Missing Royal Read Online Free PDF Page A

would’ve said something then.
    “I’m wonderful. Thank you for the gift!” I smile, and this one is genuine.
    “Can I take your order?” the waitress asks, interrupting Mom’s reply.
    “Yes. We’d like two breakfast specials and your eggs Benedict with two glasses of orange juice and a glass of chocolate milk.” Dad orders for all of us. It makes me happy, knowing he knows exactly what I want.
    As soon as the waitress writes down the order, she leaves, and my mother takes my hand again. “We’re so proud of you, dear. We just want you to be happy. And you never know when some good jewelry will be needed. Especially as you get older and move on.” She wipes tears from her eyes and I’m a little taken aback.
    Is she crying? Over jewelry? “You’re right. Thank you. I don’t know when I’ll need it but I can’t take my eyes off it.” I laugh, a little worried now.
    “Your mother’s right. We’re very proud of you. You have become a beautiful, strong, smart young woman. We’re sure you will succeed in every aspect of your life. If you set your mind to it, nothing can stop you.” My dad adds, tears in his eyes too.
    I laugh. “Guys, I’m only seventeen! You still have me for a whole year. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.” I smile, shaking my head and talking with my hands.
    “That’s.” One word, and I recognize his voice. One word and my eyes shoot up to see why Valentino is standing beside our table. “Where you’re wrong.” He looks so solemn.
    I look back and forth between the three of them. The tears my parents are crying—they aren’t happy tears. And the look on Valentino’s face? Yeah, this says something is serious.
    The question is, what can it possibly be that involves both my parents and my horseback-riding teacher/best friend? “I—I don’t understand. Why would I be going anywhere?” At this point, I want to wake up from this horrible dream.
    My mother? She’s no longer silently crying. She’s sobbing. Dad wraps his arm around her to comfort her but he’s hardly crying any less. “I can’t tell her,” she mumbles.
    “Please,” my dad says to Valentino. One word, and he seems to know what it means.
    Valentino turns to me but still avoids meeting my gaze. “Shanice, I’m here to take you home.” I’m about to protest but he must have seen it coming because he puts a hand up to stop me. “Your real home. You’re not from around here. In fact, neither one of us are.”
    “I know I didn’t grow up here—we moved here when I was seven. But what does that have to do with anything?” I’m growling, almost yelling at him. And I feel bad. But at the same time, I want answers.
    “Shanice.” Mom takes my hand again. “He’s right. Things are more complicated than that. You see, your father and I wanted kids for a long time but we knew it could never happen. One day, we got an offer we couldn’t refuse.”
    My dad picks up where Mom leaves off as she bursts into tears again. “We were offered you . The chance to take care of you, to be your parents for a while—at least until your birth parents could take care of you again. They said we could have you until you turned seventeen.”
    Mom takes over again. “It was a hard choice. We knew it would affect you. We knew it would take its toll on all of us. But since the moment we laid eyes on you, we knew we couldn’t give up the chance to have you be ours—if only for a while. And it’s been the greatest seventeen years of our lives. We don’t want to say good-bye but we have to.”
    “Did it ever occur to them that I wouldn’t want to leave? That I would choose to stay with you?” Tears spring into my eyes. Since when were they not my parents? Why couldn’t my birth parents take care of me? It doesn’t make sense. I’m so lost. So confused. So hurt.
    She shakes her head. “I don’t know. I suppose they never thought about it being an issue.”
    “Why? Why did they have to let me go in the first