A/N: Hello everyone! I'm hoping to finish writing the last couple of chapters for TMMM this weekend so I thought I'd keep the distractions away by posting a new chapter to get you by.

I was very touched by many of your reactions from the last chapter. I thought it would bore some of you but as it turns out, many of you like the story beyond Charlotte and Brandon's romance. But fear not, Brandon is back in this chapter.

Hope you enjoy!

***

After I dropped off Layla at her house that day, I didn’t hear much from her for the rest of the week.

She took herself off somewhere and just called into the TV interview after telling the station that she had some family emergency to attend to.

Layla had a big, ugly mark on her face. She couldn’t show up without having to explain a lot of things, and despite of the resolve she’d shown that day, she was probably not ready to confess to the world that she’d married a brute.

While in hiding though, she emailed in a lot of instructions for the Championettes so we could all stay on track with the fundraiser preparations.

The fact that none of the other members seemed fazed about it bothered me.

I had a feeling this wasn’t the first time that Layla literally didn’t show her face for a while because they seemed used to it.

The realization only angered me more.

I was very angry at Don, and I was a little angry at Layla because I thought after the conversation we had in the car, she would start doing something.

Because I didn’t think she’d just lie there and let herself bleed to death. I thought she’d be pissed off enough to get herself back up on her feet and start fighting back.

I’d talked to Brandon about temporarily offering my house to a family friend and his teenage charge. I didn’t get to discuss details with Layla that day so I didn’t know exactly what to tell Brandon except for a vague explanation that someone I knew was in need of a place to stay.

All he’d asked me was if there was anything he could do, and all I’d told him was that this was more than enough for now. It had to be because it was more than a week later and Layla was still MIA.

I didn’t want to think about the possibility that something horrible had happened to her and Riley. I’d sent her an short email asking if she and the boy were alright and she’d replied with a very succinct ‘Yes’.

I had a few choice words to respond with but I backed off. I might have already pushed her too far that day we talked in the car. If I pushed her any farther, she might completely shut out anyone who can help her get away from Don.

When the people you trusted let you down so many times, what’s to make you think the next person to come along wasn’t just getting in line to do the same?

Preferring anything else to my grim contemplations, I kept myself busy with the Championettes’ upcoming Art Appreciation dinner this weekend.

I’d become good at distraction.

I didn’t want to think about Layla’s predicament or my own guilt which continued to keep me away from the people whose trust I’d violated.

When you’ve let down the people who trusted you, what’s to make you think they’re going to give you a second chance?

I kept myself so preoccupied that it didn’t occur to me that it was, out of the blue, my twentieth birthday.

Brandon had surprised me in the morning with a thorough lovemaking followed by an elaborate breakfast in bed.

He promised me a romantic evening before promptly leaving for the office.

I was a little bit disappointed that he wasn’t spending the entire day with me but then I quickly reminded myself that the man had big responsibilities.

In his absence, I got a delivery of a few dozen flowers of an assorted variety, a few boxes of the fanciest chocolates in the world money could buy, and a jaw-dropping set of sparkling diamond jewelry.

Compared to the last few birthdays I could remember in recent years, when I’d spent the special occasion either bussing tables or dining on a stale granola bar in an all-too-quiet kitchen, today was kicking ass so far.

I’d spent the early afternoon reading and responding to several happy birthday emails from old friends, prepping up for my evening with Brandon, showering, doing my hair, my nails, and gobbling up some chocolate here and there as I tried on several dresses for tonight’s fancy dinner.

“Look at you,” I told myself as I stood in front of the mirror in a bright aquamarine jersey dress that looked elegantly sexy but offered warmth and pop of cheerful color in the dull gray and slight chill of the fall season. Paired up with black ankle booties, it looked sophisticated but edgy. “Who would ever thought you’d be twenty and standing on top of the world?”

While I certainly never imagined anything like this, I assumed that being up here would feel... a little less lonely.

My smile faded as I turned away from the mirror and walked to a chaise lounge by the huge glass window.

I had a fortune, the best and most expensive dresses and trinkets money could buy, a fortress in the sky and a prince of a husband.

I wonder if I’ll ever stop feeling like an impostor. The lie that put the pauper in the princess’s tower is the same lie that locked her away from everyone else.

I missed my family and friends.

As cheesy as it sounded, I would trade the material riches of my kingdom for a chance at reclaiming the trust of those who knew I came from the scullery yet treated me like I deserved a place under the sun.

Just like in any fairy tale, what good was a palace with no family and friends to fill the halls with conversation and laughter? The echo of my own voice was no company. It only served to remind me of the price I paid for one lie that gave me everything yet cost me everyone I cared about.

Yes, I had Brandon, but the evidence of his love was also evidence of what he’d given up for me. He’d reassured me that he could come to terms with the wedge I’d driven between him and his family, but could I?

I hated the guilt but worse, I hated sharing it with someone who didn’t deserve it.

How can someone be so happy yet be so sad at the same time? And how long will it be before one outweighed the other?

It was an ironic day to feel maudlin but that was precisely how I was feeling the moment my cellphone blared with a rudely cheerful ringtone.

I stared at the screen with a frown.

It was Jake.

My stomach churned as I recalled the variety of expressions on his face that day he stood witness to mine and Brandon’s confession.

He was one of the first people to look at me and decide I was worthy. How do I face him after proving to him how wrong he was?

I debated for another moment while the phone continued to ring in my hand.

I’m unworthy of his trust but he’s worthy of mine. Trust that he’s the good man you know him to be.

“Hello?”

“Charlotte! Thank God you answered,” he said in a rush. I couldn’t detect a hint of anger or contempt in his tone. “I need your help. Tessa keeps evading me and I’m hanging on to my sanity by a thread. Today, I learned she’s gone out on a couple of dates with this guy from her Socio class. How can she go out with someone when everything between us is still unresolved?”

It was terrible to smile in context of Jake’s dilemma but I was so vastly relieved that he was talking to me like nothing awful had happened—you know, him finding out that my marriage to his best friend started out as a million-dollar sham and all that.

I opened my mouth to speak but he kept going. “Are you busy? Please tell me you’re not busy. I need some good advice—hell, any advice would be better than the one I’m giving myself right now, which is to hunt down this guy and toss him out of town on his ass. Anyway, can you meet me for coffee? If you’re home, I can pick you up in ten minutes.”

I was so startled and stunned with relief that all I managed was, “Um, sure.”

I shrugged on a black leather biker jacket and slung a small, cranberry-red leather bag over my shoulder before heading out.

I paused about the dress, thinking I was supposed to wear it to dinner later but I didn’t really have time to change, now or later. It was pretty late for an afternoon coffee but Brandon could just pick me up at wherever Jake and I ended up at.

Jake was leaning against his car as he waited by the front steps of the building.

Dressed down in jeans and a light green sweater, he looked every bit as dashing as I remembered. The fact that he had a big, warm smile on his face, his eyes lighting up as he looked up and saw me, tugged at my heart.

“Hello, sunshine,” he greeted gently as he wrapped me up in a bear hug. “It’s been ages since I last saw you.”

“I know,” I said on a slight choke of tears as we pulled away. I implored at him with a look. “The last time you saw me, I was... I...”

The right words were evading me so I took a deep breath and pulled myself together. “I lied, Jake. I lied to you and everyone else from the very beginning. I expected you to hate me.”

Jake’s brows scrunched up together. “Hate you? Why would I be so silly to do something like that?”

“Because it was all an act!” I sputtered. “You talked about those women who see Brandon as a walking dollar sign. I was one of those women!”

Jake eyed me thoughtfully.

For all my blustering, he seemed surprisingly calm and even mildly amused. “I’ve gotten to know you well over the past few months, Charlotte. Even if you slap me on the head with a contract, I know that no amount of money could’ve ever motivated you to give as convincing a performance as you did in being in love with my best friend. While I think that Martin is a sly, old man, you and Brandon owe him a favor. I owe him a favor.”

My brows went up. “You do?”

“Yeah,” Jake said with a lazy grin and a shrug. “Because he threw you and Brandon together, I met you. You’re one of the best people I know, Char. Whatever the circumstances were that brought you to us is not important. Brandon didn’t pay you to be there for a lot of us—to put yourself at risk for the sake of the others, to cheer us up when we’re feeling like crap, to kick our ass when we’re not being the better person we could be. You did all of that on your own.”

I didn’t realize I was crying until Jake held out a folded handkerchief and pressed it on my damp cheeks.

“That was one of the kindest things anyone has ever said to me,” I said with a half-smile, half-sob as I took the handkerchief and dabbed my face dry. “I was afraid that I’d lost all of you when I made that confession. I would’ve understood but it would’ve sucked so bad.”

Jake laughed and pressed a kiss on the crown of my head. “Sorry, Char. There’s no way you can be rid of us now.”

I giggled even as I blinked back the rest of my tears, the heavy weight that had been residing in my heart for a while now loosening up and slowly lifting away. “Now, I don’t know whether I should be worried or relieved.”

Jake straightened away from his car and held the passenger door open for me. “You can decide on that after you spend a couple of hours with my sorry company. I did tell you I need some advice, didn’t I?”

I rolled my eyes. “For a ladies’ man, you surely need a lot of help winning one girl’s heart.”

“That’s because I’m trying to be just one lady’s man now and I’m not very experienced at it,” he said indignantly. “Now, get inside before you change your mind about keeping me company.”

I couldn’t stop grinning.

It was nice to banter with Jake again, to have a chance to be there for him like he’d let me before my big bad secret came out.

“Where are we going anyway?” I asked him as he slid behind the wheel. “You’re the one with the problematic heart. You get to choose.”

He gave me a lopsided grin. “You know, just because you’re still feeling guilty about your whole marriage secret with Brandon, doesn’t mean you have to indulge my every whim. I’ll still let you kick my ass if I’m being an idiot about something. Don’t hold back on my account.”

I laughed even though my cheeks burned slightly at the truth of his words. “I’m not so sure that was a good idea on your part to give me carte blanche. But don’t worry, when you’ve done something that deserves some ass-kicking, you’ll know it.”

Jake just laughed as he pulled out into traffic. “Since you were feeling kind of sentimental earlier, how about we go somewhere that will help me get to know the old Charlotte a little bit better before she got swept away into the glitzy, if not sometimes overrated world of the Maxfields?”

I smiled. “What do you have in mind?”

“I know you used to work at Marlow’s,” he said with a little more seriousness. “Brandon and I never really went there but I know that’s where you met his old man. Is their food good?”

“If you like a little bit of grease on everything,” I said with a laugh, inwardly pleased that Jake would ever suggest Marlow’s. It wasn’t his cup of tea but it was something that would always be a part of me. The gesture felt like a symbol of his acceptance. “But the coffee is pretty decent.”

“Sold! Marlow’s it is.”

It took no time to get there.

I haven’t been to Marlow’s in a while and the fact that I was a little over-dressed only added to my nervousness. It was ridiculous for me to be nervous, of course, but since that big confession I’d made in front of the Maxfield family and their circle of friends, I’d been feeling a bit vulnerable.

I didn’t really know how much damage the truth had done.

At Jake’s reassuring smile, I forced myself to buck up and be a big girl.

He was the first of them to have reached out to me after my disgrace and I couldn’t, wouldn’t, blow the second chance he’d given me.

Marlow’s first opened over thirty years ago and while its repair and maintenance were well looked after, not much of the interior decor had changed.

It was still all wooden panels, checkerboard floors and laminate countertops.

It wasn’t a breathtaking sight but it was as familiar to me as my old house—which was why I should’ve suspected something when I didn’t spy people by the windows and the interior looked a bit too dark for this time of the day.

“Lead the way, madam,” Jake said as he swung the door open and held it for me.

I stepped in, poking my head around in the dark space of the diner for a heartbeat before the lights came on in a bright flash and a few dozen voices yelled in chorus with the loud toots of paper horns, “Surprise!”

My mouth dropped open.

The entire diner was filled with colorful balloons, big clusters of bright flowers and glittering party confetti still floating down to the floor after having been tossed into the air.

Familiar faces were beaming at me—Felicity, Anna, Tessa, Martin, Mattie, Aimee, Rose, Clyde, everyone who were dear to my heart, all the way down to the entire Marlow’s staff—their grins nearly matching as they laughed and giggled at what could possibly be a ridiculous expression on my face.

They parted for Brandon who came walking my way, absolutely devastating with his dark hair and smoldering eyes, holding a bright pink, long-stemmed rose.

He could’ve knocked me over with the flower when, in his deep, husky voice, he started singing the old-fashioned Happy-Birthday song, a soft smile crooked on his lips.

I pressed a hand to my wildly erratic heart, groping for something to say just as my other hand accepted the rose from my husband.

Sometimes, you’re at the top of the world—and it keeps getting better.

“Don’t cry, love,” Brandon said as he slid his arms around my waist and pulled me close, his lips gently brushing against my own which were apparently damp from the tears that were trickling down my face. “It’s your birthday.”

“That’s precisely why I’m crying,” I said with a wobbly smile as I gasped back the tears, dragging the back of my hand across my wet face. “You guys just couldn’t send a card or something. You had to do... this.”

“We figured that after you’ve been moping around the last couple of weeks, avoiding everyone, you’d need something a little better than a greeting card to be convinced that we don’t care about what happened in the past, Charlotte,” Anna said as she came forward to wrap me in a big hug. “Tessa and I couldn’t have found a better sister than you.”

I probably developed a condition with my tear ducts because I couldn’t stop the damned tears as I hugged Anna back just before Tessa threw her arms around the both of us.

That had the unfortunate domino effect of prompting the entire guest list of about fifty or so people to swarm us with greetings and hugs.

You never realize just how much guilt weighs you down until it comes off and you start soaring.

“We might have overwhelmed you a little bit,” Jake said with a sheepish smile as he pulled me in for a hug that lifted me off my feet. “But the look on your face was so worth it. Happy birthday, Charlotte!”

I smacked him lightly on the arm once he’d set me down. “I can’t believe I fell for your trick! You sounded so desperate!”

Jake put a hand over his heart dramatically. “I am desperate. I still need that advice. But we’ll do that later after you’ve had a proper celebration. DJ! Start the music!”

“First dance is with me,” Brandon said possessively as he stepped in and reclaimed his hold on me which he’d reluctantly relinquished after fifty or so people descended on us earlier. “The first and last dance will always be with me.”

“You’re just as sneaky as your old man,” I told Brandon with a grin, sliding my arms around his shoulders just as a slow dance song threaded over the fading, highly upbeat Happy-Birthday music.

I caught Martin smiling at us from his seat by the bar and I gave him a little wave. He lifted his glass in toast and grinned before tossing back his drink.

“We, Maxfield men, can be pretty creative when it comes to getting what we want,” Brandon said smoothly as he gently swung me over to the music. “Sometimes, it involves blackmail, complicated arranged marriages of convenience—you know, the usual.”

I cocked a brow teasingly. “I would never think you’d have to stoop to tricks to get what you want. Don’t you just snap your fingers and people scramble to do your bidding?”

Brandon gave an exaggerated sigh of exasperation. “It used to be that easy. Apparently, the moment you came into our lives, we had to resort to tricks. Dad had to blackmail me. I had to bind you to me in a million-dollar ruse to pretend we were married for a year in order to avoid being married for real, even though I somehow must’ve actually wanted it to be real and just didn’t know it then.”

I laughed, my nose scrunching up. “That was the most confusing counter-strategy, if I’ve ever heard one.”

“Yeah, well. What can I say?” Brandon said with a shrug. “I was prepared to battle but I promptly fell in love with my enemy instead.”

“You know what they say,” I murmured as I pressed up against him, tilting my head up until my nose grazed his chin. “Make love, not war.”