Who Loves Them? (Who--? Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

herself.  Her parents would never look for her there.  They’d search up and down the streets of the Garden District, believing she’d take counsel with her “friends” who had been invited to the party.  And by the time they reached the Quarter, she would have already moved into her campus room at Loyola, away from her family.  She sighed.  Her plan would never work.  Of course her parents would know she had enrolled.  And even if she moved away, they would still know.  She knew her mother would contact every school in the state, and every school in the country, if she had to.  She wouldn’t stop looking until she found her, and Chris would be forced to marry regardless.  She frowned.  What she wouldn’t give to be able to get away from it all.  It wasn’t fair.

Chapter 3
     
    Turks and Caicos, 2012
    The balmy island breeze felt magnificent on Chris’s face as she sipped her margarita, the third she’d had so far that afternoon .  It was pleasant to be able to drink in public at last.  The bartender hadn’t carded her, but she’d flashed her shiny new identification at him anyway, updated shortly before the impromptu birthday trip on which her best friend, Kate, had whisked her away.
    Her twenty-first birthday had been a typical celebration, a black-tie formal dinner where wine and champagne had flown freely and her mother had dressed her, as usual.  The color had been wonderful, a deep emerald green, but it had been strapless, with a wide A-line skirt, the typical princess-y style dress that her mother loved.  There were times she felt like her mother’s doll--there to be dressed and coiffed, while she just stood there, staring into her reflection in the mirror.  Christina would have preferred something sleek, made of silk instead of taffeta.  She had worn the earrings that her father had given her on her eighteenth birthday to irk her mother, instead of the cascading diamond earrings her mother had tried to loan her from her own collection, and the beautiful token from Lilly which she had clasped onto a silver chain.  She missed Lilly, and wondered what she was doing.  Was she still an ineligible bachelorette?  Or had she finally married?  She wished Lilly could have come with her, but her mother forbid it, saying:  “You are in no way, shape or form, to continue your association with that girl.  It’s time to act like the woman you need to be!” Still, Christina missed her, and the infrequent letters she received from her friend were not the same as seeing her in person. 
    She tried to shrug off the annoyance .  Kate had quickly intervened, telling Christina the next day to pack for a beach vacation.  Kate had inherited a chunk of her trust fund on her own twenty-first birthday, and she had used a sizeable amount to take herself and Christina to this gorgeous resort, far away from parents, grandfathers, and arranged marriages.  Her mother approved of Kate over Lilly, which of course, Christina knew she would.  Kate’s family was like her own--elegant, poised, and rich.  She even had the same snobbish-type mother who only cared about her family’s appearance.  Half of this extravagant vacation was probably a result of Christina finally telling Kate about her engagement, she mused.  Kate, whose parents were more forward-thinking and were sending her to the university instead of dooming her to eternal servitude, had been horrified.  It felt really good to have someone on Chris’s side who felt outrage for her.
    Kate had gone over a dozen escape plans until Chris had finally held a tired hand up and said grimly, “It’s happening, Kate.  So be prepared to put on a hideous dress of my mother’s choosing and stand next to me as my maid of honor and force a smile, because there’s no way out of this.  Not without alienating my entire family.  I’ve spoken to Lilly about it and there’s nothing we can do.  She even thought of hiring people to kidnap me!  But it’s no