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Prologue
Charlie
ONCE UPON A time and happily ever after . . . words I grew up hearing from Disney and children’s stories, and words I’d always believed in. As I grew up and my reading material grew with me, my standards for my Prince Charming morphed, but never lessened. I was so sure I would find my Prince Charming, even if he wasn’t as princely as I’d dreamed when I was a little girl.
As I said, my reading material had grown with me.
I’d always thought every event in our lives—major or otherwise—was just another part of our story that made us who we were meant to be for our Prince Charming. I knew my story would never be found forever engraved on the pages of a novel, but still I waited for my love story to put all other love stories to shame. For my happily ever after . . .
Only to find out that none of it was real.
Chapter One
Charlie
May 22, 2016
“YOU ONLY GRADUATED three hours ago,” my older brother unnecessarily reminded me in that authoritative tone he often used. “Let’s just focus on moving you home, and get you settled there for a while. Then when you’re ready, you can look into getting your own place. I don’t understand why you’re trying to rush this.”
And I couldn’t figure out why he was dismissing the importance of all that I needed to do. “Because I have a court date in a month, Jagger, and I need to have everything done by then. I don’t understand why you’re trying to stall this.”
“A month? Charlie!”
“Jag,” his wife began, but didn’t continue when Jagger shot her a look.
“She’s barely giving herself any time, Grey,” he said firmly, then glared at me. “And when were you going to tell us that you set up a court date?”
“You should have known that I would schedule it for as soon as possible.”
“It would have been nice to know that you scheduled it at all.”
“You knew this was coming!” I said with a frustrated laugh. “This shouldn’t be as shocking as you’re making it seem.”
He blew out a harsh breath. “It’s not, and of course we did. I want this to happen for you, but you should’ve known that you would need time to get everything in order once you got home. A month isn’t enough time, Charlie. I would have told you that before today, and you wouldn’t have this deadline. We need to push the date back.”
“No,” I said decisively. “It wouldn’t be long enough if I took my time adjusting back to life in Thatch. But I don’t need to adjust to life in Thatch, I was only gone for nine months. I’ve graduated, which was one of the conditions, and as soon as I can, I’m finding a job and I’m moving out.”
Jagger groaned and scrubbed his hands over his face. “Do you realize how much easier everything would be for you if you and Keith just stayed with us?”
“Because that will look so great on me. Single mom chooses to live in back room of brother’s warehouse with toddler son because it’s easier.” I scoffed. “What would the judge say, Jag?”
Jagger didn’t respond, because he already knew.
I dropped my voice so it wouldn’t carry into the living room of my off-campus apartment, where my son was playing with Grey’s parents and my niece. “Once Keith started talking and saying ‘Mama,’ I had to spend over a year making sure he wouldn’t call me his mom until everything finally came out about whose son he really was. Do you have any idea how much that killed me?”
