Forever Mine (The Moreno Brothers)

FOREVER MINE - Prologue & Chapter 1

FOREVER MINE

Written by

Elizabeth Reyes

Copyright © 2011 By Elizabeth Reyes.

All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

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

Prologue

Sarah went numb. This could not be happening. She gripped the phone, her knuckles going white. The knot in her throat was unbearable.

"Sarah, are you still there?"

In an almost inaudible whimper, Sarah answered, "Ah huh."

"I know this is hard, honey, but it's not the end of the world. We talked about this already, and you knew it was a possibility. I tried, Sarah. I really did, but there's no way around it. We've gone over all the other options, but anything else is too much of a risk. It's for the best."

"But, senior year ..." Sarah felt the anger building and the tears burning in her eyes. She felt ready to blow up—lash out.

Then she heard her mom again. Her voice choked up as well."I know, honey. I'm so sorry. I really screwed things up this time."

Her mom took a long, trembling deep breath, and it broke Sarah's heart. She wanted to be with her to hug her and to comfort her."It's okay, Mom. I'll be fine."

Her mom cleared her throat and lowered her voice. Sounding very determined, she spoke again, "I am going to make this up to you. I promise, okay?"

"Okay."

"I've already called Aunt Norma. She and Uncle Alfred will be here this weekend. They wanna help us pack, so you and I will have time to spend together. Then I'll have to be in court on Monday."

Sarah gasped. "Monday?"

"Yeah, babe, Monday."Sarah covered half her face with her free hand and shook her head.

Not wanting to make her mother feel any worse, she choked back a sob."All right, mom," she whispered.

"I'm gonna be here a while, honey, so don't wait up for me. We'll talk more about this tomorrow."

She hung up and looked at her best friend Sydney who'd been sitting on the bed next to her the whole time. Sydney stared at her anxiously."She's pleading guilty and gonna do at least three years. I have to go live with my Aunt Norma in California." Sydney kept a strong front, but Sarah fell into his arms crying.

CHAPTER 1

ONE MONTH LATER

La Jolla High School, California

Even as she stood in the middle of a bustling hallway with noisy students rushing by her, Sarah felt utterly alone. One month wasn't nearly enough to prepare her for a new school, new friends—a new life.

God, how she missed Sydney. This wasn't at all how she'd imagined her first day as a senior in high school would be. She had so many plans at her old school, and now she stood here completely lost.

Clenching her backpack in her hand, she walked off in no particular direction. She wanted to get out of the middle of the human traffic jam. Where in the heck was her cousin, Valerie? She had said the main entrance hall just outside the counselor's office, hadn't she?