Page 34 of The Princess Trap

“So where do you live?” Cherry demanded. As soon as thewords left her mouth, another house came into view. Tucked away at the back of the mansion’s vast garden, this house was more of a cottage. Not exactly small—about the size of a family home, really—but cozy. Warm and welcoming and not at all disturbingly gothic.

“I live there,” Ruben said.

Cherry nodded stiffly. She tore her gaze away from the house with its cheerful red bricks and wide bay windows and ivy crawling merrily up the walls, and tried her best not to feel pleased.

Magz: Mum thinks you’ve lost it.

Cherry lay back on the mammoth, four-poster bed that apparently belonged to her now. It was a nest of thick, deep purple blankets and over-fluffed pillows that she desperately wanted to hate, but found disturbingly comfortable.

Whatever. She still didn’t want to be here.

Cherry: I know. Do you?

Magz: You haven’t really told me what’s happening yet, so I’m reserving judgement.

Cherry huffed out a laugh and settled back into the blankets, the silk of her headscarf sliding against the satiny pillows. There was no lock on the door, so she was lying in the dark at 10 p.m. If anyone came knocking, she could pretend to be asleep. That way, she wouldn’t have to display her bare face, wrapped up hair and fluffy bed socks to whoever decided to stop by.

Living with people was strange—people who weren’t family, anyway. She’d have to beonconstantly. For what felt like the thousandth time, Cherry began to wonder if she could really do this for a year.

Cherry: Do you trust my judgement?

Magz: Yes.

Magz: 100%

Cherry smiled. There was something to be said for little sisters.

Cherry: I can’t tell you everything, but I want to know what you think… I had a decision to make, and I looked at all the available evidence, and I believe I chose well, long-term. But short-term it’s going to be uncomfortable. I keep worrying I’ve got something wrong and it’s too good to be true or it won’t be worth it. What do you think?

She lay there, her arms aching from holding her phone up over her face, waiting for Maggie’s response to that cryptic mess.

Magz: That was an essay, lol.

Cherry rolled her eyes.

Magz: You’re super smart. You’re the sensible one. You probably chose right.

The idea that her little sister, who was studying Biomedical bloody Engineering atHarvard, thought Cherry was smart, made her grin. But still, she couldn’t stop herself from asking…

Cherry: Probably? What if that’s not good enough?

Magz: Probably has to be good enough. Life is probability, sis.

Cherry: Wow. You’re really learning shit over there.

Magz: Whatever. So are you gold-digging your prince or what?

Cherry snorted. If only she knew.

Magz: Cuz if you are, hook me up with a cousin first.

Cherry: Hook you up?! You better face your damned books!

Maggie replied with several eye rolling emojis. Cherry snorted.

Cherry: I should go. Beauty sleep.

Magz: But you don’t need it cuz you’re already soooOOooooOOoooo beautiful.