My Stolen Identity (Complete)

Chapter 14 - The Truth Revealed

**** Elodie's Point of View - Saturday night *****

I stood in front of the full length mirror in my bedroom, staring at my reflection, thinking that I had never felt more beautiful. I couldn't believe how nice the silky black dress looked on me now that Keisha had helped with my hair and makeup. She had talked me into putting my hair up so that people would have a better view of the open back of the dress and she was right. It looked great like that. It felt more glamorous and sophisticated with my hair up. 

"I usually don't feel comfortable showing this much skin," I told Keisha, turning and checking out the dress from all angles. My back was fully exposed and the front halter scooped low enough to show the crack of my cleavage and the bottom had a slit up my thigh.

"You're not showing THAT much skin," Keisha laughed. "You're just used to dressing like a nun. It actually looks very classy but still sexy at the same time. That's hard to pull off, but you nailed it. Every woman in that room will be jealous of you and every man is going to want you. I guarantee it," Keisha said with a mischievous smile. 

"I guess," I said hesitantly, feeling nervous. I couldn't help but wonder if people at the gala were going to be talking about me and saying my dress was inappropriate. The last thing I wanted to do was embarrass Knox in front of all of his co-workers. 

Keisha could tell exactly what I was thinking. She reached out and grabbed my upper arms and looked directly into my eyes. "Listen to me. You have NOTHING to be ashamed of. You have no idea how beautiful you are. You're gorgeous. You need to hold your head high and wear this dress with some damn confidence! Do you hear me?"

I couldn't help but crack a smile. 

"I'll try," I said half-heartedly. 

"NO! You won't try! You're going to do!" Keisha said forcefully before laughing. 

"Okay! I'll do!" I nodded with a smile and we both laughed. 

There was a knock at the door and Keisha yelled, "Just a minute!" before running to her room really fast and coming back with a white pearl choker. 

"See what this looks like with it," she said, helping me put it on. 

"It's perfect," I told her with a smile, before giving Keisha a hug and saying, "Thank you." 

I walked over and opened the door and there stood Knox in a black and white tuxedo and he looked like a model from a magazine. He was so ridiculously handsome it made my heart skip a beat. His brown hair had a fresh haircut. The front still swooped over his forehead but the back and sides were short and clean. For some reason it made his blue eyes stand out even more. His square jaw line was now cleanly shaven and even though I loved his usual sexy stubble, this looked even better. 

Seeing the way his eyes lit up when he saw me gave me butterflies in my stomach and I smiled shyly and looked down at the ground. 

"Wow," he said in awe, looking me up and down as I did a slow spin, showing him the back of the dress. "You look incredible." He swallowed hard, rubbing the back of his neck and I wondered what he was thinking. 

I cleared my throat and said, "You look great too. You look really nice in a suit." Really nice was a huge understatement. I don't think it would have been possible for anyone to look more handsome than he did right then in that moment. 

"Wait! Before you guys leave I want some pictures!" Keisha shouted, breaking us out of the awkward tension.   

We posed together for a few smiling pictures with Knox standing beside me with his arm around my waist. That made my heart beat faster and I became very aware of my shallow breath and the smell of his cologne. As soon as Keisha was done taking pictures I immediately stepped away from him, before grabbing my things and heading towards the door. He put his hand on the bare skin that was exposed at the small of my back as we walked out the door and that feeling gave me a chill down my spine and goosebumps popped up on my arm. Maybe going with him to this dance wasn't such a good idea after all.