Enchanted - The Dressing Room Affair [Time Travel Historical Romance Novella] (Entwined Together Forever) Read Online Free PDF

nothing more I could do.”
    Katie struggled to maintain her iron lipped frown.
    Patrick looked crestfallen. “I’ll leave you alone now. Think about what you want to do… and when you’re ready… you can come down to the office. Isabelle’s estate is a matter that needs settling, and that is your responsibility. I know that is what Isabelle would have wanted for you. She would have wanted you to be well taken care of – to be happy.” As the Inspector walked towards the door, he turned one last time. He regarded Katie thoughtfully. “If you ever need anything at all, you just call me.”
    “Thank you,” Katie said tightly. The Inspector tipped his hat and left.
    Katie wiped away fresh tears, but they just kept leaking out of her eyes. She gazed at her mother’s picture, hanging up on the wall behind her. The picture blurred as her vision swam.
    Where are you, mum? I know you’re alive. Why won’ t you let me at least know you’re okay? How could you leave me this way? Katie swallowed more sobs down. She resumed unpacking the boxes. When she was finished, she marched upstairs to shut herself away and weigh her options.
    After several restless nights and countless more tears, Katie knew she had to make a decision about her mother’s estate.
    She knew Isabelle would not want her to continue living in the past. She would want her to move on and find happiness in her future. Katie made an appointment the following afternoon to see the Sherriff and finalize things. After signing enough papers to fill a book, she dragged her feet all the way home. The costume shop was hers now, every trace of her parent’s ownership erased with the passing of generations.
    Isabelle had left her everything, which was no surprise to Katie. They had no living relatives, or at least none they saw often enough to count them close.
    Isabelle’s will gave Katie the costume shop, the apartment, her car, and even a trust fund that Katie did not know she possessed. Her father must have left it to her when he got sick. Isabelle had been adding to it for the last eighteen years.
    Fina ncially, Katie was fairly secure. Coupled with what had accumulated in the trust fund, she earned enough from the costume shop to live comfortably for two or three decades to come. Still, it was the fact that she had all this because her mother was gone that gave Katie pause.
    That weekend, Chloe came over with another bottle in hand to celebrate moving forward. They both decided that it was time to be happy again, or at least to try. Chloe insisted on celebrating Katie’s new start with Champagne. One glass turned into four, and before they knew it they were giggling like they were in grade school again.
    After a few more swallows - and several trips down memory lane - Chloe finally found the courage to ask Katie what she was going to do with Isabelle’s room.
    “Don’t you think it’s time that you packed up your mum’s things?” Chloe asked gently as she flipped through a photo album from Katie’s childhood. 
    “I don’t know if I am ready to do that yet, Chloe,” Katie admitted, dreading the despair Chloe’s question dredged up. Katie had not even opened the door to her mother’s bedroom since the day she disappeared. That was more than two years ago. She had left it untouched as a shrine in her memory, secretly hoping that one day she would wake up and her mum would come walking out of her bedroom, asking for a cup of tea.
    She still yearned for the normalcy Isabelle’s return would bring, and the comfort it entailed.
    How could she change things when part of her still believed Isabelle was alive? What would Isabelle think if she came home to a place she hardly recognized? Wouldn’t it look like Katie had forgotten her?
    But as Katie sipped at the last few swallows of her fifth glass of champagne, and looked at her friend of twenty years, she knew what needed to be done. Chloe was right. She needed to pack her mother’s things away. She