He reached for a set of keys on a hook. “So, am I taking you to Loughlin House? We get alerts on our phones,” he added, when Sam glanced at him in surprise. “A notification already went out to the palace drivers, asking if anyone could take you there.”
Sam shook her head. “I’m not going to Grandma Billie’s. I just came out here to hide from my brother.”
“I used to hide from my brother all the time,” Liam replied, as if that was completely reasonable. “Did he do anything in particular?”
Sam huffed out a breath. “He let himself get pressured into this whole wedding, and now he doesn’t want me at his engagement party. And on top of that my sister suffered severe head trauma and doesn’t remember the past year! Sorry,” she added belatedly, “please don’t tell anyone that.”
“Of course I won’t tell.” There was a beat of silence; then Liam smiled wryly. “Man, I thought my band had a lot of drama.”
Sam chuckled. It seemed to loosen something in her chest, and she realized it was the first time in almost a week that she’d laughed.
“So if you aren’t going to Loughlin House, where am I taking you? Back into hiding?”
“I wasn’t in hiding.” Sam hated that phrase. It made it sound like she’d committed a crime, like she’d been forced to slink away out of shame and fear.
Then again, fear had played a large part in her decision, hadn’t it?
“I’m not going back,” she went on, in a softer tone. “I’m just leaving the palace. I can’t stay here now that I’m not a princess.”
“What are you going to do, lease an apartment?”
“I can’t afford an apartment.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Liam remarked.
Sam tugged her purse off her shoulder “This is all the money I have in the world.”
He watched, clearly torn between amusement and shock, as she opened her hot-pink wallet and withdrew a tangle of old receipts, a punch card from her favorite taco truck on Molokai, and a few stray bills.
“You don’t have a credit card?”
“I’ve been cut off from my bank accounts. That money belongs to the royal family, of which I’m no longer a part.” Sam tried not to reveal how much it hurt to say that.
Liam cleared his throat awkwardly. “I’m sure you have better options, but you’re welcome to crash with me and my housemates.” When Sam hesitated, he hurried to add, “It’s a coed house. Not just guys, I mean.”
If the Washingtons were upset that Sam had gone to Nina’s, they would be absolutely livid—not to mention appalled—at the prospect of her “crashing” with a palace employee.
Which was probably why Sam felt so tempted to say yes.
She’d felt isolated ever since she came back. Beatrice had literally forgotten her; Marshall was thousands of miles away; Nina was living her own life at school and didn’t need Sam’s drama.
But here was someone offering to help: making her feel a little less alone.
She looked back at Liam. “Your housemates wouldn’t mind?”
“We always have friends coming and going from our place. It’s like a revolving door of people who need to couch-surf.”
That sounded perfect.
“Are we taking the garbage truck?” Sam asked, and Liam chuckled.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Daphne removed her silken headband and set it on her vanity, which was scattered with moisturizers and makeup brushes and a silver eyelash curler that gleamed in the waning light, making it look eerily like a weapon. And really, these things were her weapons—the tools she wielded against the world.
Ever since that ominous email, she’d been on edge, jumping at every question from Jefferson or stray camera flash. At least the wedding was still on track. No one even mentioned the ultrasound appointment. The entire so-called pregnancy had been swept under the rug as if it had never happened, as if Daphne and Jefferson really were so carried away that they were rushing the wedding for love alone.
The only person who’d brought it up, strangely enough, was Queen Adelaide. When she saw Daphne after the fateful appointment, she had pulled her into a hug and murmured, I’m so sorry. But don’t worry, you’re young; you have lots of time to be a mother! And she must have spoken to the doctors, because now she was constantly trying to feed Daphne, scooping second helpings of potatoes onto her plate or passing her almonds when they were in the car together. It was endearing, actually.
Daphne smiled through it all, but she couldn’t stop thinking about that email.
It had to be from Gabriella. In the middle of the night Daphne would lie awake scrolling through Gabriella’s social media, past kissy-face selfies and photos of Gabriella flouncing into parties wearing jumpsuits and heels. She studied every picture with furious intensity, searching for some clue as to how she could get Gabriella off her back.
Part of her longed to call her old best friend, Himari, if only to think this through with someone, but Himari had moved to Japan. Fleetingly, Daphne let herself think of Ethan, who’d sent a few cryptic messages over the past few days. Messages she had studiously ignored.
A noise sounded at her window, and Daphne froze. Had the paparazzi broken into her family’s yard?
The tapping came from the side window, the one that overlooked the narrow strip of holly trees that ran between the Deightons’ house and their neighbors’. Holding her breath, Daphne ventured over—only to gasp in mingled relief and outrage.
“Ethan!” She fumbled to open the window. “What are you doing?”
“You haven’t answered any of my calls or texts.” He spoke as if it were completely normal to throw pebbles at her window, like a character from some romantic comedy.
“How did you get in here, anyway?” she hissed.
Ethan ignored the question. They both knew that it wasn’t the first time he’d snuck into or out of her family’s house.
“Can we please just talk?” Ethan took a step closer, vulnerability flashing across his face. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”
Against her better judgment, Daphne relented. “Fine.”
She shut the window and angrily unzipped the high-waisted dress she’d worn to a charity event with Jefferson earlier. In her frustration she flung her necklace across the room and it broke, scattering pearls over her floor like teardrops. Great. Now she would have to hunt them all down and have the necklace restrung.
When she stepped outside in black leggings and a puffy dark jacket, Ethan was waiting for her. “Let’s go,” he said brusquely, which was when Daphne noticed the motorcycle parked in the alley behind her house.