I caught another glimpse of myself in the mirror and quickly looked away.
This is why we can’t have nice things, Rhodes.
Because we break them.
AS IF
RORY
When I woke up again,the light was totally different. Morning had arrived, bright and clear, making it impossible to keep pretending I could hide in bed. I blinked at the ceiling and saw that Rhodes was gone.
His side of the bed was empty. Not just empty, but cool to the touch. He must have been up for a while.
I sat up and pushed my hair out of my face, listening. The suite was quiet. No shower running, no sound of movement from the dressing room. Just the birds outside, along with the faint, distant sounds of the house waking up somewhere below us.
I stretched for my phone on the nightstand.
5:43 a.m.Three notifications from Genevieve about centerpiece options that I immediately dismissed.
One text from Rhodes sent at 6:15:
Board prep.
Philips will bring you breakfast.
See you at the meeting.
I stared at it for a moment. It was a perfectly reasonable text, but it gave no hint of his mood.
I set the phone down, then picked it up again. I should get up. I should eat whatever Philips brought me, put on something appropriate, and be ready when Rhodes needed me to stand beside him and be his fiancée in front of the board. That was my job. That was the whole point.
I was still sitting there talking myself into getting up when my phone rang with Grammy’s number.
I answered immediately. “Hi! Is everything?—”
“Rory.” Her voice was wrong, the tone she used when she was trying to hold herself together for my benefit. “Honey, I need to talk to you.”
My stomach plummeted. “What happened? Are Josie and Bo okay?”
“They’re fine, they’re outside, they don’t know—” She stopped. I heard her take a shaky breath. “Your mother called last night.”
I felt like the floor dropped out from under me. “What?” My mother hadn’t called since she’d skipped town.
“She called the house. It was late, after ten. The kids were already in bed, thank goodness.” Grammy’s voice dropped. “She’d been drinking, Rory. Or something worse, I don’t know. She wasscreaming. She said she’d been served papers, legal papers, and that someone was trying to take Josie and Bo away from her.”
“Grammy—”
“She saidyouwere behind it. She kept saying your name.” Her voice cracked. “She said terrible things, honey. Terrible things about you, and whoever you’re mixed up with, and she said she was going to come up here and she was going to—” Grammy stopped again, and when she continued, her voice wasjust above a whisper. “She was livid, Rory. You know how she can get.”
Fuck.I knew all too well exactly how my mother could get.
I got up and tore back the curtains, letting the sunlight flood in. The mountains were beautiful and imposing in the morning light, completely indifferent.
“She won’t come back,” I said. My voice came out steady, which surprised me. “She’s all talk, Grammy. You know that.”
“I thought I knew that,” Grammy said. “But I’ve never heard her like this. She sounded out of her mind, Rory. She’s so angry. She’s so angry atyou. She asked where you were, and I didn’t tell her much, but…”
My stomach sank further, which I’d thought was impossible only a moment ago. “What did you say?”
