Rays of sunshine slashed through Tess’s curtains, making tiny flecks of dust appear to dance in midair. She considered hiding her head under her pillow and sleeping the day away, but decided that she needed to get up and try to be strong for Mo.

She was surprised to find that Mo was awake, but quickly discovered that her friend was practically comatose with grief. Mo stared blankly into space, her face devoid of any expression whatsoever. Tess realized that she would have much preferred having her friend ranting and throwing things across the room, than this bereft-of-any-animation shell.

When the knock sounded at her front door, Tess failed to keep the hope at bay. “Oh, it’s you.” The disappointed tone of her voice was not lost on her older brother, Trey.

“It’s lovely to see you, too,” he teased her. With a higher pitched, mocking tone, he added, “Thank you so much for taking time out of your super-busy day to come check on me. You’re the best brother ever.”

“Maybe the best one in the room at this very moment,” she quipped, truly smiling for the first time since leaving the castle.

With that, he pulled her into a bear hug.

“Can’t breathe… ” She smacked him on the back to get him to release her. He immediately let her go and sauntered into the room, like he owned the place.

One glance at Mo staring off into space on the couch told him that things hadn’t gone well on their trip. “What’s up with her?” He stage-whispered. “Did you steal the prince away from her?”

“No!” Tess smacked at him playfully, hoping he knew she would never do anything like that to her friend.

“Seriously, though,” Trey sat down in the chair next to Mo and waved a hand in front of her eyes. When she didn’t react at all, he asked, “Is she okay?”

“Not really,” Tess explained. “The prince broke up with her. It was completely out of the blue.”

Trey’s dark eyebrows slashed together and Tess got a glimpse of what her billionaire brother must be like in the boardroom. “Why would he do that?” He snapped, instantly furious.

Tess was touched that he was so fiercely protective of her friend. “I don’t know,” she told him honestly. “She hasn’t been very talkative since it happened.” To enunciate her point, Tess indicated the lifeless version of Mo reclining on the couch.

Both siblings startled and stared at the door after the firm knock. Tess chastised herself for getting her hopes up again when she flung the door open and saw her other brother, Trevor, on the other side. “Oh, hi,” she made a feeble attempt to keep the disappointment from dripping into her voice, but failed miserably.

“What kind of greeting is that for your favorite brother?” Trevor beamed at her.

“Favorite?!?” Trey scoffed from the living room. “Hardly. I was here first, and I got a much warmer greeting than you did. It included a thrilled hug upon my arrival.”

Tess shook her head at Trey’s ridiculous exaggeration. Not one to be left out, Trevor pulled her into another hug. “She loves me the most,” he aimed the words at Trey, over her shoulder.

“Right,” Trey responded sarcastically, as if that was the most outrageous claim he had ever heard. “You keep telling yourself that, Bud.”

Tess couldn’t help but smile at her brothers’ antics. They might both be incredibly wealthy, powerful men, but they were still competitive kids at heart.

Lifting Mo’s feet so Tess could sit beneath them on the couch didn’t faze Mo in the slightest. Trevor sat in the chair opposite his brother and angled a thumb in Mo’s direction. “What’s up with her? Did you somehow get the prince to choose you?” He held up a hand near his mouth while he spoke, as if that would somehow keep Mo from hearing him talk about her.

“No!” Tess said a little too vehemently. “Why is that the first thing that both of you thought?” She was peeved that they had both drawn that conclusion.

“You’ve always wanted a prince,” Trey raised his shoulders as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

Tess gaped at him. “Not if it means stealing him from my best friend.”

She looked back and forth between her brothers, stunned that they would honestly think she might do something so horrible to Mo.

When Trevor weighed in, he said, “We are Donovans, and we almost always get what we want.”

“Almost?!?” Trey seemed perplexed by their brother’s word choice. “Speak for yourself, dude.”

Even though Tess loved her brothers immensely, their competitive banter was grating on her nerves. Just as she was preparing to ask them exactly what they were doing at her apartment, her phone jangled with an incoming text message.

Staring at the screen, she almost couldn’t believe her eyes. When she looked up, she realized that both of her brothers were waiting to see what had made her gulp in a surprised breath.

“Well?” Trey asked, impatient to know what had upset his sister.

“It’s from Sebastian,” she answered, looking from one of her brothers to the other, before landing on Mo and adding, “He’s demanding that we return to the island.”