The words were so timely it was a soothing balm to Kim’s panicked heart.

His brow furrowed as he seemed to realize there really was something other than last-minute launch jitters affecting her mood. “Kim, what’s going on?”

Lily’s hot and bothered cries interrupted the conversation then and Kim was grateful. She didn’t want to answer, couldn’t answer, his question just then. She couldn’t tell Gabriel what was going on, not yet. Not when she didn’t really know herself.

She pushed the button to lift the convertible hood back up and give her daughter some shade.

“Everything’s fine. Let’s get going. Lily needs to rest.”

Chapter 20

Then

“Aren’t you getting in? The water’s amazing...” Colette, her translucent skin dripping in sea water, ran up to where Kim lay on a towel on the beach. She was dressed in a yellow-and-white polka-dot swimsuit she’d borrowed from Annie, which really accentuated her figure.

A week had passed since Kim had found that little journal full of motivational quotes and interesting tidbits, and since then she’d been dipping in and out of it, finding more stuff of interest to use for her social media captions.

And it seemed to be working. Whether it was the photographs or the captions, the new account was getting loads of engagement. Of course the fact that Natasha, who had a huge social media following herself, was interacting with it probably accounted for much of that.

Kim had to smile when she realized that some of her actual real-life friends from home were now following The Sweet Life account, and she guessed it had to be because of the content, as during their last interaction, Tash had again been sworn to keep Kim’s location secret.

In the meantime, she had again been in touch with Spencer, calling him from Annie’s mobile phone so as to conceal her location.

“Hey, it’s Kim. I need to talk to you,” she said as her heart began to race in her chest. She couldn’t believe she was doing this, but she was.

She was setting herself free.

“I’m sorry but I need to be honest. I won’t be coming to stay with you guys at all this summer. I’m not interested in this so-called arrangement our parents have,” she blurted out abruptly. “I barely know you. I don’t care how much money your folks have or about your titles. I just want to live my own life. I want to be happy. Do you understand?”

Kim waited for the response. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but what she received surprised her.

“Well, I don’t particularly want this either. I never did.”

“You didn’t?” Her heart lifted.