“No sane woman breaks off her engagement to a handsome, extremely wealthy, politically connected man,” Marian Farnsworth said by way of greeting. She stood in the doorway of Nicole’s apartment.
The same door Nicole hadn’t bothered to lock because she was loading her car for her move.
“Nicole. I’m speaking to you.”
She raised herself up from the box she’d been taping shut and glanced at her mother, perfectly dressed—as always—in her Chanel jacket and wool slacks. “I heard you, Mother.”
“What do you have to say to me?”
“You know as well as I do, sanity doesn’t run in our family.”
“Don’t talk that way about your sister,” her mother chided.
Nicole opted not to tell her mother she hadn’t been talking solely about her bipolar, mentally unstable twin.
“You need to call Tyler and beg him to forgive you.”
This, Nicole had heard before. It was still not happening. “Mother, I don’t love him.”
“So?!” her mother practically shrieked.
Nicole did not want an explanation for that bit of ridiculousness. It meant she’d have to look more deeply than she cared to into her parents’ marriage.
Instead she forged ahead with her own train of thought. “I’ll be out of here in another hour.” On her way to a new life very soon.
“No! Your broken engagement is humiliating for your father and me. Not to mention that Tyler’s mother is running for borough president and your father can use the connection!”
Nicole’s father, Robert, owned department stores all over the city. Having political connections to smooth away inspectors and the like mattered to him. Not to Nicole, and she blew out a frustrated breath.
The irony was clear. Growing up, she’d sought her parents’ approval and attention by being good and kind and perfect—without success. But now, when she no longer cared what her family thought of her choices, she’d accomplished her goal. Unfortunately she’d done it by acting out of character and regrettably hurting Tyler, leaving her feeling even emptier than before.
“Nicole, stop ignoring me.”
She hadn’t been. Instead, Nicole had been trying to avoid an argument. “Mom! I told you before. I am not going back to Tyler. I don’t love him. I should have realized it long before now.” But he’d been kind and caring. He’d given her everything she’d yearned for in her emotionally deprived life, and Nicole had mistaken her gratitude for love.
It had taken her sister’s downward spiral and the resulting meeting with a sexy small-town cop to point out exactly what she didn’t feel for her then fiancé. Desire, excitement, the pounding of her heart every time he was near. She’d settled for less every minute of her childhood. She couldn’t bring herself to do it in marriage.
She realized her mother was still staring at her with confusion and frustration in her gaze. “It’s better I made the decision now than after the wedding,” Nicole told her.
“Just when did I teach you that fairy tales come true?” Marion asked in disgust.
“Don’t worry,” she reassured her mother. “You never did.” Not that Nicole was looking for some improbable happy ending now, either.
But she was looking for a life of her own, one that fulfilled her own dreams and desires, and not those of her impossible-to-please family. So she was heading to the one place where she’d found a sense of peacefulness despite the insanity—no pun intended—that had brought her to the sleepy upstate town.
Nicole was ready for Serendipity. She just hoped the people in Serendipity were ready for her.
• • •
One of the things Nicole liked about Serendipity was the old-fashioned charm. Where else could you find a restaurant named The Family Restaurant? After spending the morning moving into her new apartment over Joe’s Bar, she decided to eat dinner out and go food shopping tomorrow.
She’d just finished a delicious plate of meat loaf and mashed pota
toes, when a dark-haired woman approached her from behind the counter. “Wait. I know you,” the other female said, her gaze narrowing.
Nicole met the woman’s concerned stare. She didn’t have to wonder at the worry in her eyes. The one thing she’d feared in moving here was being mistaken for her twin. But the pull of the small town had been strong, and despite Victoria’s actions, people here hadn’t judged Nicole.
Of course, it helped that she’d been willing to aid in finding her sister, who had been stalking a woman she believed stood in her way of getting the man she claimed was hers. When Victoria went off her medication, anything could happen—and had—and now her sister was in a criminal mental health facility, living with the consequences. Waiting for the disposition of her case to hear her fate.