Prologue
One Year Ago
Ebony
Ellswood,Georgia
I’m always amazed how small,seemingly insignificant moments can change the course of a life. Everyday choices and actions that feel inconsequential at the time can set off a chain of major, unpredictable events.
Switch coffee shops and strike up a conversation with a handsome stranger in line.
Take a new airport route, get stuck in traffic, miss the plane…crash?
Take the elevator instead of the stairs, get stuck for hours with the musky Old Spice IT guy who knows all the office gossip.
Send the text, and sexy gym guy responds immediately with,What took yousolong?
Romance, great coffee, a near-miss brush with fate, and the inside scoop are all potentially life-changing outcomes. Plus or minus the potential survivor’s guilt, but endless possibilities.
Consider the tale of the “picture-perfect” couple.
At sixteen years old, a West Coast swim sensation’s father takes a high school principal position, relocating his family to Ellswood, Georgia. The transition is smooth for him and his elementary teacher wife, but the daughter’s life irrevocably intersects with the small-ishtown prince,er…captain of the football team.
Be still her teenage heart, because the boys back home were just all right…butof coursethis boy issuperfine. Tall, muscular, golden-brown skin, nice lips. Not to mention wealthy, and the eldest son of Ellswood’s beloved late mayor and the Zion & Zara chapter president.
It’s a swoon-worthy new girl and small-town heartthrob meet-cute, practically perfect in every way.
Of coursehe’s gorgeous.
Naturally, she’s interested. In no time, she’s taking the long way to class just to smile as they pass in the hallway. She’s a sophomore, and he’s a junior, but wouldn’t it be perfect if he was into her, too? If, like in all those high school relationships in the movies, the universe conspired to make their worlds collide on this tiny pinprick on the map? I mean, she doodled her name with his last name, andLord, if it didn’t fit like a one-size-fits-one glass slipper.
That must mean something.
In her heart eyes, they just make sense. They’ll date and hold hands. As with all the best romances, tradition dictates he’ll give her jewelry or clothing, preferably a gold promise ring and his letterman jacket, which she’ll flaunt in the halls. And if thingsreallygo to plan, they’ll go to prom. Twice. His and hers. It would simply be magic at work…
More like a dream, she thinks.
So, imagine her surprise the following year, when the stars align at the hands of their own matchmaking mamas.
New Girl and Cute Guy start dating for real.For real!
If only she’d known his pompous, highfalutin mama was a full-fledged “I’m not one of your little friends” mama. That there is no way on Reverend Al Green’s earth she’d leave the fate of her precious son’s future and her family’s prestigious name up to chance. After deeming New Girl worthy, she hand-grooms her to be a Zion & Zara, poised and polished debutante…and future wife.
Ah, nothing turns a daydream into a nightmare quite like an arranged marriage.
Or waltzing in agiant white ball gown while discussing which fork to useduring the fish course. Or politely nodding while everyone askswhen you’re getting married.
The pair is living the picture-perfect fairytale, but the romantic spell is broken.
If only New Girl could go back and convince her father to turn down that promotion, she’d be home, swimming and doodling the names of forgettable boys.
But, alas, the fated house of cards falls.
After college, she and Cute Guy return to Ellswood. He’s still charming and still gorgeous, though spineless when it comes to his mother. She’ll make do. Two years later, their high-society engagement ends as they jump the diamond-encrusted broom, sweeping them into a lifetime of Lifestyles of the Elite and Loveless.
Now, he’s the charming anchor for KTEGNewsat Noon,she’s a premier event planner, and they’re nearing their tenth anniversary—yet every day feels like déjà vu. She works days, he’s gone most nights, and in between they smile for the cameras.
If the quiet walls of their six-bedroom estate could talk…ThankGod, they can’t.
