Page 92 of Ruthless Prince

I coughed to cover up a scornful snort. I knew she was lying, but I couldn’t tell her that. Besides, she was only doing it to make me feel better. She thought I’d experienced some sort of mini-breakdown recently, so she probably figured it wouldn’t help my mental state if she admitted that she completely forgot about my birthday until Logan remindedher.

“How’s Jared?” Iasked.

“He’s fine. He had a soccer game today. Apparently he was thegoalkeeper.”

“I know.” I gulped as Logan glared at me and made a threatening gesture. “I mean… I remember someone saying he had a game thisweekend.”

Fortunately, Mom didn’t notice my blunder. “He misses you. So does your father. But we all understand that you need some time away to feelbetter.”

Fighting the urge to cry again, I steered the conversation to another topic. “Speaking of feeling better, can I ask yousomething?”

“Ofcourse.”

“Did I ever have mono? I’m ninety percent sure I did, but my memory has been terriblelately.”

She hesitated for a few seconds before replying. “You caught it back in your junior year of high school. Surely you rememberthat.”

“Yeah, I thought I did, but I wasn’t entirelycertain.”

“Why do you want toknow?”

I racked my brains for a halfway decent excuse that included the medical record mystery. “Well, winter is coming up soon, so I decided to get a flu shot, because I heard it’s going to be really bad this year. Logan called a doctor to come out and see us, but when he arrived, it suddenly occurred to me that I might’ve already had a shot while I was in the hospital a few weeks ago. I was going to call you and ask, but the doctor said he could just check myrecords.”

“I see,” Mom replied. Her voice had stiffenedslightly.

“Anyway, he said I hadn’t had a flu shot this year, so he gave me one. While he was doing it, we were chatting about different kinds of viruses, and I mentioned how I had mono a while ago. He looked confused, and he said that wasn’t on my medicalrecord.”

“How strange. Perhaps he didn’t look at the wholething.”

“He definitely did. Can you think of any reason why it wouldn’t be on there?” Iasked.

“Hmm. I have no idea.” Mom suddenly let out a short, high-pitched laugh. “Oh! I knowwhy.”

“Why?”

“The doctor who treated you was from England. Or maybe it was Australia,” she said. “They don’t call it mono in those places, you know. It’s glandular fever. I bet he wrote that down on your recordinstead.”

A chill shot through me, and my heart began to thud painfully fast. My mom was using the same charming, sugary tone she used when she lied through her teeth to journalists. I knew it all toowell.

“Right,” I muttered. “I guess that makessense.”

It didn’t. Not onebit.

Logan mouthed something at me. I nodded at him and spoke up again. “Do you remember the exact date I got sick?” I asked. “It’s all a blur tome.”

“It was the day after that school dance you had in the fall.Remember?”

“No. I honestly don’t,” Imurmured.

“You didn’t feel well when you woke up that morning, and it got worse from there,” Mom said. “Anyway, let’s not dwell on the past, darling. You need to think about your currenthealth.”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath in an attempt to steady my pulse. “I better go. Logan made lunch forme.”

“Good timing, because I have to go too,” she said. “I have a Cabinet meeting soon, even though it’s Sunday. No rest for the wicked,huh?”

My chest felt hollow as I said goodbye, ended the call, and handed the phone back to Logan. “She lied,” I saidsoftly.

“Yeah, I got that.” He smirked. “So there we go. You didn’t havemono.”