucking touch me. I want all of your shit out of my apartment.”

“Lydia, you can’t do this.”

“You’ll find that I’m perfectly capable of making my own decisions without your input.” Tears started falling out of her eyes. “Now, leave.”

“Lydia—”

“Go!”

Preston opened his mouth to say something more, but he just slunk away like the rat that he was.

“And Mr. Whitehall,” Linh said, getting formal, “I’ll need to see you and your supervisor in my office on Monday morning. We have some…rearranging we’ll need to do in the marketing department.”

Preston’s mouth hung open, but he just mumbled something incoherent and stumbled away.

For a solid minute, everyone just stood outside in shock with only the sound of Lydia crying breaking up the silence.

Trihn finally moved out of Damon’s arms and walked over to Lydia. “Hey,” she said, pulling her sister into her arms.

Lydia kept crying hopelessly for a few more minutes before her tears began to wane, and she was just left with a pitiful hiccup. “I’m sorry,” she said, wiping at her eyes.

“You just dumped your fiancé. I don’t think you should be saying sorry to anyone,” Trihn said.

“No. I’m sorry for not believing you. I have never seen that man before. Not once. He was never that way with me. I just…I can’t believe the things he said to you and the way he acted,” Lydia whispered. “Do you think he cheated on me…besides with you?”

“I really don’t know,” Trihn said. She figured he had. It was in his nature. But she wasn’t about to say that to her sister when she was hurting.

“Yeah. He probably did,” Lydia whispered. “If he’s so nonchalant about you…then probably.” She covered her eyes and took a few deep breaths. “God, I am an idiot.”

“You just fell for it. We both did,” Trihn said.

“And the way I treated you…” Lydia shuddered. “I’m so sorry, Trihn. You’re my baby sister. I should have been there for you instead of assuming that you were lying to me. We were both so young and stupid, but it’s not an excuse. I was wrong. I just didn’t know it. How could you ever forgive me for all of that?”

“I already have,” Trihn admitted.

She hadn’t really known it until that moment, but it was true. She had forgiven Lydia for her callousness and bitchiness when everything had gone down. Trihn had been on the wrong end of Preston before, and Lydia had been blinded by it. Her sister was sincere, and Trihn had moved on. And since Lydia had now cut the cancerous man out of her life, there was no obstacle between them any longer.

“You’re too good to me.”

“No. I’ve just had two years to think about what would happen if this moment ever came about, and now, we’re here. I love you, Ly. You’re my older sister. I hate seeing you unhappy.”

“I was going to be married in a month. What will I do with the dress and the decorations and all the vendors?” Lydia asked in a ramble, seeing all the hard work she had spent the last six months doing unravel before her eyes.

“Don’t worry about it, dear,” Linh said. “I’ll handle everything. If we can’t return it, I’m sure there is a perfectly good girl in need who would want a one-of-a-kind wedding dress.”

Lydia hiccuped both a laugh and a groan. “You’re right. It should go to someone else’s big day.” Then, she burst into tears all over again.

Preston left in his SUV without so much as a word, and it was another hour before Lydia was consolable. Ian and Renée showed up at the tail end of it. Both hesitantly looked around, as if they were entering a war zone.

“What’s going on, everybody?” Renée said.

“Hello, Mrs. Hamilton,” Ian said, always polite, even under the circumstances.

“Hello, Ian, Renée.”

Lydia looked up at Ian and Renée through her puffy red eyes. “I broke off the engagement.”

Ian’s mouth dropped open, and Renée’s eyes were as wide as saucers.

“Wow, Lydia,” Renée said. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. No one else is.”

“Well, I’m sorry you’re upset.”

“She’s going to be okay,” Trihn said, rubbing Lydia’s back. “Still in shock.”

“Yeah. Shock that I wasted two years of my life!”

Renée’s eyebrows rose. “Okay. Well then…we were just seeing if you guys were ready to go, but if you’re not—”

“Can I go with you?” Lydia asked. “No offense, Mom, but I don’t feel like sitting around here, thinking about him.”

“Of course, honey,” Linh said comfortingly.

“Is there room? Am I intruding?” Lydia asked, sinking back in on herself.

“There’s plenty of room,” Ian informed her.

“And you’re more than welcome,” Trihn added.

“Okay,” Lydia said with renewed energy at the thought of having something to do. “Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. I’ll just…go pack my things.”

“That was…unexpected,” Renée said once Lydia was out of the room.

“Yeah.” Trihn nodded. “But also…
finally
.”

“
WELCOME TO MY PERSONAL STREET STYLE
—Clothes by Trihn,” Trihn said, spreading her arms wide for the crowd.

She was standing at the center of the runway with a million lights on her and hundreds of people watching and waiting for her designs to grace the runway. It was exhilarating and terrifying.

She kept the smile wide on her face as she turned and walked off the runway, as if she had been made for it.

Francesca passed by her with a wink just as “We Never Met”
started to play.

Trihn stepped off the runway and rushed over to the assistant who had been assigned for the show. The girl was a godsend. She knew her stuff, and Trihn was certain she couldn’t have put on such a big production without her.

It was incredible to stand backstage, even more so than last time. The thought that she would have her designs on a New York City runway for a fashion show had only crossed her mind in her dreams. Even if nothing came from it, the experience and realization of a dream made her hard work totally worth it. This moment was worth it all.

They rushed Francesca into the last outfit, and then she walked back down the runway. It was mesmerizing, and that dress always seemed to make the right impression. When Francesca made it back to the staging area, Trihn rearranged the girls so that they could all go and stand onstage one more time, and then it was all over. All of that work was for a whole three-minute song.

When Trihn was finished, Teena Hart was waiting for her backstage. She looked gorgeous in a sleek black dress with her hair stick straight and parted down the middle, falling to her shoulders.

She hugged Trihn. “You were marvelous.”

“Thank you!” Trihn said, beaming.

“Far exceeded expectations.”

“I appreciate everything you’ve done to help me get to this moment.”

“You put in the work. You’re here because you have talent. And even if you don’t win today, we’ll spend the next two years honing that talent.”

Trihn smiled even wider. “I look forward to it.”

Teena nodded and then walked away to speak to someone else. Trihn rounded the corner to a section of the dressing room and stopped dead in her tracks. All of her models were clustered together, and a bunch of the other models were all in a mob-like mess. She didn’t know if models were hurt, in a fight, or had completely lost their minds.

“What the hell is going on?” Trihn asked.

“Damon Stone is here!” one girl gasped.

“I wonder if that means Chloe Avana is here!” another girl said.

Trihn laughed and started pushing her way through the girls. “That’s enough. Go mob someone else.”

And then there he was, looking as sexy as ever. He was missing his signature baseball cap, and Trihn was shocked to see that he was in a goddamn sexy three-piece suit. She walked right up to him and kissed him square on the mouth.

“Is this designer?” she murmured when they broke apart.

The girls who had been surrounding them disappeared when they realized Trihn and Damon were together.

Damon laughed. “Straight to the point. I was told I had to dress up for this sort of thing, and I thought I’d surprise you.”

“Not sure if I’ve ever seen you out of jeans.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Now, we both know that’s not true.”

Trihn giggled. “All right. What are you doing backstage already? I thought you were out there with my parents and Lydia and the girls.”

“I brought you something.”

“Oh?”

Damon reached into his pocket and pulled out a Hershey’s Kiss.

Trihn dipped her head back and laughed. “You and your Kisses.”

“I said I would earn your kisses.”

“And you did,” she agreed. She took it out of his hand and popped it into her mouth.

“Well, I guess that was the warm-up. Let’s see if I do this right.” This time, he pulled out a medium-sized blue box. It was not just any blue. It was Tiffany blue.

Her stomach dropped.

He turned the box toward her and opened the top. Inside was a slender silver chain holding a crystal-clear diamond haloed in another circle of diamonds.

Trihn gasped and put her hand to her mouth. “Oh my God…Damon,” she breathed.

“I saw the first deposit for my earnings from ‘We Never Met,’ and I couldn’t resist. It’s platinum. That was my only requirement. You’re my platinum girl after all. Rare and beautiful. You should be wearing it.”

Trihn laughed softly. Her eyes were wet. She couldn’t believe this.

“Allow me?”

She nodded and turned around. He removed the necklace from the box while she lifted her hair. He gently placed the diamonds around her neck where it rested against the center of her chest. Once he clicked the clasps together, he kissed her neck.

“Perfect. Just like you.”

“You’re incredible,” she said, moving into his arms. “Thank you. It’s too much.”

“Nah. It’ll never be enough for you.”

Trihn shook her head.
How did I get so lucky?

“There’s one more thing I wanted to tell you before the madness happens back here.”

“Something else?” she asked, trailing her fingers over the new necklace.

“I got a call from my agent. They’ve been working to figure out what’s next for me while Chloe…heals.”

“That’s good. What’s the next big step for Damon Stone?”

“He thinks I should get a DJ contract in Las Vegas.”

“What does that mean?” Trihn asked. “Working clubs again?”

“Sort of. But instead of sporadically, I’d get a contract for a certain amount of time, and I’d be required to DJ there for so many shows a year. They think I could get a big club at one of the massive Vegas Strip hotels,” he told her. “More importantly, I’d be there with you and not away on tour unless I wanted to be.”

“That sounds incredible! When will you know if you’ll get a contract?”

Damon smirked. “Just got off the phone. It’s a done deal. I just have to sign the paperwork.”

“Oh my God!” Trihn shrieked. She jumped into his arms, and he held her there. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Well, I didn’t mean to make this day about me. I was just too excited that I would be back in Vegas with you that I couldn’t wait.”

“No, I’m so glad that you told me. It’s unbelievable.”

“It really is. And I can still write, record, and tour whenever I want as long as I meet the contractual agreements,” he said.

She kissed him and smiled. “The world is at your feet.”

“Just you. You’re what matters.”

“Attention, all designers, please report back to the stage,” a man said, walking around the room.

“That’s me,” Trihn told Damon.