Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
My eyebrows shot up. I hadn’t seen that coming.
Eva’s gaze dropped to the floor for a couple of awkward seconds, and then she fled back into the theater as another performance began, bumping into Caroline on the way—who was reading the program, completely unbothered.
Oh shit. My hand flew to the small of Allie’s back as Caroline’s eyes bulged, and I braced for impact.
“What the hell?” Caroline shouted, her gaze jumping between the three of us. “Tell me this is a joke!”
Gavin thew out some jazz hands. “Surprise?”
“No.” She shook her head and crumpled the program in her fists. “No. She can’t.” Her gaze whipped to mine. “Go get her. She can’t.”
“She is,” I said softly. Her panic cut me to the quick.
“We figured if you saw how good she is, you’d relent on your stupid rule,” Gavin said. “And it wasn’t like you were going to give her the option to show you, so here we are.”
“Allie, photographer?” Everett asked, nodding toward the door.
“I need a minute,” she answered, her voice shaky.
He nodded and tossed her phone. She caught it with one hand and juggled the bouquet with the other as Caroline turned on her.
“This is all you, isn’t it?” She shook her program at Allie.
“Hey.” My tone sharpened and I moved slightly, putting Allie just behind my right shoulder. “It wasn’t her. It was me.”
“Actually, it was me first.” Gavin preened. “She trusted me to take her to class. What do you think we were doing on Sunday mornings? Just wait until you see how good she is—Caroline, you’re going to cry. Seriously, I know you hate it and whatever, but it doesn’t matter what you hate if she loves it, does it?”
“You don’t get it.” Caroline shook her head and backed up a couple of steps, fear sliding through her eyes. “None of you get it! Do you think I like making her miserable? Do you think I want to have the same fight over and over?” She pinned a look on Allie. “Do you think I’m such a shitty mother that I would deny her joy because I can’t get past some spoiled rich girls from my childhood?”
“I did,” Gavin stated. “Except the shitty-mom part.”
“Not helping.” I shook my head at him.
“No,” Allie said quietly, worry creasing her forehead as she looked at Caroline. “You’re an excellent mother, Caroline. I just thought you were scared that she wouldn’t be good enough and it would break her heart, and showing you was better than telling you that she is more than good enough.”
“I know we went behind your back,” I added. “I’m sorry. We’re sorry. We just wanted to give her a chance. And Caroline, she’s astounding.”
“You fucking idiots.” Tears welled in her eyes, and she crushed the program in her grip. “I didn’t want her to fall in love with dancing because it would break her heart to stop. Sean and I had to make two promises in writing in order to have her placed with us. The agency called us out of nowhere and said they had a beautiful baby girl and we’d been chosen by the birth parents to adopt her, but we had to sign the biological parents’ conditions if we wanted to move forward.”
“You’ve never told us this.” My stomach careened like it knew we were all about to crash and burn.
“Of course we didn’t,” she snapped. “The document was signed under terms of nondisclosure.”
“What were they?” Allie tensed and stepped forward. “The conditions?”
“Besides secrecy? The first was that she could never do ballet,” Caroline told her, blinking back tears.
“Not possible.” Allie shook her head. “That’s simply not possible.” She looked up at me, and the denial in her eyes hit me straight behind my ribs. “Hudson, she’d never do that.”
“People do irrational things when they’re scared.” I reached for her hand and squeezed. “You don’t know what went through her mind.”
“She wouldn’t.” Allie turned back to Caroline, and my heart stuttered at the horror dawning on my sister’s face. “Lina wouldn’t do that! She loved dancing. She lived and breathed to be on the stage. She’d never limit her own—” Allie pressed her lips between her teeth and her eyes flew wide. Paper crunched in her arms.
“Her own what?” Caroline asked, her voice deceptively soft. “Her own what, Allie?”
Fuck, this had gone so wrong, so very quickly.
“Daughter,” Allie finally said. “Lina wouldn’t do that to her own daughter.”
“Oh my God.” Caroline staggered backward, pinning Gavin, then me, with an accusatory glare before shifting to Allie. “You’re her aunt. How did I miss it? She looks just like the four of you. You’re her aunt . . . and you all knew.” She folded her arms like she needed protection. “From the time she was a baby?”
“No. None of us knew about Juniper or that Lina had placed her with you.” Allie shook her head. “Not until May. Juniper figured it out long before any of us. She thought I was her mother to start with, but it’s Lina.”