Chapter 218

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have nail polish in a shade of emerald green,” the manicurist doing my mani-pedi told Amy. “But I’m sure I have another color suitable for Miss Wilson that will compliment her gown.”

“That’s okay,” I told her. “Miss Gray was joking.”

“I thought you might want your nails to match your dress like mine,” Amy teased.

“Yeah, but your dress is pink,” I reminded her. “I’d rather have pearl white nails than any shade of green.”

Amy giggled again. She was feeling a little silly after getting massages and facials the day before the prom.

I wished I could match Amy’s enthusiasm for the prom, but she had Justin, while the guy I wanted to be my escort had disappeared from my life.

Victor hadn’t called or come by my office or the mansion in weeks. After running into Lana and Harry at Gisele’s, I texted him again, asking if he heard Alex was getting well.

Victor responded with a thumbs-up emoji, and he called Alex to congratulate him.

“I love spa days,” Amy said as her manicurist applied a top coat to her nails. “When we were younger, I would never have imagined I would be enjoying this kind of thing with you.”

“Me either,” I admitted. Luxuries weren’t something I expected to experience back then.

Amy sensed my mood, and she was trying to lure me out of my depression. But when the spa staff finished and left us alone in my room, she decided it was time for me to talk about it.

“You should go to Victor and talk to him,” she insisted. “You saw what not talking did to my relationship with Justin.”

“I need to accept that William is my future,” I said. “It’s not some kind of punishment. He is a great guy, and he’s gorgeous. I had a crush on him, remember?”

“He’s not the guy you love,” Amy countered. “I’ve seen you with Victor.”

“He’s out of my reach now. I’ll be happy with William. I care about him, and he's been a good friend to me,” I argued. “There are a lot of girls who would consider themselves lucky to have William take them to the prom.”

“Daisy, William is great,” she agreed. “But he’s not ‘the one’ for you. Victor is, and you know it. I get it that you’re grateful to William for helping to save Alex, but you’re both going to be miserable if you settle for him.”

“I’m not settling,” I said. “I am meant to be with William.”

“Daisy, what do you mean?” Amy’s soft brown eyes pleaded with mine. She wanted to understand.

I sat on the edge of my bed. “When it was time for me to choose between William and Victor, I couldn’t because I didn’t want to hurt either of them. So I asked the Goddess for a sign.”

Amy looked at me sideways. “Did she send one?”

“Yes. She sent a vision.” I reminded Amy about the time I collapsed on the road and was saved by a guy driving a blue car.

I pulled the bag of candy from my nightstand drawer. “Remember I told you that he left expensive candy for me at the hospital?”

Amy nodded.

I held up the candy. “Here it is.”

“You still have it after all this time,” Amy marveled. “That was sweet of him. But are you sure the guy who saved you was William? Has he ever mentioned it to you?”

“He’s never said anything,” I replied. “Maybe he doesn’t remember.”

“How could he not remember finding an unconscious girl along the road, taking her to the hospital, and leaving her a bag of expensive candy?” Amy asked.

I shrugged. “It’s possible.”

“Nah. I’m sure that’s something that didn’t happen to him every day,” Amy said. “You should ask him if he remembers it.”

“I don’t know. It would make me feel weird to talk about the crush I had on William with him.”

“Yikes, I gotta run,” Amy said after glancing at her watch. “I have to work tonight since I’m taking off tomorrow night.”

“Don’t forget to wear gloves to protect your manicure,” I said. “You don’t want Justin to see you with chipped nails tomorrow.”

“Gloves are uncomfortable, but it would be a crime to mar such beauty.” Amy giggled as she admired her fingernails.

Then Amy hugged me before we went downstairs. “Seriously, Daisy, ask William if he saved you and left the candy. If that was a sign from the Goddess, you must be sure.”

“Yeah,” I said and walked her downstairs.

I stood at the front door and watched Amy’s truck disappear down the driveway. I couldn’t stop thinking about what she said. She was right. I wasn’t positive the guy who saved me was William.

But who else could it have been? I saw William get into a blue car that looked like the one the guy was driving that saved me. It had to be William’s car because I saw him drive it away from the school one day.

“Daisy, honey, why do you look so glum lately?” Alex asked on his way out the front door.

After his third dose of the new medicine, he felt so much better that I never knew where he would pop up. I even ran into him in the rose garden yesterday.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I just feel restless.”

“You don’t seem happy anymore.” He put an arm around my shoulders. “Are you sure you made the right decision? Who you choose for your mate will affect the rest of your life. You need to make yourself happy, too.”

I kissed his cheek. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

I did keep his words in mind as I went back upstairs to my bedroom. That’s when Diana chimed in.

“Amy was right,” she said. “You need to make sure it was William who saved you. A sign from the Goddess is a gift not to be wasted.”

“I don’t know how to ask William if it was him,” I said.

“You and William are close enough now that it shouldn’t embarrass you for William to know that you still have the candy. Show it to him, and tell him how you got it.”

“And then see what he says,” I added.

“Exactly,” Diana said. “Now, call him. You need to know for sure. And the worst thing that can happen is you will have a chance to thank him for the candy …if William left it for you.”

Diana was right. I called William to tell him I wanted to talk to him about something, and he arrived within minutes.

Despite the smile on his face, I knew he was worried about why I called him to the mansion. “What’s up?”

“It’s a nice evening outside,” I said. “Let’s take a walk. We can talk by the pond.”

We went out the front door and walked around the mansion to the pond pagoda. It was still daylight, and the breeze was making ripples on the water's surface that sparkled in the sun.

We crossed the bridge and sat on a bench by the railing. I admired the views around us while William anxiously waited for me to speak.

“What did you want to talk about?” he asked. “It seemed important.”

“It is.” I organized my thoughts and began.

“My foster parents didn’t have a lot of money, so I had to work for my own school clothes. When I was in my last year of junior high, I had a job in a coffee shop. I mostly worked evenings after school and on the weekends.”

William listened as I continued to tell him about the time I didn’t have time to eat for over a day and collapsed alongside the road while I was walking to work and how a young man in a blue car saved me.

William put a hand on my shoulder. “I knew you had it rough before Alex found you, but wow! That’s just awful.”

Then, I pulled the bag of stale candy from my pocket. “I never got to thank you for leaving this candy with the nurses for me. It was really nice of you. Thank you.”

William looked confused. “Daisy, what are you talking about?”