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Ouch. That really stings.
Deep down, I’m pretty sure I made the right decision. I shouldn’t be with some celebrity that I don’t even like. Much less, marry a man who’s not interested in getting to know me.
Even if I end up a lonely, lifelong bartender who works all day and comes home to seven stray cats each night, being lonely is better than lying to myself. Right?
Well, that’s what Nolan would say if he were here right now. But as I’ve already discovered, Daddy Grump Ass is not my biggest cheerleader today. I hate not having him on my side. He shut me out, leaving me truly questioning where I stand in this world.
I turn my attention back to Rainbow. The smile I’m wearing is faker than fake. “Anyway, I really just stopped by to say hi. I’ll get going now.”
“Well, it was so lovely to see you, dear.” Rainbow hugs me again. Then she whispers so no one else can hear. “Never mind those busybodies, moonbeam. Ignore them. You don’t owe them a thing.”
“Thanks, Rainbow.” I squeeze her a little tighter.
I’m a bit wobbly on my feet as I leave the farmer’s market. I still have hours to kill before my shift and nowhere to go. Except now, I feel even worse about myself than when this day began.
Hopping into the nearest taxi that’s parked on Morning Star Way, I ramble off an address that’s all the way on the far side of town.
Then I collapse back against the seat. Exhaustion hits me as my adrenaline rush withers away. I’m hot. I’m shaking. My mind is spinning. I feel like I just got verbally attacked.
But were all those people right about me? Was that tabloid magazine right about me?! Am I just an idiot for not sucking it up and marrying Vance?
“Ma’am. Are you okay?” the driver is asking me. I think he’s probably asked a few times, based on his concerned tone.
“Oh! Yes—of course I’m okay,” I chirp. My voice is an octave too high. “Thank you so much. Of course I’m okay.”
Except that I’m really not.
I drop my head into my hands and it takes all I can to not cry my eyeballs out.
My chest constricts when the car arrives at the last place I called home, right up until I turned eighteen. It’s a small house, with just two bedrooms and a fenced-in dirt yard out back. But it’s always been clean. Comfortable. Safe.
When the driver cuts the engine on the street, curtains flutter and curious eyes peer outside. Before I can finish paying the taxi, the front door to my former foster parents’s home slowly swings open.
“Inez?” An older man adjusts his square reading glasses and squints at me from the doorway.
I can hardly restrain the lump in my throat as I rush up the stairs and grasp him by his rounded shoulders. “Chen!”
A beaming smile lights up his face. “My god—it’s good to see you!”
An ache radiates through my chest. “It’s good to see you, too.”
He leads me inside, his frail arm braced around my shoulder. “Lian—you won’t believe who I found wandering around in the front yard,” he jokes.
“Is that who I think it is?” she questions, her voice already quivering with emotion. “Get over here, girlie.”
The tears I’d been holding back break free when I see my foster mother sitting in the living room. Without hesitation, I rush over and wrap her up in a hug.
The Wangs are really good people with the softest hearts. I’m forever grateful that they ended up fostering me after I bounced through a series of lousy homes around Starlight Falls and the nearby towns. If I hadn’t found them, who knows where I would have ended up.
While the older couple is happy to see me, the overall mood inside is somber. My foster mother’s health isn’t the greatest, and she’s almost entirely restricted to being in a wheelchair now.
It makes me sad. The Wangs have always been loving. Even though they don’t have a whole lot themselves, they’ve dedicated the last few decades to helping out kids like me. Kids who felt unwanted. Unloved.
After a few more rounds of hugs, I head to the kitchen and brew some fresh tea for them. When I return to the living room, they ask me about my reality show adventures. Then, they tell me about their newest foster child.It warms my heart to hear that they’re now caring for another teenaged girl.
“Do you think you could maybe go talk to her?” Mr. Wang asks me quietly.
“Of course.” I nod. “But what’s going on?”
