Like everything in her life, Estélla Goldwyn outdid herself on the runway that afternoon. Her worries about not having a face to look for in the crowd were instantly put to bed when she stepped foot in front of the sea of people, every single one of them jumping to their feet and holding their hands above their head in applause for her, cheering and screaming her name over the sound of Justin Timberlake's vocals.

The roar made the hairs on the back of Esté's neck stand on end and her heart skip a beat. Her steps came effortlessly and the floor seemed to light up wherever she placed her high heel, adoration raining down on her like silver stars that she caught in enthusiastic waves and spins of her hips, flicking her hair over her shoulder before returning back down the catwalk.

Quick costume changes with seconds between her walks made it impossible for Esté to even dare to think about anything besides slipping out of one lingerie set and into another on time, and for the two hours that the show lasted that day, Esté felt happy.

She strutted down the runway like it belonged to her, and as the crowd cheered for her every time she appeared again in another ravishing costume with a dazzling smile bright enough to stop the pull of the universe, Esté began to feel like it truly did belong to her. She felt as though the entire world was beneath her feet and she held the keys to the gates, like the sun would rise and set on her command and the stars and moon would shine brighter if she so wished.

She blew kisses to the crowd and happily twirled beneath Justin Timberlake's arm as he sang to her with diamonds in his eyes, looking at her as if he almost couldn't believe he had the grace and honour of being able to touch her.

It was an ego boost that Estélla didn't necessarily crave, but one she inwardly acknowledged that she needed. Her feet were still planted firmly on the ground, the same way they always had been, but as Esté walked off the runway for the last time, she breathed in a sigh not of relief, but of pride in herself.

"Oh my God! You are incredible, how are you even real?"

Esté fell into the arms of Katy and Alicia, both of them gushing with excitement and rosy cheeks, wild grins and excited eyes. She relaxed against them and let her shoulders slump, grabbing a bottle of water as the three of them walked over to her vanity together, arms around each other.

"It wasn't bad?" Esté raised a brow and polished off the water in five seconds.

"Bad?" Alicia scoffed, "Are you insane? That was honestly one of the best walks I've ever seen, like ever. You were flawless, Esté, you blew it out of the fucking water."

A humble smile lifted her eyes and she embraced her friends again, almost shaking with excitement as a flurry of happiness and adrenaline swirled around in her stomach, euphoria flooding her veins and pulling a golden shade across her eyes.

"You need to see this," Katy said, pulling her phone from her pocket.

"No," Esté immediately said, holding up her hand, "I don't want to see anything to do with-"

"It's not that," Katy shook her head excitedly, biting down on her lip as she scrolled for a few seconds before turning the phone around to show her the screen, "You've been nominated for supermodel of the year, Estélla."

For the second time that day, Esté felt the breath get snatched from her lungs. Only that time, her jaw dropped in a disbelief that didn't skin her alive and leave her veins dry, it left her feeling weightless, feeling like she was falling into raptures of paradise through clouds of exhilaration, pride brimming in her blue eyes as tears welled.

"I-is this a joke? Are you serious?" She said, her hesitance holding back any premature excitement.

"Deadly serious," Alicia grinned, "Congratulations, Esté!"

"Oh my God."

She jumped to her feet and flung herself into their arms again, the three of them jumping up and down together in circles while they let out girlish squeals of delight. Her eyes wept then, tears of happiness falling from her lashes instead of the heartbreak she'd swallowed dryly earlier.

"Esté! Estélla! Could we pull you for an interview super quick?"

She excused herself from the girls who quickly grabbed her face to swipe away any mascara smudges and fixed her hair before letting her go with proud smiles. Esté followed the media agent over to a wall of cameras, standing with a breathless smile in front of the signature pink and white striped backdrop.

"Estélla Goldwyn here, fresh off the runway. Estélla, critics are already saying that your walks today will go down in the history books, what did you make of today's show?"

Her cheeks blushed red and she shook her head in disbelief, "I just did what I normally do, you know? I've been looking forward to this for so long and we've all worked so hard behind the scenes, I'm super happy with my walks and it's amazing to hear such positive feedback already."

"Speaking of positive news, congratulations on your nomination for Supermodel Of The Year, how does it feel to be nominated for such a prestigious award?"

She scoffed and covered her face with her hands for a moment, her smile not faltering while she dabbed away some fresh tear drops with the pads of her fingers.

"It's an honour, something that I always thought was beyond my wildest dreams. I can't believe it's true, I can't believe any of this is true, to be totally honest. I feel like my life has been a whirlwind this past year and I'm so grateful for everything, but this has just topped it all off, I'm speechless."

"Well we'll let you go ahead and get the celebrations underway. Thank you for your time, Estélla."

"Thank you so much!"

Esté blew a kiss to the camera before walking away, smile still radiating the pure elation that had illuminated her soul and her bones inside. She headed back over to her vanity, accepting hugs and kisses from the other girls backstage who wanted to share their congratulations with her.

The sense of community was whole and Esté no longer felt alone. She never really felt lonely anyway, but the reception from the crowd and her co-workers reinstated the belief inside of her that whether she had a man to fall asleep beside at night or not, she still had an army of people beside her, and beyond that, the world.

With an entire night of exciting plans ahead of her with the girls, Esté was certain that nothing was going to wipe the grin from her face. She was sure the feeling would be permanent, not thinking anything could ever evoke an emotion more powerful than the one pumping through her veins in that moment as she walked backstage, only the sight of a bouquet of red Juliet Roses sat wrapped in brown parcel paper on her vanity made her heart sink to the soles of her feet.

"What...where did these..."

"Get the fuck out of here. If she sees you, she'll freak out. I swear I won't hesitate to stand on your neck in these high heels Tony, I don't care if you're a superhero or not. I won't-"

"Would you calm down? I just want to talk to her, I need to-"

Esté's head snapped to the right when she heard the muffled sound of arguing from around the corner. She recognised the voices and more importantly, the aggression that undoubtedly came from Alicia. While hearing her best friend shout at someone would usually have amused Esté greatly, the person she happened to have by the throat with her sharp tone that evening made any remnants of a smile disappear in an instant.

Without thinking, Esté stormed around the corner with the roses hanging upside down in her grip, still dressed in nothing but her last lingerie set and a pink satin robe that sat untied across her shoulders.

Alicia was stood garishly in front of Tony, her finger pointed in his face as he cowered backwards with two hands held up by his chest in innocence, backing down from her menacing tone and what Esté was sure was a piercingly intimidating stare.

The hushed argument dropped from their mouths when the interruption of Esté's heels on the floor told them that they weren't alone anymore. Alicia spun around with a sorry widening of her eyes and downturned lips, shaking her head with empathy pouring from her warm touch that landed soothingly on her forearms.

"I'm sorry, I tried to tell him to leave, I..."

Esté just swallowed, shaking her head with a blink of a false smile that Alicia knew would've used up all her energy to feign, which only made her more angry at the man with nerves of steel standing behind them.

"It's fine, I'll deal with this."

Alicia knew better than to question her friend and so, she left Esté with a long kiss on the cheek before walking away with a heavy sigh.

Tony was stood in a black suit and white shirt, the top button undone with a silver buckled belt and patent leather shoes, silver cuff links and a matching Patek Philippe wristwatch shining from beneath the cuffs of his shirt. His hair was tousled in a stylishly messy way and he'd freshly shaven the stubble that Esté had noticed was growing a little long the week before, leaving him looking painfully perfect as he stood five feet away from her.

"What are you doing here?"

She watched Tony swallow thickly, his chest rising once and taking a few seconds to fall again. He blinked harshly a handful of times before lifting up one hand as he stuttered over his words.

"I...I came to see you, to support you."

"Why?" She said bluntly, the roses still swaying the wrong way around by her knees.

Tony felt sick. The coldness in Esté's blue eyes had never been there before and there was a hostility in her closed off stance and bitter tone. Her jaw was clenched and her cheeks hollow, lips naturally pouted and bombshell scent that reminded him of late nights and early mornings lingering in the air, kicking him in the gut over and over again as he stared at her.

Tony felt numb after Estélla walked out of his home one week earlier, and he'd not felt any different since. The sound of her voice breaking as she admitted how she loved him played on repeat inside his head, tormenting him day and night while he was forced to sit with the weight of the embarrassment he'd caused her, sifting through endless articles about his behaviour at the after party.

He'd always been able to take the heat of the press, but never had Tony been burned by the heat of a woman before. His relationship with Estélla was the first of its kind for Tony, the most fierce and passionate thing he'd ever found himself tangled in. It had kickstarted the furnace inside his cold heart and kept the fire roaring so long as she looked into his eyes with the same smile that had warmed him as a child, but the pressure to act a certain way and put up with certain things had landed on a man that had never known restraints or the word no.

Truthfully, Tony didn't know what the right thing to do was. He couldn't bring himself to pick up the phone for fear of her not answering and he didn't dare turn up on her doorstep incase she slammed the door in her face. And so, Tony made perhaps the worst mistake of his life instead.

While drowning his sorrows in a bar across town, the seat beside him became occupied by a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, a smile just as dazzling as Esté's, but without the soul. She was beautiful and kind and everything that Tony needed someone to be in that moment, which turned out to be exactly what he didn't need when he woke up with the realisation of the lit match he'd just dropped on his gasoline-soaked thread of a relationship.

He'd talked his way into the show that afternoon after waking up drowned in his own sweat and guilt, repulsed at himself with an unforgiving headache to remind him of the sin he'd committed the night before.

Tony watched the show from a private box, standing unseen high above the rest of the crowd with nobody else around him. There was excitement electrifying the audience and a fleeting sense of both nerves and happiness flying around the room, a sensation that struck Tony hard when Estélla opened the show.

He watched with a silenced heartbeat and parted lips as she walked down the runway, mesmerised by the confidence in her stride and the power in her wild blue eyes. The other models were undoubtedly beautiful, but none of them were Estélla. None of them captured the room and held it in the palm of their hand like she did, none of them stole breath from lungs or dropped jaws, made hearts skip a thousand beats or shoot and arrow of love at first sight like she did.

Estélla was the most powerful force Tony had ever contended with, and for the first time in his life, he'd lost.

"Because I..." he paused and lifted his shoulders, "Because you're my girl-"

"You dare say what I think you're about to say," she cut him off without hesitation, the words almost spitting from her poisonous tongue that Tony felt was slowly but surely killing him, "Was it over, Tony? I stupidly left your place last week thinking there was still a chance we'd work all of this out, that giving you some time alone might let you realise that you'd made a mistake. But then, right before I'm about to step on that runway, I find out that my relationship is in fact over through a picture of you from last night with a girl who might as well be my fucking clone. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Tony had felt ashamed before, but after standing in front of Esté and hearing his sentence read out loud with such force in her tone, the guilt almost choked him to death.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, eyes falling sadly with a tilt of his head and unstable frown, "It was stupid, and foolish and I wasn't thinking straight. I don't want this to be over."

Estélla had been fed a mountain of lies by men in her lifetime, and although she desperately wanted to find truth in Tony's words, the walls she'd built up around herself were too strong for even him to break through.

"You slept with someone else, Tony," she mumbled, eyes filling with tears as the hatred melted into sadness that pulled her life from her bones and soul from her skin, "You held her hand, took her home, laid her down on the bed that we..."

Tony drew in a sharp breath and looked away, closing his eyes tightly as he balled his fists, swallowing the rising lump in his throat over and over again, though it didn't move. He didn't want to hear Estélla say anything more, but deep down he knew he deserved to be reminded of what he'd done.

"And I was here with some hope that you'd show up today with a bunch of flowers, looking so beautiful, the way you always do," Esté continued, tears rolling delicately down her pink cheeks, "But not anymore. Now I just want you to leave."

Tony choked out a sob, shaking his head as he looked back up at her, an unbearable pressure crushing him from above as she stood so close, yet so painfully far out of his reach.

"You said you loved me," he said in a shaky breath.

"And you said nothing back," she nodded with a sad smile lifting her pretty lips, though the heartbreak behind her glassy eyes made the emotion haunting, "Did you get pictured coming in here?"

"No," he shook his head.

"Good," she swallowed, "Then leave the way you came in. I won't let you ruin this day for me. I can't, it's mine."

Tony let out a desperate sigh as he watched her dry her tears and lift her head, composing herself with dignity and strength; two things he knew he didn't have even a shred of left within himself.

"Esté please," he begged, extending a hand towards her, only for her to talk a sharp step backwards.

She looked at him for a long moment, gazing quietly into his brown eyes that for just a pure second, made her feel nothing but love. She was enthralled by him, by the freckles on his nose and the stubble on his jaw, the veins that ran down his arms and the weight of his hands on her body. She craved his voice and his lips on her skin, the scent of his cologne and his songbird laugh, his boyish charm and magnetic charisma, most of all the way he'd always looked at her like he believed in her, like he was seeing the sunshine in her while she saw the moon in him. They were flawlessly enamoured by one another, chained by devotion and lust deeper than the meaning of the word, tiptoeing around something new entirely.

"I've loved you since I was a little girl, Tony," Esté whispered, sighing with a fractured heart cutting her lungs, "So it's not just my heart that you've broken, it's little Stella's, too."