Heirly Ever After, Vernon, Magan [best thriller novels to read .txt] 📗

Table of Contents

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Discover more romance from Entangled Embrace…

A Royal Disaster

Royal Bastard

Tempting the Prince

The Royal Bodyguard

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2021 by Magan Vernon. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Entangled Publishing, LLC

10940 S Parker Rd

Suite 327

Parker, CO 80134

rights@entangledpublishing.com

Embrace is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.

Edited by Jen Bouvier, Amy Acosta, and Candace Havens

Cover design by Elizabeth Turner Stokes

Cover photography by Minerva Studio and Wiktoria Matynia/Shutterstock

ISBN 978-1-68281-559-5

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition May 2021

To all of those who believe in second chances.

Chapter One

Madison

“Introducing Miley Cycats, our new baby calico.”

I should have been excited about my first trip to England. Yet there I was, boarding a train to the countryside, still watching a video of my ex for the millionth time.

And his new girlfriend.

And their new cat.

Our breakup had been a few months ago, but I thought, hey maybe we’d work it out to get together before my sister’s wedding.

No such luck.

So now I got to travel solo while wallowing in the fact that the guy I’d been with for over three years had moved on and gotten a precious kitten daughter while I had nothing. We’d grown apart by the end, and I’d realized maybe I shouldn’t have followed him when he pursued his gaming career and left college.

A small detail my mom and sister didn’t know about. They thought I was still going to classes, not following the ex along to seedy motels for conventions while I told them I was attending lectures.

Classes that my sister had paid for…

Now that I was seeing them face to face, after five months, I’d have to explain everything.

After the wedding, hopefully.

As if the universe completely had it out against me, my suitcase lobbed to the side, the giant purple monstrosity pulling me to a halt in the middle of the aisle.

“Seriously,” I muttered, putting my phone in my pocket and bending down to adjust the suitcase wheel now stuck in the corner of the carpeted aisle. I tried to pull and simultaneously jimmy the carpet, hoping maybe it would miraculously move. “Come on, you stupid thing.”

“Do you need a hand, Miss?” a brogue-accented voice asked.

It didn’t sound like my brother-in-law’s English accent. Maybe he was Scottish? Irish?

I didn’t even look at the guy speaking, gritting my teeth as I tried to pull the suitcase loose once more. “No, thank you. It’s fine. I’ve got it.”

“Doesn’t look like you have. Here. Let me help so other people can get by.” He gripped the handle of my suitcase.

Briefly, I glanced at him—five o’clock shadow, a pair of dark green eyes, and a head of shaggy dark brown hair. A pretty boy trying to show off his strength was not something I needed right now.

“It’s fine. Seriously, I have it,” I said as nicely as I could without gritting my teeth.

“Obviously ya don’t. Come on, just let me help, then these nice people can get by,” he said, keeping his voice even, though the veins in his forearms bulged as he struggled with the suitcase.

A line of people was forming behind him, some whispering, some giving annoyed grunts.

I jerked backward, trying to pull the wheel with me. Last thing I wanted was to make a scene. “It’s fine, really.”

“Here, just let me try to get this unhinged. I’ve almost got it,” he boomed.

“I said, I’ve got it,” I yelled, finally having enough. I planted my heels in the ground and used every bit of strength I had.

I don’t know if it was my years of lifting a lot of plates at the diner I worked at or if the guy actually did something, but the resounding RIIIIPPPP of the zipper erupted between us and the bag exploded open.

Everything I’d packed in my suitcase was pressure released onto the aisle.

Great. I got down on all fours, scrambling to stuff everything back into my bag while other passengers went either around me in the aisle or just walked off in another direction.

Except for the damned gentleman who was now kneeling in front of me, holding a pair of my Hello Kitty underoos.

“Thanks for breaking my suitcase,” I muttered, praying my heated face wasn’t as red as the lacy bra I also scooped up along with my underwear. Hopefully no one saw that.

“I was trying to help you. No need to get your Little Cat knickers in a twist over it.”

“They’re Hello Kitty undies, sir. Get your facts right,” I grumbled, keeping my head down as I stood up so he wouldn’t see my face.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You’re looking a little aff, and not just from the kerfuffle with your luggage.”

I looked up to see his wide smile full of pearly white teeth and complete with one dimple in his cheek. Combined with the accent, I assumed any other girl would find it charming enough to spill everything. But this was a random guy in the middle of a train in a country I’d never been to. I couldn’t tell him my life story.

I’d already spilled enough with my undies.

I shook my head. “You have no idea.”

“How about I get ya a drink at the bar car and you tell me about