Page 119 of The Princess and the Fraud

Annalise was quiet for a second too long. Then?—

“Can I be honest?” Annalise’s lips quirked like she was about to give an awkward smile. “I was kind of hoping Aaron would choose you.”

I stilled.

“You two just seemed so… I don’t know. I can’t explain it.Funny. Angry with each other one minute, passing secret looks the next. Yeah, I saw you,” she said when my jaw dropped. “At the fundraiser, at Caroline’s mom’s event. You two would look at each other like you were communicating with your eyes. I was hoping—well. I know. I was being silly.”

“I kissed him,” I confessed, the words slipping out like they’d been waiting their turn all along. “Aaron.”

I’d never seen someone’s eyes go so wide. “What?”

So I told her everything. I started all the way back to that night in June, the night before her wedding, where our paths crossed for the first time. I told her about how everything had just spilled out of me, and that when Aaron came back to Addison, my world felt flipped upside down. Everything I’d shoved down resurfaced with each word he spoke.

Once I started telling her about Aaron, it was like I couldn’t stop. Even the small things slipped out, like the way we’d played the piano together, and the way he’d held my hand as we drove back from touring my mother’s dream house. Things that might’ve sounded little to anyone else, but had played a massive role in the journey of falling for Aaron Astor.

I thought I’d be more embarrassed, spilling it all out like a river undammed, but it was more like I was playing a piece I’d never performed before. My words were notes, detailing a story of a girl and a boy falling for each other even though it was never meant to be.

By the end of it, Annalise was crying.Crying. They were silent tears that pooled and fell from her eyes. “Sorry,” she cried as she wiped at her cheeks. “I’m just—I’m—ugh.”

I used my sleeve to wipe at her tears this time.

“Let’s go to the hotel.” Annalise straightened like she was about to stand up. “Let’s go to his hotel room, break down the door, and shake sense into him.”

A laugh burst from me. “I can’t force him to want to marry me, any more than he could’ve forced me to give up my mother’s house. It was a decision I had to make on my own.”

“But he likes you! He’s making a crap decision.”

“But it’s his.” I swallowed past the sudden thickness in my throat. “I think it’ll hit me more later, after all is said and done. But it’s like… it’s like I can’t be angry with what he chose, because he already did so much for me. It’s like you said. Aaron sees things in black and white. And he has to prove he belongs, even when the people he has to prove himself to don’t care either way.”

“He’ll regret it.” Annalise sat in my words, her tears continuing to trickle down her cheeks. She was only quiet for a moment. “I’m going to call his father. Tell him that he sucks.”

“We could prank call them.”

Annalise perked up. “Want to?”

I laughed again, though this time it was strained with my own unshed tears. “You always know what to say to cheer me up, you know that?”

“I’m sorry I left you here, all alone.” Annalise pulled me into a hug, her arms surrounding me. I’d known Annalise was a hugger, but in that moment, I allowed myself to sink into her embrace for what felt like the first time. She was warm, and floral, andsafe. “I didn’t realize how much you were struggling.”

“How could you? It’s not like I told you.” I leaned my head more firmly against her shoulder. “I kept so much a secret from you. My mother’s house, the cello. I’m sorry I wasn’t honest with you earlier.”

“I’ve kept secrets too.” She pulled back a little bit then, excitement flashing in her bright eyes. “Want to hear something that no one else knows? Well, I mean, Michael knows, but no one else other than him.” Annalise laid a hand delicately on her stomach. “I’m pregnant.”

“P-Pregnant?” I gasped, looking down at her stomach. “Pregnant? But you’ve been drinking?—”

“I haven’t,” she said with a grin. “Mock-mimosas and water. No one noticed! I thought Caroline would’ve, honestly, but I pulled a fast one on you.” She squeezed my hands. “You’re the first person I’ve told. I was planning to surprise my mother this weekend, before we flew back to California.”

“I’m honored,” I said truthfully, my cheeks aching from how wide I smiled. “And I’m happy for you. You and your little family.”

Even though Annalise and I were never as close as Caroline and I were, there was no doubt that this friendship ran deeper. There was more pure affection behind it, clear in Annalise’s eyes. Caroline wouldn’t have thought to storm Mr. Roberts’s office to illegally acquire my address, all to come here and hug me. Annalise had done it without thinking twice. It made me feel horrible for not giving our friendship more weight through the years, but it also left me hopeful, knowing I still had someone on my side. And I was on hers.

“Come out to California with me,” she said suddenly. “We have an in-law suite—it’d be perfect for you. A perfect place to start over.”

If I were to get away, I don’t know where I’d get away to, I’d said once upon a time.

And I could still hear Aaron’s reply.I hear California’s pretty nice.

The memory caused my chest to tighten. “I don’t?—”

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