Finding Forever(49)

“I quite understand,” Liam replied. “She’s utterly lacking in manners, she dresses inappropriately, and she seems to have no sense of how to behave at such a function.”

“I don’t know how she got invited in the first place,” Frederick said with a sigh.

“If only there were a way to uninvite her, Father.”

“Yes, it’s too bad that it’s impossible under the circumstances, son. We’ll just try to tuck her away in some corner. Perhaps she’ll be able to behave for one evening.”

“I suppose that’s the best we can hope for,” Liam told him.

Whitney stood frozen outside the door. She knew she was nobody special, but she felt she’d grown during the time she’d spent with the Feltons. Liam had never acted embarrassed to be with her. But maybe this was the biggest of their insurmountable troubles. It was huge.

Unable to listen for even a moment longer, she ran down the corridors to the safety of her room and locked the door. She lay there crying for a long while, but she somehow managed to pick herself up.

Dammit. Screw them all. She refused to shed another tear over this pack of snobs.

If they were simply tolerating her for the sake of her niece and nephew, she couldn’t stay there any longer. Maybe Liam thought of her only as an amusement, and maybe all the things he’d said to her in the last several weeks were lies. How freaking obvious. It was a way for him to work out the custody situation without taking her to court and — what was the expression? — airing dirty laundry.

How could she have been so wrong about him? She should have realized, though, that someone like him didn’t fall for girls of her social class. Her lack of class. That happened only in her romance books, not in real life.

Whitney started packing up her things, and that didn’t take long. She then went to find the kids. She didn’t know exactly where she would go when she left, but she knew she had to get out of this place. The children were clearly benefiting from being with the Feltons even if she wasn’t. So she’d have to find a place nearby. But that wouldn’t be easy, especially since things were so much more expensive on this side of the country.

Though being away from the kids for even a bit would rip her apart, she couldn’t take them away from here — they were doing so well. She’d get a place for all of them, and then, when the children were with the Feltons, she wouldn’t have to be around. The two men didn’t have to love her to love Brayden and Ally.

She found her nephew first. He was in his room, looking so handsome and so happy. He was smiling every day now, so she could never regret the time she’d spent at this mansion.

“Can I talk to you for a minute, darling?”

He beamed at her. “Of course, Aunt Whitney.”

“I have to leave for a little while, but I just want to let you know that you can call me anytime, and I’ll be back for you really soon.”

Brayden stared at her. “But why do you have to leave?”

“I have to get back to the real world. This place is amazing, but it’s not my home. This is your family, and you need time to bond with them, so I don’t want to take you away from that. But it’s not my family.” She was fighting tears as she spoke.

“It won’t be the same without you,” he said, and he sounded more like a child than the young man he was becoming.

“I’m so proud of you, Brayden. You’ve grown so much since we got here. I know your parents are looking down on you and feeling so happy.”

“I love you, Aunt Whitney. Please don’t go.”

“I don’t want to leave you. I really don’t. But right now this is what’s best for me,” she said. The ache was growing worse by the minute.

“Is this just because you don’t want us anymore?”

She clutched him to her and held on tight. This was the last thing she wanted him to believe.

“Never. I only ever want what’s best for you. I promise.”

He was silent for a few moments, his young eyes full of too much knowledge of things he should know nothing about. Her heart was breaking all over again.

“Please promise, too, that you won’t be away for long,” he finally said.

She loved hearing those words. It made her feel as if she hadn’t completely failed. “I promise, Brayden,” she told him. “And that’s a promise I guarantee I will keep.”

“Aunt Whitney, you aren’t ready for dinner,” Ally said as she came into her brother’s room.

“I won’t be able to make it tonight, sweetie,” Whitney told her niece.

“Are you not feeling good?” the little girl asked.