She knew everything a wife would know. But she would never be his wife. Or anyone else’s. Not because she’d turned cynical. Audrey still believed in happy endings. She believed in them with her whole heart. She believed that a man and a woman could get married and live happily ever after so long as someone else didn’t come along and ruin that happiness.

Which was exactly what Audrey had done.

She’d thought she’d been living her own fairy tale, but really she’d been the villain in Claire’s. In her quest to find her own Price Charming, she’d been borrowing someone else’s. Maybe even two someone else’s, she realized, with a glance at Naomi.

Audrey silently made another pact, this time with herself. She’d help these other women find a second chance at happiness. She still believed in love. Just not for herself. She wasn’t at all sure she deserved it.

Chapter One

ONE AND A HALF YEARS LATER

SUNDAY, JANUARY 5

Naomi Powell looked at the glass of brownish-green sludge in front of her face, then glanced up at Audrey. “Why is this happening to me?”

Audrey gave the glass a little waggle. “You haven’t even tried it.”

Reluctantly, Naomi took the glass and sniffed. “It smells like farts and dirt.”

“That’s the brussels sprouts and kale,” Audrey said, handing a second glass to Claire, who took it with almost as much reluctance.

“Cheers!” Audrey said, lifting her own glass and taking a sip of the smoothie.

Naomi took the tiniest of sips, following it with an immediate gagging noise, and Claire merely shook her head without trying it, setting the glass back on the table with a firm nope.

“Yeah, all right,” Audrey acknowledged, giving the glass a swirl, noting that the thick sludge barely moved. “It’s not great.”

“Why do you even have that gunk?” Naomi asked, setting the glass as far away from her as her arm would reach.

“Why is that stuff even in existence?” Claire added.

Audrey walked back into her kitchen and held up the powdered mix. “Super Fuel. It’s got approximately nine million vitamins and antioxidants and like a year’s worth of fiber. I told them I’d try it and, if it was any good, mention it to my followers.”