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Chapter 1 - Jenna
“Oh my gosh, what is this?” my best friend Brooke asked as our car made the final turn on the long, winding drive.
I shook my head, as surprised as she was to see the place my sister now lived. Still not quite over the shock that Katie was married to her best friend’s father, who was also, by the looks of this estate, a billionaire.
I knew Aleks Fokin was rich. I remembered his daughter from when Katie and I used to go to the fancy academy before our parents crashed their private plane and left us with nothing.
My sister had a tougher time than me, because she was always so constantly worried about me. It wasn’t great, going from riches to rags, and my first few years at public school were brutal. The place we moved into was small and dingy, and we had to get used to our Aunt Marjorie, who we barely knew at the time, but who’d put her own life on hold to make sure her nieces got to stay together.
Now I missed that old house that Katie had moved out of without telling me, even though it probably could have fit into one of the bedrooms at this palatial mansion. It was all happening so fast. Maybe I should have been suspicious when we suddenly weren’t so tight on funds. Katie assured me her catering business was finally taking off, though, so I happily moved out of the dorms and accepted the class trip I never would have been able to go on otherwise.
Our old house was rented to someone else now, and nobody asked me how I felt about it. Katie probably thought I wouldn’t care because this place was obviously so much better. It might have been better, but it wasn’t home.
“What’s wrong?” Brooke whispered, as if the driver who picked us up at the airport might be offended that I was clearly upset. “Aren’t you excited? Jenna, you get to live here now.”
I rearranged my face, which was screwed into a tight knot of trepidation, and forced a smile. My immediate reaction was to spit that I didn’t live there at all. I was only visiting for Christmas vacation. Katie would be hurt that I didn’t see it as my home, but she’d done plenty of hurting me by leaving me out of the loop for so long.
She was married, for goodness’ sake, and I wasn’t invited to the wedding. Didn’t matter that it was rushed at the courthouse. And she was pregnant—another secret she kept from me. We used to be so close, but she’d chosen Aleks Fokin and this new life over me.
Shaking off those feelings that I thought I’d resolved, I sighed. “It’s still weird, that’s all.”
Brooke tried to be sympathetic but was psyched to stay at such a grand place. I had to twist her arm to come down with me, because it meant missing out on lucrative commissions on Christmas Eve at the boutique she worked at, and also all the deliveries she would have made on the Dinner on Demand app she’d been driving for since she got her old beater fixed up enough to make it around the harrowing hills of San Francisco.
Not to mention all the studying we both did to stay on top of our scholarships at Berkeley. Up until Katie’s life changed, we both depended on that money. Now, it seemed like I was on Easy Street while Brooke still had to hustle and grind. Even more than me, because while we both had lost our parents young, she wasn’t lucky enough to have an overbearing big sister and a smothering aunt who’d do anything for her. She was strictly on her own once she aged out of the foster system, and even withthe subsidies she got, living in the Bay area was expensive as hell, and Berkeley was competitive.
The car finally pulled up in front of the sweeping entrance and I half expected a line of servants to bustle out like in an English-period movie. Brooke gripped my arm.
“I’m so glad I decided to come. This is going to be amazing.”
From some of the stories she’d shared with me, she’d had it way worse than Katie and I could have ever imagined, so I tried to conceal my anxiety and not ruin this experience for her. She saw right through me and gave me a supportive squeeze.
“Everything’s going to be fine. And if it’s not, just come back early with me.”
“Or you could just stay the whole vacation with me,” I urged, desperate to have her as a buffer if things got tense.
Which they surely would once I found a way to confess my own secret to Katie. She’d forget about dancing on pins and needles for leaving me out of her life changes and become the old battle ax sister who sometimes confused herself as my surrogate mother.
“Stop being an ungrateful baby,” Brooke said ruthlessly. “Things change, and maybe this is for the better. You’re never going to know if you don’t get out of the car and face it.”
She was right, and I needed to hear it. As I climbed out, nodding an awkward thanks to the driver as he held my door, Katie burst out of the wide, double doors.
She was glowing and as big as a house. Well, a normal house, not the one that loomed in front of me. She wrapped us both in a bear hug, instantly accepting my new bestie even though this was the first time they were meeting.
“Come on in. Do you want a tour right away?” she asked.
“Yes,” Brooke piped up as I glowered around the entryway.
“Where’s Aleks?” was my question.
Katie sighed. “You can beat him up later. Now, come on, let me at least show you your rooms.”
Brooke elbowed me, and as Katie showed us around the gorgeous place, her excitement started to rub off. Despite my lingering bitterness, there was no denying her new home was incredible. Well, our new home if I could ever get over myself.
Each room was more lavish than the next, with a mashup of decorating styles. Katie admitted she kept it like that even though Aleks urged her to redecorate any way she liked.
“It’s already so perfect,” Brooke breathed when she showed us the first of our rooms.
It was a baby blue dream, with soothing watercolor paintings on the cream brocade walls. Rich, glossy furniture with smooth, curving lines were enveloped in satin cushions. Even the spindly chair at the antique writing desk had a lacy pillow on the seat. Katie pulled long curtains back to reveal a balcony with a view of the back garden and pool.
