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Chapter One

‘Stop! Jane, stop right there. What do you think you’re doing?’

I took my hand from the door knob and stared at my mother, blinking away the tears that stung my red eyes. I’d cried myself to sleep last night and now the tears were threatening to spill over—again. I knew it was more a self-esteem thing and not really what Brad had done. Knowing that I didn’t really care about his deception had been a big wake-up call.

It had been another kick in the self-esteem guts. But no more.

No. I’d decided it was time to pull up my big girl panties and move on. I was leaving. I pushed the errant lock of hair that fell over my face and squared my shoulders to take on my mother for the first time in my life.

Something I should have done a long time ago, and if I had done, I wouldn’t be in this embarrassing situation I now found myself in. A wave of prickly heat rose beneath my skin as I thought about the day ahead.

My wedding day.

‘Mum, I don’t give a flying f—’

‘Jane! Language!’ Mum’s voice was full of exasperation as usual, but I didn’t care.

‘All right. I don’t care one bit that everyone is upset. Me calling off the wedding last night isn’t the only reason you and Bradley’s mother are upset. Just because you and Joanie have been best friends since high school, and thought you were going to be grandmothers together one day, doesn’t mean I have to accept what that lying bastard did.’

‘Language, Jane!’

‘No. I’ll say what I want and how I want to say it. I guess you were getting the best part of the deal and that’s why you’re so upset. You were getting gorgeous Bradley as a son-in-law, and poor Joanie was getting plain Jane.’

Mum placed her perfectly manicured fingers on my arm, but I pulled away. ‘Don’t be silly, sweetheart. Joanie was so looking forward to taking you shopping and introducing you to her stylist too.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘Are you trying to tell me I should go ahead with the wedding to that jerk? So I can have a stylist and go shopping? No way.’ I shook my head and this time when my hair fell across my face, my hand shook when I pushed it back.

But it was from anger, not nerves.

‘I don’t know what he’s done to upset you! It can’t be that bad. You’re just way too sensitive. You always have been, Jane. You have to toughen up. Bradley is such a gentleman. And, sweetheart, the wedding! Everything is organised. The caterers, the flowers, the accommodation for the guests. Your Uncle Rollo has come all the way from Venice to marry you.’ Mum reached to the hall stand for her Ventolin inhaler and I resisted rolling my eyes. She wasn’t one bit breathless; it was simply a ploy to gain my sympathy. She had more chance of losing her breath from inhaling the cloying fragrance of the lilies beside her inhaler. ‘Every girl gets nervous on her wedding day.’

I shook my head. ‘No. It’s off and I’m leaving.’

‘But darling—’ Mum took a puff and reached her other hand out to me again as panic flitted across her face. Good, she was starting to see I was serious.

‘I am not marrying Brad Devine. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.’

‘Brad’s going to be a perfect husband for you. And you are so lucky he chose you.’

‘I’m so lucky?’ My eyes widened as I stared at her in disbelief. ‘What? Because I’m plain Jane, and he’s the sexy man about town?’ My voice was bitter. ‘I know he didn’t choose me for my looks, and I was stupid enough to believe that he cared about me. Me, the person, not me, the member of the wonderful Sullivan family. It’s all about Dad’s company and Bradley’s precious career.’

‘But sweetheart, you looked beautiful at the wedding rehearsal.’

‘And don’t think I didn’t see the surprise on everyone’s face. Even yours, Mother dear. Amazing what a bit of makeup and a hairdresser can do, hey?’

I hadn’t inherited much in the way of beauty from the family gene pool. Long, lanky limbs, hair neither brown nor blonde, and big eyes in a skinny face. Yep, plain Jane fitted.

‘Well, Jane, if you took more pride in your appearance and stopped messing about on boats, not caring how you look or what you wear, you could look attractive all the time.’

My laugh held no mirth. ‘You’ve got it in one. Not beautiful. Attractive. Tell me, Mum. Did you call me Jane because I was an ugly baby?’

‘Don’t be stupid,’ she snapped. ‘Of course not. Jane was your grandmother’s middle name.’

I looked down at the suitcase sitting on the floor next to the door I’d been about to open when Mum heard me creeping out. She’d rushed downstairs in her Dior silk nightie, no makeup and hair loose. Probably the first time anyone had seen Gloria Sullivan less than perfect.

Perfect! Everything in our house, our garden, our lives was perfect. Everything except for me. Plain Jane.

Or it had been perfect until I’d let myself into my future husband’s apartment yesterday afternoon, to leave him a surprise before our wedding. Bradley had maintained we couldn’t afford a honeymoon until he got the annual bonus from Dad’s company at the end of the year, so I’d bought the charter package and airline tickets with the last of my savings.