Just One Scandal (The Kingston Family #2) -Carly Phillips Page 0,1

cared for him, that much was true. But love, like her brother and his best friend, Jordan, had found with each other? No, Chloe couldn’t say she’d experienced that all-encompassing emotion.

In truth, love scared her, because her mom had loved her father so much she’d stayed in an extremely miserable marriage with a serial cheater and had lost out on the opportunity to embrace who she was and be happy. Maybe that was why Chloe was angry at Owen for how he’d handled things but not devastated over losing him.

Dammit. She lifted the bottle and took another long drink. She should have looked inward and called things off first, but who was she kidding? She never would have done it. Chloe was the good girl who always did the right thing, made the risk-free choices, and behaved as expected of her. Canceling the wedding wasn’t something Chloe Kingston would ever have done.

A knock sounded loudly on the door, startling her. “Chloe? I’m coming in,” her brother Linc called out.

She’d been alone in this room long enough, and she’d come to a decision, at least for tonight. It was time she told her family what she had planned.

“Okay!” she called out just as the door opened and Linc stepped inside, looking handsome in his black tuxedo. His gaze immediately zeroed in on the nearly empty champagne bottle in her hand.

“Not a word,” she threatened him, waving the bottle in front of her. “I deserve this.”

He nodded, his expression somber. “You do.”

She lifted the bottle to her lips only to find it empty. Oh, well. There was more where this had come from. At least the bubbly liquid was beginning to do its trick, going to her head and lifting her mood.

Linc looked relieved and she chose not to enlighten him that, by the time the night was over, champagne would be the lightest drink she consumed.

“I’m sorry, Chloe. Owen’s a bastard.”

“Yes, he is. He should have told me sooner, and he should have done it in person. But he didn’t and I have to handle the cards I’ve been dealt.

Linc nodded. “I’ll go out and tell everyone to go home.”

“No. Well, you can tell some of the guests to go home.”

She pushed herself up from her chair and ignored the light spinning in her head. She hadn’t had much to eat today, but there were appetizers galore almost ready to be served. At least that had been the post-ceremony agenda, followed by a three-course meal.

“What are you talking about?” Clearly concerned, Linc walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. “Mom wants you to come home with her. She and Aurora want to be there for you.”

She thought about spending her wedding night in her mother’s mansion-like house, her mom wringing her hands and trying not to cry for all Chloe had endured. “No. I want you to take Mom home. Take everyone in the family home.” She stepped aside and his hand fell to his side.

Linc narrowed his gaze. “What about you?”

Her brother wasn’t stupid and he knew her well. No doubt he saw the wheels in her mind spinning.

“You sublet your apartment and moved out. The boxes are in storage because you were supposed to live with Owen after your honeymoon.” He winced at the mention of more plans that wouldn’t be happening.

Plans she had no intention of thinking about yet.

Chloe drew a deep breath. “I have the honeymoon suite booked in the hotel tonight. I’ll stay here. After my friends and I take advantage of the party that’s already paid for. I’ll just call it my non-wedding party.” She let out a champagne-induced laugh and spun around, grabbing for the counter before she fell over.

“Chloe,” Linc said in his stern, big-brother voice.

Ignoring him, she sat down, hiked up her gown, and unhooked the straps on her too-high-heeled, glittering sandals. “I can’t dance in these,” she said, kicking them across the room.

Her brother, who always had an answer and a solution, appeared concerned and at a loss. Before Chloe could reassure him, he strode to the door, pulled it open, and yelled for his fiancée. “Jordan! Get in here!”

“Reinforcements won’t help,” Chloe warned him, letting out another laugh, this one more of a giggle. Apparently she’d had more to drink than she’d realized, and she’d always been a lightweight.

Jordan, a gorgeous woman with jet-black hair, wearing an exquisite emerald-green gown, which Chloe knew had had to be let out to accommodate her early-pregnancy belly, rushed inside. “Is everything