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Then there was thefact that I’d known the Princes e are all young kids, maybe just one or two years old, and they hadn’t hated ,how to hate—it was so they learned

MyJacqueline had failed to mention e’d talked about the Princes and their families before

But somewhere in there, sometime bethen that picture on the as taken and the day she got killed by a drunk driver, soone off the deep end, burning her bridges so completely that by the tie her existence

It couldn’t have been long after that picture was taken either Maybe a year at most?

How could things have gone so bad so quickly?

Then again,bad when it was taken One snapshot didn’t necessarily

And as I was beginning to learn, a pretty facade could cover up all kinds of decay

The rest of the winter break passed without incident, mostly because I made it a point to stay out of Philip and Jacqueline’s way

We all see that although they wanted me at the mansion in theory, they found my actual presence a bit stressful

I drove into town a few tiet out of the house, and on Christifts in the world It was like a white elephant exchange, where you don’t know anything about the person who’ll be getting the gift, so you get the utterly bland and hopefully non-offensive

On the Sunday before school started back up, one of the house staff brought s back into it Philip was locked up in his study again—his good —but Jacqueline walked down the front steps with me

I turned to her aardly, twirlingMy body jerked in surprise, but I tentatively wrapped my arms around her

“Thank you for co, Talia,” she murmured, her voice low intilad you came”

The honest ehter before drawing away “Me too Thanks for having me”

She smiled softly “You’re welcome anytime Come back some weekend, will you?”