THE PREQUEL

Turn the page for a sneak peek of LAST CHRISTMAS, coming October 2008.

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THE GOOD GIRL

Ariana Osgood just wanted to go home.She knew it was insane. She was, after all, standing at the

edge of the ballroom at the Driscoll Hotel, playing witness to the most decadent party of the year.

The party she had circled in red on her social calendar three months ago and had been looking

forward to every day since. But now that she was at the Winter Ball, watching all of Easton

Academy mingle and chat and dance, all she wanted to do was go back to Billings House and be

with her friends. Her sisters. Inside Billings it was simple. Inside Billings she could just be.

Ariana reached up and touched her light blond hair, making sure for the fiftieth time that the

chignon she'd worked so hard to achieve had held. How could she have forgotten how these

events always put her on edge? Always made her feel hot and clenched and breathless. She was

going to say something stupid. Or do something wrong. And everyone would see. Everyone would

know.

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Which was why she had spent the past fifteen minutes leaning against a grooved marble colu

mn

on the outskirts of the room, just out of view of the table where her friends and boyfriend, Daniel

Ryan, were sitting. Sooner or later they were going to notice her marathon bathroom trips and the

current column-hugging, and she was going to have to rejoin their reveling. Better make these last

few minutes of invisibility count.

Taking a deep breath, Ariana let the sounds of laughter and clinking silverware fade into the

recesses of her mind and watched the scene around her unfold like a movie on mute. She

committed every detail of the black and white marble room to memory as if her life depended on

it. Noting details, cataloging a scene, always made her feel calm, in control.

There were her classmates, stiff and formal in their suits and dresses. The twelve-piece band

singing pop versions of Christmas carols on the stage up front. The light December snow falling

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