Prologue
Prologue
Robin Lee, 14 years old
Robin stood in front of her floor-length mirror and twirled. Her ash-blonde hair flowed with her. She struck a pose and smiled brightly. Her outfit was PERFECT.
Her latest figure skating costume had just arrived five minutes ago, and she couldn’t wait to try it on. It was truly the best one so far. Although she wasn’t good enough to compete – yet – she was going to dress the part.
In her large bedroom decorated in blush pinks and royal purples, her bright white costume stood out. Sunlight streamed in from the nearby bay window, catching the abundant rhinestones. Their refractions danced across her white walls in a show of blues, yellows, pinks, and purples.
She felt like a disco ball—a very beautiful, well-dressed, lucky, and ecstatic disco ball.She grabbed a bedazzled tiara from her dresser and placed it upon her head. She was now an Ice Princess, and she couldn’t wait to reign over the rink. She skipped to her bedroom door and saw her identical twin sister, Rachel, standing there with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Could you look more ridiculous?” Rachel commented dryly, condescendingly in the way only a teenager sister could.
“Of course!” Robin smiled brightly, rolling with the punch. Nothing was going to get her down today. She booped her sister’s nose with a dainty finger. “I could look like you in your goalie gear!”
Rachel rolled her eyes as Robin squeezed past her into the hall. Robin was on a mission to find her dad and give him a big, thank you hug. And to ask for an extra skating lesson this week. Maybe today. She couldn’t wait to try out her new look on the ice.
Rachel followed quickly behind. It was the perfect time for Rachel to beg for the new goalie helmet she’d had her eye on. It was only fair that they both get special gifts.
The sisters poked and prodded each other down to the study where their dad sometimes worked from home. He’d been spending more and more time in there lately, a sure sign that business was picking up over the summer as usual.
The twins squabbled over nothing as they approached the door. They didn’t hear the quiet sobs from within. They opened the door and stood shocked.
Their dad, the kindest and warmest person they knew, sat on the floor of his office. His back leaned against his impressive desk. He was hunched over, his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands as he cried.
“Daddy?” Robin spoke gently.
Virgil Lee snapped his head up. “Girls,” he greeted. He moved quickly, wiping his face with his hands and turning to grab a handkerchief from the desk. He dabbed his tears away and gestured to the leather couch on the far wall.
“Have a seat. We need to talk.”
His face was red, and his facial features were drawn in anguish. He managed to still look powerful in his business suit, even if his voice wasn’t as confident. The girls shared a concerned look and sat tentatively on the sofa.
“What’s wrong?” Rachel demanded. Rachel thrived on conflict and high-stress situations. She wasn’t afraid of hockey pucks flying at her. She wasn’t afraid to be the last line of defense when the game was on the line. Sometimes Robin thought her sister wasn’t afraid of anything.
The twins’ heads snapped to the study door as their mother, Jacqueline, strode inside with her elegant head held high. “Some tea,” she commented coldly, placing the porcelain cup and saucer on the desk near her husband.
Virgil tried to lift it, but his hands shook too much. The cup rattled against the saucer, and he placed them back on the desk before he spilled the hot beverage. He sat on the edge of the desk and kept his head low. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
Jacqueline’s chin rose even higher, if that was possible. “You should have seen it coming. That was your job, was it not?” Her tone was cutting. The only thing she was gentle with was her movements. She carefully sat herself in an antique wingback chair across from the girls.
Virgil ignored his wife’s comments and lifted a tearful gaze to his daughters. “I want you to know how sorry I am. I will do everything I can to fix this, but it’s going to take some time.”
“Don’t lie to them!” Jacqueline snapped. “There is no fixing this.”
“What is going on!” Rachel demanded again, her voice louder. As the tension grew in the room, Rachel leaned forward to meet it.
Robin sat a little closer to her sister and looked around cautiously, unsure who the biggest threat was.
Virgil’s mouth opened and closed while he tried to think of what to say.
Jacqueline would have rolled her eyes, but such a gesture was beneath her. She answered bluntly, “Your father has lost everything in that stupid business of his.” Her chin again rose higher as if water was rising and she needed to stay above it to breathe. “He’s going to be homeless soon. The bank is coming for everything . . . well, at least for his belongings. I had the sense to keep my personal possessions separate.”
Robin frowned. “Daddy’s business isn’t stupid. It’s how we afford everything,” she replied defensively. It paid for her large room, her personal tutors, her private figure skating lessons. She gripped her costume in her hands, feeling the rhinestones with her fingers. Everything was paid for because of their dad’s success. The only thing their mom was good for was trips to the salon and spending hours at shopping malls.
Jacqueline flung a manicured hand through the air as if wiping away Robin’s comment.
Rachel sat so far forward on the sofa, Robin wanted to grab her to make sure she didn’t fall off. “What do you mean dad is about to be homeless?”
Virgil held his hands up in surrender, trying to calm everyone down. “This is my mistake. It’s only fair I tell you. It’s just . . . very hard for me to say.” His face flushed in embarrassment. “You know my business partner, Pete?”
The twins shared a look and nodded.
“The no-personality-accountant. Duh, we know him,” Rachel answered.
Robin elbowed her sister. “He’s been here for every other Thanksgiving, dad. Of course we know him.”
Virgil ran a hand through his gray hair. “It seems Pete was embezzling . . . stealing . . . money from the business over the past two years. He was acting strange, and I was growing suspicious.” He shook his head. “You don’t need the details. Long-story short, the bank and the authorities are involved now. I am under investigation as a possible accomplice. I didn’t break any laws, but Pete did.”
“Then why are they investigating you! You can’t be held responsible for what he did!” Rachel cried in an outburst.
“Unfortunately, I can, at least financially. Due to the type of business agreement we had, I will be forced to pay the bank back until Pete is found and held accountable.”
“He’s missing?” Robin asked.
“Yes, he seems to have disappeared for the time being. I swear to you that I am innocent. All I did was trust him. I used to double-check the numbers, but he had been without fault for 6 years, so I stopped reviewing his work. I don’t know why he started stealing . . . but the police must do an investigation to show my innocence. Until then, our credit cards and bank accounts are frozen. Money is going to be tight. On top of everything, the quickest way for the bank to get their money is to take the house.”
Horror filled the girls’ minds. Robin’s jaw dropped in shock.
Rachel almost started to cry. “We’re going to be homeless?”
Virgil hushed their fears. “No, no, no. You will not be homeless.” He walked over to his twins and sat between them. He wrapped his arms around their shoulders, pulling them close. “You’re going to live with my sister in Indiana for a bit. You’ll start public high school there in a month while I stay here and sort out this mess.”
Robin grimaced. “Public high school?” she questioned in a whine the same moment Rachel gagged and spat, “INDIANA? The CORN state?! Dad!!”
The childish disgust in their tones made Virgil laugh. If that was their biggest concern, then maybe everything would be okay. Kids were resilient, and even though they were 14, he knew his girls were tough.
Virgil squeezed his girls and gave them a slight shake. “Both of you love Aunt Cecilia, and she loves you. And your cousin, Adriana, will be a junior at your new school. She’ll show you around and help you get settled. Besides, you know how much I love you both, my Ice Princess and my Crease Commander. I’ll always be just a phone call, text, or FaceTime chat away. I promise. We’re going to get through this.”
He needed to believe that as much as he needed them to keep hope.
Rachel’s lip stayed curled. “Why can’t they move here? Colorado has mountains. It is so much better than pig-farm Indiana.”
Virgil’s answer was a fatherly kiss to the side of her head.
Robin eyed their mother suspiciously. She had been awfully quiet. “What about mom?” she asked tentatively.
Virgil inhaled sharply. His voice turned hard for a change. “Your mother has requested a divorce.”
“What!” Rachel exploded, standing with her hands curled into fists.
Robin felt a rush of energy flow through her. She stood slowly and surprised herself by standing protectively in front of her dad. “You can’t be serious!”
Jacqueline stood as well. In her four-inch stilettos, she looked down her nose on them. She was not the least bit concerned that it was three against one. It was always that way in this family, them against her.
“Not that I need to explain my decisions to children,” she sneered in a patronizing tone, “But I have lived in the cold for long enough. I will be moving back to Orange County to be closer to my family during this difficult time. I need my own support system. You can’t possibly imagine how stressful this ordeal is to me.”
Rachel rolled her eyes dramatically and opened her mouth, shoving her finger in and gagging sarcastically. “Spare me.” She smirked at her mom’s disgusted expression and plopped herself back onto the sofa next to her dad. She was a daddy’s girl, and her mother had been emotionally absent most of her life, even if she was there physically. Besides, she had gone through so many plastic surgery changes that it felt like they had a new mom every few years anyway.
Robin crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re not going to go with us?”
“To Indiana?”
Robin flinched at the bitter disdain in her mother’s tone. She wasn’t going to give up just yet. “Maybe we could go to Orange County with you?”
Jacqueline’s blue eyes melted just a fraction. “My darling, I left home when I was fifteen to be a model. I was only a year older than you when my bags were packed, and I was shipped off to Paris by myself. You’ll be fine. And as your father said, I’m always just a phone call away.”
Robin’s eyes flicked to her sister meaningfully. “Yeah, right,” the glance said.
They could always call, but Robin knew she’d spend the call listening to it ring and talking to the voicemail. It was a waste of time and effort. She still tried every now and then, but only for the biggest occasions.
Robin sank back into the sofa with a frown. She had spent years trying to get her mom to notice her. And now she was just going to leave? Robin felt something tight crack in her chest. Before she knew it, tears started pouring out of her. She loved her mom, and she loved her dad. She loved her life. She didn’t want things to change. This wasn’t how today was supposed to go.
Robin felt the arms of her dad and sister wrap around her, holding her close and offering words of comfort. She heard her mother in the distance, “I’ll leave you to clean up your mess, Virgil. I have packing to finish.”
Robin sobbed harder than she ever had in her life.
