Saving Ever After (Ever After #4) Read online

  Saving Ever After

  Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  Copyright © 2015 by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  All rights reserved by the author, including the right to reproduce,

  distribute, or transmit in any form, by any means.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  For everyone who has ever believed

  the lie that they are not enough.

  You are enough.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Chris

  7 years old

  My toes touched the first carpeted step at the top of staircase. I paused to listen for the sounds of anyone down there. It was all clear, so I took another step and another, holding my breath, hoping the soft creaking wouldn’t give me away if my parents were still awake. It was late, and a school night. I didn’t want to get in trouble for being out of bed, but Bas had come into my room whining that he was thirsty. I knew he wouldn’t quit and go back to bed until he got something to drink. He’s only four and can’t reach to get anything for himself. The only way to get him to be quiet was to tell him I would go get it.

  He’s come into my room almost every night this week. Some nights he’s thirsty, some nights he’s just scared or upset. He used to go to my parents’ room when he would wake up in the middle of the night. That was before Mom started getting mad about everything.

  Now, if she caught him out of bed, even if he was having a bad dream, she’d yell at him. He would cry and then Dad would get mad at her for yelling at him. She yells a lot. Mostly, at Dad. They argue all the time. Lately, she’s always mad at him, but sometimes she gets mad at us too, even when we don’t do anything wrong. I don’t know why. She used to be a lot happier.

  When I got to the bottom of the stairs, there were still lights on, so I knew someone was awake. I hoped it was Dad. I wouldn’t be in trouble if he caught me. I tiptoed down the hall toward the kitchen, but before I made it there, I heard angry voices. Mom and Dad were arguing. Again. In Dad’s office, just off of the kitchen. I crept closer. The door was cracked open. I listened. I knew I shouldn’t, but I wanted to know why they fought all the time. They always stopped as soon as Bas or I would come into the room, but we still knew something was wrong.

  Dad was asking mom about charges on the credit card bill. Mom liked to spend money, a lot. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard them arguing about how she spent Dad’s money, even though they tried to hide it from us.

  “Why are you going through my mail? You have no right to snoop through my bills,” Mom snapped at Daddy.

  “It’s my money that pays your bills, so I think I have a right to know if I’m paying for a suite at The Four Seasons when you said you were visiting your sister in Vermont for the weekend.”

  I remembered that trip. Last month, Mom went to go see Aunt Cathy. Dad took the weekend off work to take me and Bas to Six Flags. It was so much fun.

  “Cathy had to cancel at the last minute, something came up. I was disappointed, because I was looking forward to a weekend away, so I booked a room in the city for the weekend and treated myself to the spa and a little shopping. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I just needed some time to myself.”

  I knew I should go back upstairs, but I couldn’t make myself turn around. I hated it when Mom and Dad fought. I just wanted things to go back to how they used to be.

  “Don’t lie to me. This isn’t the first time suspicious charges have showed up, and you always have an excuse. I’m tired of it.” Dad really did sound tired. He’d been working a lot lately, trying to make more money for Mom. I think, so that she would be happy. She always complains that she wants a bigger house, a new car and more stuff. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with our house or our cars, but she said they weren’t good enough. She said that since Dad was a special doctor, we should have nicer things, but Dad always said that we were all he needed. I wished that was enough to make Mom happy too.

  She was getting angrier. I didn’t want to listen to them fight anymore, and I didn’t want to get caught out in the hallway, so I turned and quietly went back upstairs.

  “Did you get me water?” Bas whispered when I pushed open the door to his room. I’d hoped that he had just fallen back asleep while waiting, but he was wide awake.

  “No, I couldn’t. Mom and Dad were downstairs and I didn’t want to get in trouble for being out of bed. It’s really late Bas, are you sure you can’t just go to sleep?”

  “I’m really thirsty Christin.” He could never say my name right. It always came out sounding like a girl’s name. “My throat is dry and it hurts.” He sounded really upset. I knew he wasn’t going to let it go, and if I didn’t get him water, then he would just go downstairs himself. I didn’t want him to hear Mom and Dad fighting. It made him really upset every time they did. I think Mom’s bad moods were part of the reason he didn’t sleep well anymore.

  “Okay. I think I have a water bottle in my room from baseball practice. I’ll go fill it up in the bathroom and bring it back, okay? Just stay in bed and be quiet.”

  “Okay, I will.”

  I got the water bottle and filled it in the bathroom sink and then took it to Bas. After he got his drink, he curled back in bed and I hoped he would stay there. I slipped back into my room and into my bed, but I couldn’t fall asleep. I just had a bad feeling that things weren’t going to get better with Mom and Dad.

  I was right and, over the next few weeks, things only got worse. As much as Dad tried to shield us from it, he couldn’t when Mom was always picking fights. I think I knew it was coming the day Dad sat me and Bas down on the couch and told us he needed to tell us something important. He said that even though he and Mom loved us both very much, that Mom wasn’t going to live in our house anymore. I knew he was lying. Mommy didn’t love us, or she wouldn’t be leaving.

  They were getting a divorce.

  I was so mad at her for leaving us, that when she came home and tried to talk to us later that day, I shut myself in my room and wouldn’t come out.

  It only took her a couple days to pack all her stuff, and then it was like she never lived there. It wasn’t much longer after that, that I figured out the real reason she left us. She had a new boyfriend. She’d been seeing him while Daddy worked and we were at school. She was moving in with him in his big house. She tried to tell me and Bas about it, the big yard with the swimming pool and the big bedrooms we
would have there, but I didn’t want to hear about her new house. I liked our house here. It had a big yard, and there was a swimming pool just a few blocks away that Dad took us too all the time, and I didn’t need a bigger bedroom. Mine was just fine.

  Mom got mad at me when I told her that. She said I had to go stay with her some weekends and when Dad had to work long shifts at the hospital or go out of town for his important doctor meetings and to visit other hospitals.

  I didn’t like Mom’s new house, and I really didn’t like her new boyfriend, Daniel. There were all kinds of stupid rules and they didn’t play with me and Bas when we were there. Even though they bought us all kinds of stuff, I still hated it.

  By the time Mom married him a few months later, I’d gotten used to it, but I still didn’t like it, and I didn’t like that Dad was so sad all the time. He tried to hide it, and he made sure to spend lots of time with me and Bas when he was home, but I knew he was sad that Mom was gone. He never smiled anymore, except when he was playing with me and Bas.

  That changed when a new family moved in next door.

  It was a lady and her daughter. We watched them move in. They didn’t have a Dad with them, just like we didn’t have a Mom with us. Patty, the lady, was really nice. She baked really good cookies and smiled a lot. That made Dad smile. Her little girl, Jaxyn, was Bas’ age. She was alright, mostly annoying, but she was Bas’ favorite person in the whole world so I had to put up with her.

  Mostly, I just hung out with my friends from school and the baseball team, or I listened to music. Putting on my headphones and turning the volume up was the only way to drown out all the thoughts in my head. Like how much I missed having my family together even though my Mom wasn’t very nice, not like Patty, and how much it sucked to have to go back and forth between houses, and how Mom never came to my baseball games anymore.

  I remembered when one of my teachers got married and changed her name. We had to start calling her Mrs. Lewis instead of Miss Eaton. I thought it was weird that she had a new name, so I asked Dad what it meant to get married. He told me that when two people loved each other, they would get married and make a promise to love each other forever, and then they would have the same last name and be a family together. I thought that was pretty cool, but now I knew it was a lie. Mom and Dad didn’t love each other forever. Mom broke that promise and now she loved someone else. If I ever got married, I wouldn’t break that promise. Dad taught us that you should never break a promise. I guess Grandma and Grandpa didn’t teach that to Mom.

  Chapter 1

  Mia

  “Myles Standish Hall. I think this is it,” Sadie said, looking up at the large building.

  “Yep,” I replied excitedly. It was finally move in day at Boston University, and I couldn’t wait to start my college experience. Sure, it wasn’t Harvard, but after this past year, with my grades and the accident, I was lucky any university was letting me in. My Dad was the one who’d had his heart set on Harvard anyway, offering to call people and throw his money around to get them to take me, but I told him it was okay. I didn’t need Harvard. BU was still a good school, and until I figured out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, it made more sense to go here. I just wanted a chance somewhere, anywhere, that wasn’t back home.

  Anything was better than being stuck back in Seattle where I couldn’t escape my mistakes and the gossip. People still talked about that night. My now former classmates, their parents, the teachers, my parents and their friends and the rest of our family. Their disappointment and judgment was something I couldn’t get away from back there. I didn’t need anyone else to remind me how stupid I’d been, how stupid we’d all been when we climbed into that car on New Year’s Eve. I didn’t need anyone to remind me that two of my best friends hadn’t walked away from the wreck. I was the only one who had, which meant that everyone’s anger and judgment and blame fell on me. I was tired of carrying that night around with me, never able to let go of it. The guilt, the regret and shame.

  This was my fresh start. My chance to make my dad and Sadie proud. Maybe even my mom, if I could show her that I really had learned from my mistakes. Here, on the other side of the country, nobody knew who Mia Pierce was. It was far enough away that my reputation wouldn’t follow me. I was going to make new friends here, and I would be close to Sadie. That was the best part about being in Boston, and the only good thing to come from this past year. I’d missed my sister so much after my mom kicked her out and cut her off from the rest of us. I was glad to have her back in my life.

  “This place is huge,” Sadie commented as we made our way toward the door of the building. Someone exiting held it open for us, and we stepped inside.

  “I know,” I replied. “It used to be a hotel until the school bought it.” I’d done all my research on the place I would be living and going to school for the next four years. Sadie’s friends, Sebastian and Violette, had attended here and they gave me a tour over the summer and told me everything they thought I would need to know. Hopefully I could remember it all.

  “Fourth floor, right?”

  I nodded and we found the elevator that would take us up to my new room. There were a lot of students shuffling through the halls, some with boxes in their hands, some just hanging out and talking outside their rooms. We found my room unlocked and all of my boxes already stacked inside. Since Daddy couldn’t be here to get me settled, he’d paid for someone to move all my stuff in. It was a single room with its own bathroom, which meant I didn’t have to share my space with anyone. There was a vase of flowers and a key hanging from a BU lanyard, sitting on the empty desk in the room.

  “Wow,” Sadie blew out as she took in the room. “Not exactly what you think of when you picture a college dorm.” It was true that it wasn’t the typical tiny space, crammed with two beds and a tinier closet. This room was spacious and easily accommodated all the furniture my dad had bought. The bookshelf and entertainment center were already set up and there was a small, but expensive, modern looking sofa facing the entertainment center. The rest of my stuff was in boxes stacked against one wall.

  “Yeah, Daddy insisted I got the best.” I think he was just as hopeful as I was that I wouldn’t screw up this chance.

  “Well then, should we start unpacking?” Sadie asked.

  I nodded and we got to work. The first big box was full of clothes. Okay, so actually the first three big boxes were all full of clothes, and another was filled with shoes, which thankfully all fit in my oversized closet. I moved on to the next box, hanging posters, pictures and a few pieces of artwork on my walls, while Sadie started loading shelves with books and DVDs.

  I saved the prime spot on the wall beside my bed for my favorite poster. Pulling it from the tube that had protected it, I unrolled it.

  “Is it weird that I have a picture of your boyfriend on my wall?” I stepped back to make sure the Ashes and Embers poster wasn’t crooked. She looked over at me from where she was still loading my entertainment center, and grinned.

  “Not as long as I don’t catch you drawing hearts all over his face.”

  She didn’t have to worry about that. Ace was not the band member I was most likely to draw hearts on, or gaze at longingly and indulge in fantasies about.

  She went back to her task, pulling cases from the box and randomly shoving them on shelves. I noticed that she’d moved on from DVD’s to my video game collection, and it took everything in me to let her carry on with her haphazard shelving instead of going over there and taking over. I had a very specific organization system for my games, but I knew she would look at me like I was a crazy person if I went over there and tried to explain to her that they had to be arranged by platform and genre, then year and –

  “Hey, be careful with that,” I called as I watched her pull my custom, special edition, X-box console from its case to be placed on the shelf that would be its new home.

  She rolled her eyes, “Relax, I’m not going to break anything.”

&nb
sp; Let’s see her relax if it was me handling the precious guitar Ace had made for her birthday. I still watched her nervously as next, she revealed my Wii, Playstation and my mint condition, original Super Nintendo from their cases and then set all of the cords and controllers in one tangled pile.

  “Hey, can we trade? I can’t figure out how to get these curtains up.” I held them out. It was a lie, but I couldn’t take it anymore, and I’d rather not have to reorganize and move everything around to hook it all up correctly after she left.

  “Sure,” she hopped up and in no time had both sets of curtains up and my bed made, while I got my consoles and games sorted.

  By the time the last of the Mia touches were put on the room, it was almost six, and I was starved. “Want to get something to eat? We can check out the dining hall here?” I asked.

  For the first time today, Sadie seemed hesitant and uneasy. “Actually, I need to talk to you for a minute and then I have to get going. Ky asked me to check on Jax since the guys are still on tour and she could pop out that baby any day now.”

  “Oh, okay,” I said somewhat disappointed. Even though I was excited for my college experience to begin, I was also a little nervous about not knowing anyone. As much as I relished the anonymity here and the chance to be whoever I wanted, at least I knew what to expect from the people back home and what I had to do to fit in. Everything and everyone here was an unknown. Time to suck it up though. I took a deep breath and then plopped down on the couch. “What do you want to talk about? If you’re going to give me the no drinking, drugs and sex talk, you don’t need to worry. I want this to be a fresh start for me just as much as you do. I’m not going to blow it by going wild. At least not on my first night,” I joked.

  Sadie forced a soft chuckle and dropped down beside me. “No, that’s not what I need to talk to you about. I know you’ll do great here. It’s about Mom and Dad.”

  “What about them?”