Page 92 of The Princess and the Fraud

“Why won’t you tell me?”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to lunch with him?” I countered. “Does Fiona know aboutthat?”

“Who cares what she knows or doesn’t?” Caroline huffed. “He isn’t going to marry her.”

“He isn’t going to marry you.”

Caroline’s expression locked up. This was not the way to handle her, I knew—and not the way Ieverhad spoken to her before—but I couldn’t hold back. She hadn’t been teasing that night, saying she would’ve been better than Fiona. And if I thought she’d brushed it off, forgotten about it, I was sorely mistaken. Caroline sniffed, trying to feign indifference. “Did he tell you that?”

If I were crueler—if I were a part of the Alderton-Du Ponte world—I might’ve lied and said yes. The spring breeze whipped through the apartment complex’s parking lot, far colder than it was before.

I thought back to the last time I saw Caroline, the last time we’d really talked, and what had happened between then. I went through the days, and with a sinking feeling, something snagged in my memory. “The flowers,” I said slowly, staring at her. “The baby’s breath hidden in the roses sent to Fiona. There was no card. Was that you?”

Caroline just smiled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She didn’t even bother to try to lie well, and didn’t try to conceal the almost gleeful look in her eye. It turned my stomach. “Caroline.” I came closer, reaching for her hand that hung at her side. Her fingers were cold. “What are you doing? He’s aguy. You can’t—you can’tpoisonFiona to try to win him. He isn’t some trophy you need to steal from her. You can’t just?—”

“I can do what I want.” She pulled her hand from mine, staring me down with a twist to her lips. “Gosh, when did you get on such a high horse, Lovey?”

“You didn’t tell me Grant was coming home early.”

Immediately, her scowl dropped from her expression, something almost like irritation crossing her face.

“I specifically asked you to give me a heads up.”

“I didn’t know he was home.”

I could almost feel my blood humming. “Grant told me he talked to you.”

“Well, he lied. Is that a shocker to you, given your guys’ history?”

Another deflection. “He told me about your brunch meeting with Aaron. At Pierre’s.”

“He said we went to Pierre’s?” Caroline arched an eyebrow. “Did yousee meat Pierre’s?”

I hadn’t; I hadn’t even gotten out of the car.

Caroline saw my uncertainty and jumped on it. “Wow. You’ll turn on your best friend just like that? You’d believe Grant over me?” She started walking to her car. “Cool, Lovey. Real cool.”

Any other time, I would’ve rushed out an apology. The idea of Caroline mad at me would’ve made me sick to my stomach. Instead, Aaron’s words were fresh in my mind, and they bolstered me, strengthened me against all the manipulation tactics I’d never noticed before.

“I like him,” I called after her. “Aaron.”

With her hand on her car door, she froze. The air stirred her hair, though she didn’t turn. “He isn’t going to marry you,” she said, using my words against me.

I lifted my chin. “You don’t know that.”

“You don’t knowhim.”

“I know him better than you do.”

The moments dragged on as she turned, hiding her face from me. My spine stiffened, the tension building as I waited for some sign of what she was feeling.

Okay,nowanxiety trickled in.

In the end, though, she didn’t turn around. “You might think so. You know what he’s showing you.” Caroline popped open her car door as if the conversation were over. “That’s what people like him do, Lovey. They only ever show you what they want to. And they’regoodat it.”

“People like him,” I echoed as she slid into her tan leather seat. “People like you?”

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