Page 46 of The Prince Who Loved Me

Now.She took a deep breath and went inside, up to her room.

Wendy was sitting on her bed when Brandi entered her room. Her hands immediately felt cold as she tried to shake off the anxiety that lodged in her stomach. “Where’s Mom?”

Wendy pointed to the mirror and tugged at her hair with her other hand. “She left that for you.”

An envelope sat stuck into the frame of the mirror, her name neatly written out. She would have said in her mother’s script, but she didn’t know what Carolann’s handwriting looked like, not really. Brandi went to the closet. Half of it was empty, as were the drawers Brandi had cleared out.

She fumbled with her phone. “I’m going to call her.”

“And I’m going to get Jordan,” Wendy said, tapping her tablet.

Whatever was happening had to be bad if Wendy was bringing Jordan in for backup. Carolann’s phone went to voicemail, the sound of her cheery greeting sending a pit into Brandi’s stomach. She hung up without leaving a message, then sat on the edge of her bed, envelope in hand.

The damn thing weighed more than a full oak barrel.

A tear slipped down her cheek. It was more than her mom leaving. It was the loss of Sebastien. Now that she knew how he felt, how could she turn to him for comfort now like she so often did before? She’d be using him.

Wendy set up her tablet on the dresser so Jordan could see them both. Brandi loved her friends, and Wendy and Jordan would listen to her, but she didn’t want their noises of sympathy. They had no idea, because their parents were all awesome.

In fact, she used to dream Leslie was her mom. It was much better than her reality.

“Okay,” Jordan said. “You ready to open it?”

She shrugged like she didn’t care. “What’s she going to say to change anything? I’d be better off not even reading it.”

Wendy encircled her with her arms “Read it,” she said. “We’ve got you.”

The envelope sat in her hands, and she sighed before slipping a thumb under the flap and ripping it open. There was a full sized sheet of paper in there, but the writing barely took up the first quarter.

“She says she loves me, she had to leave, and she’s sorry for what she’s done.” She barked out a laugh and crumpled the paper. “What she’s done. That covers so much.”

“Oh, honey,” Jordan said. “I’m sorry.”

“Par for the course.” She aimed for the trash can and the paper went soaring in.

Wendy gave her a tight squeeze, then let her go. “Do you need anything? Want Rob to write a mystery novel and kill her off in it?”

Brandi snorted out a laugh.

“Ooh, or Josh can bake a cake with her picture on it and then we can smash it into pieces,” Jordan offered.

“Make it chocolate and you’ve got a deal.” Her burden lightened, but didn’t go away entirely. Her friends made more noises of commiseration, and then Jordan spoke again.

“Next topic,” Jordan said. “What’s going on with you and Sebastien?”

Hello, whiplash. And damn her heart sped up at the mention of his name. She rubbed at her ring finger with her thumb. “Nothing.”

“Damn, I thought I’d catch you off guard.” Jordan’s gaze shifted to Wendy. “You win.”

“I have the advantage of living with them both.” Wendy elbowed her cousin. “You want to try the truth now?”

What did they know? “The truth is I had a date with a nice, attractive man this evening so you all can get out of my damn room and stop asking about Sebastien.” She bounced off the bed and opened her door.

“Ooh, touchy,” Jordan teased.

“Don’t make me turn this thing off, Shoenover,” Brandi said. “Now git.”

Wendy held up her hands. “Okay, we’ll let it go.”