Shattered Hearts

Chapter 1

Madelyn
Present Day
I was so drunk I could barley get the key in the door to unlock the apartment.
My best friend was bouncing up and down behind me like a kid, because she refused to pee in the club bathroom.
I finally got the door open and Charlotte rushed past me. I'd never seen the girl move so fast. Not even on Black Friday last year when she found out the only Coach in NYC that had the little black booties she wanted was in SoHo and we were on the Upper East Side.
I giggled at her as I closed the door behind us and headed to the living room. Her parents, Clara and Thomas, got us this nice apartment on the Upper West Side and I don't think I could ever thank them enough. Sure they were loaded because they were English royalty, but they'd treated me like a daughter since I was a baby, and I loved them like my own parents. Plus I would never be able to afford a place this nice on my own. Not with my NYU tuition bills and the minimal money I could make with a history degree post grad.
I plopped down on the big arm chair in our living room and started pulling my heels off of my swollen feet. Why Charlotte made me walk home from the club in the frigid January air, I will never understand. 10 degrees at one am means an Uber with heated seats, not a half a mile walk. But whatever.
Charlotte appeared in the living room, apparently done with her pee. She laughed, tripping over her heels and collapsing into the couch next to me.
She looked over at me before breaking out into a fit of laughter.
I chuckled, and shook my head, "What is it? Do I have something on my face?"
She shook her head and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her laughter.
"Liam got engaged." She slurred, laughing drunkenly and kicking her legs like a small child.
My eyes popped out of her head, and I suddenly felt completely sober.
Her brother was... engaged? As in engaged to be married?
"What did you say?" I asked slowly.
Charlotte looked at me, small laughs rippling through her body. I don't know what she found so funny.
"Liam. Is getting. Marrrrieeedd." She annunciated as best she could do in her drunken state before convulsing with laughter.
"Can you even imagine? Oh my god that poor girl he's going to be so broody she'll die of loneliness. He'll just stare at her with his moody ass face until she stops asking when they're gona have sex. You know I don't think he's ever had sex, I don't think the asshole has ever stopped brooding long enough to get hard for someone other than his own fucking reflection. Asshat is going to be a great Marquess. Fit right in with all the conceded royalty across the pond."
Charlotte like to ramble when she drank tequila.
"He's... getting... marri-?" My stomach suddenly felt really uneasy.
Charlotte was still talking. Complaining about one of the sons of sone Earl she met last summer at one of the swanky galas her parents dragged them all to.
But I wasn't comprehending anything.
All I could think about was Liam giving his mother's family diamond to some faceless blonde with giant boobs.
Fuck.
I threw up my entire dinner and all of the alcohol in my stomach onto Charlotte, who immediately stopped laughing.
We sat there in shock for a bit.
"What the fuck Maddie?!" Charlotte yelled, sitting up and looking down at her ruined dress.
She huffed and got up from the couch, running off towards the bathroom and yelling, "This is a fucking Valentino, Maddie!"
I couldn't bring myself to call after her. Or care. All I could think about was Liam. And the fact that he was getting married.
•••
Liam
Present Day
There was no way I was going through with this. My parents could bitch at me all they wanted, but I wouldn't do it. They couldn't force me into some dumb marriage just because we were nobility and needed to appease their rich friends. No fucking way. Maybe in 1520, but not 2020.
They'd been going on and on about this girl for the last ten minutes about how great she was, or, actually, how great her family was.
Her dad was a Baron.
Great.
I was getting so angry, it took all of my will power to keep my balled fists at my sides and not leap across the table and deck my father.
The more they droned on and on, the angrier I got.
I needed a way out of this.
I couldn't let this happen.
I just couldn't.
"I can't get married because I'm dating someone."
The room went silent.
Crap. Was that out loud?
"Who?" My mother asked, her eyes bugging out  in surprise, "Why is this the first we're hearing about this?"
I racked my brain for anyone that would be good enough in my parents eyes to actually stop this marriage in its tracks.
Only one name came to mind.
"Madelyn King."