Page 115 of Soulmates

There had been days I’d wondered if Orlando would ever get married—he’d never shown much interest in dating seriously. And now he was engaged.

I was happy for him, I really was, but in that moment I didn’t want to be anywhere near his blissful romance. I stood and snuck out of the ballroom. I wasn’t leaving the building, just getting some space.

I found a sitting room filled with light pink couches and high-backed chairs. I dropped onto a couch and let my head fall into my hands. I missed Sam like a vital organ had been removed from my body.

“Piper?” Mamma asked.

I looked up to see her standing in the doorway.

“Sweetheart.” She sat next to me and pulled me into her arms.

I let her hold me, no longer able to keep back the sobs. I’d cried with Nacio and Sierra, but they weren’t my mother.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped.

“What are you apologizing for?” she asked, stroking a hand over my back.

“This day was supposed to be about Orlando, not me.”

“Orlando has Isabelle,” Mamma said. “You need me more right now.”

“I miss him so much.” I cried into her shoulder.

Mamma didn’t say anything, just held me tight like she had when I was a child and something had gone wrong in my life. She’d always been there for me, always been on my side no matter what.

“I love him.”

“I know, sweetheart. It was obvious from the moment I saw you two together.”

“How? If it was real, how could it be over so quickly?”

Mamma pulled back and cupped my makeup-streaked cheeks in her hands. “Love isn’t a magic cure-all. It doesn’t mean you won’t have troubles and hurts in your relationship.”

“He told me he was done. He walked away.”

“So did I once upon a time.”

“What?”

“I walked away from your father one night after one of his shows. We’d had a fight, and I was hurt and confused. I didn’t know how to handle what I was feeling, so I left him.”

“What happened?”

“We were both miserable for a week, and then we chose to forgive each other.”

“Just like that?”

Mamma laughed. “No, not ‘just like that.’ Our love story was not simple. My family didn’t like Stefan, and he had far more groupies than he does now. Sometimes loving each other was hard, but it was worth it. I’m grateful every day that we wake up together and agree to face this life side by side. Loving your father and creating a family with him was the best decision of my entire life, but that does not mean it has always been easy or that we don’t have problems.”

“What if Sam doesn’t come back?”

“You’re currently living with his brother. He’ll be back eventually.”

“But that doesn’t mean he’ll forgive me.”

“And you can’t make that choice for him. All you can do is control yourself. You can apologize and tell him how you feel. His response is up to him.”

“Thank you, Mamma.”