"Nova Sabine Addison! Elijah!" Julia barged into the house screeching loudly while brandishing the magazine and newspaper she held in her hands. One of the maids met her just as she started climbing up the stairs.
"Where are they?" she demanded as she grabbed and shook the maid.
"They are in Miss Addison's room ma'am." She said and reeled to the ground as Julia flung her away and ran up the stairs to Nova's room where she flung the door open without so much as a knock. She saw her niece huddled up in the bed while Elijah wrapped his arm around her and soothed her. They both looked up when they heard the door slam and Julia was not moved by Nova's tear streaked face.
She stepped into the room and slammed the door loudly before taking leisurely steps towards the bed and speaking softly.
"So that is what we are doing, having a cry party? Now, I wonder why I was not invited and I had to be blindsided by this!" Julia yelled the last words angrily and flung the magazine she held on the bed.
Elijah picked up the magazine and stared at the image emblazoned on the cover of the magazine while Nova glanced at it and dissolved in a puddle of tears.
"They have this too?" he asked grimly.
'Do they have it? He asks if they have it." Julia said to no one and laughed like a crazy person then leveled her gaze at her brother. "… imagine my shock when I the proud aunt of the future Mrs Knox went to pick up the newspapers that had the announcement of Nova's wedding to Caden but instead I am confronted with this, this disgusting images, Nova how could you??"
"Julia do not blame her, none of this is her fault." Elijah said.
"Oh goodness Elijah, enough! Please enough of this, your constant coddling is the sole reason for this disaster and I do not understand how you can believe whatever lies she has told you in defense of this." She said shaking her head at her brother's stupidity.
Nova wailed even harder at her aunt's words and she sat up as her father tried to soothe her.
"Aunt.. Auntie Julia iiis right, ththis is all mymymy fault. None of this would have happened if I if only i.. I I had not let myself been fooled by Stephen and now, now you are going to pppaay for my foolishness." Nova said wailing.
"None of this is your fault baby, it is true that you fell in love with the wrong man but how were you supposed to know that he was a trafficker and abuser under that charming exterior? How were you to know that he would take such ugly pictures at your most vulnerable and then use them at this most important time of your life?" he said soothingly.
"What are we going to do about this now? We have to sue the publication or that rat that leaked the pictures. How do we explain this to the Knox's? they are going to cancel the wedding, I will never be able to show my face in society." Julia said in a horrified voice as she wrung her hands anxiously.
"That is not the important issue here Julia, what is important is making Nova feel safe." Elijah insisted and Julia threw her hands up and started to pace about the room in frustration.
She knew that there was no way to get back from this. All her dreams of being involved in the biggest wedding of the century were smashed because there was no way that Callie Knox would let her son get married to a girl with that had such nasty images plastered over all the soft sell magazines in their city, it did not matter if she was a victim. Forget that wedding, she would be lucky if she got invited to anyone's house ever again.
She glanced at Elijah rubbing Nova's back and choked on the urge to throttle both their necks, that would at least give her some satisfaction and release the tension she was feeling. How did no one see how much they had lost? They were totally ruined.
Meanwhile Elijah was concerned about Nova, the last time she had gotten like this he had feared that he would lose her, it had taken him months to be able to restore her back to her health and she had never been the same after. He was afraid of how she was going to react to all this now and he wished that he had taken a gun to that Stephen himself when he had a chance instead of only pursuing the legal route because even though he was in prison he was still causing chaos for Nova all the way from there.
Their thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on the door.
"Who is that?" Julia barked angrily and the door opened slightly to reveal a timid maid who looked like she would rather be anywhere but here.
"Sorry to bother you ma'am, sir but Ms Knox is looking for you downstairs."
Julia's face went white as sheet while Elijah sighed and looked at Nova. "I will be right back honey." He said and led Julia out of the room.
When he closed the door he instructed the maid not to move an inch away from the door and more importantly not to let Nova leave the room then he took a deep breath and started down the stairs for what he was certain was about to be a very unpleasant conversation.
When they got to the bottom of the stairs Faye Knox was standing and looking at the window and Julia started to chatter anxiously when she saw her. "Oh Faye, what a pleasant surprise, we did not know that you were coming or we would have pre…"
"Save it." Faye said, her face hard as she stared at them. "… And it is Ms Knox to you, don't you dare take a familiar tone with me after what you have done." She added and Julia gulped from the viciousness in Faye's voice.
"Ms Knox, how may we be of help?" Elijah said and at last Faye turned away from the window and looked at him.
"I was of the opinion that you did not deserve this but my mother likes to be a proper lady so she insisted that I come and tell you myself, the engagement has been called off and the wedding is no longer going to hold on the account that you tried to pull wool over our eyes." She said, satisfaction evident in her voice.
"If that is all then may I bid you goodbye." Elijah said in a cold tone before turning away and going back up the stairs.
Faye turned on her heel and walked towards the door a little peeved that Elijah Addison had not even tried to grovel but before she could go far she felt a hand on her shoulder and she shrugged it off to see Julia look at her with a pleading face.
"This could ruin us, please talk to your mother on Nova's behalf, or I could come and try to explain to her." She pleaded.
"You should have thought about that before insulting us after we offered our hand in friendship to you In order to help your wretched circumstances, you turned around and spat in our face and now our name is trending all over the news cycle, social media and mud slinging blogs." Faye said and looked up and down condescendingly at Julia. "Good riddance."