Sister Swap. Lilian Darcy

but did he love her? Really? Would he put his money where his mouth was and break it off with Marcellina? Did Rowena want him to?

      “I just can’t, Rox,” Rowie had said in London. “I can’t give him what he wants. I—I don’t think he means any of it. N-not really. I’m so confused. I want him to mean it, but in my heart…”

      And Francesco had no clue about the anxiety disorder, no clue about Row’s strong principles, her sweet, naive belief in a perfect happy-ever-after, her pretzel-like attempts to please everyone she cared about and her determination not to hurt his fiancée, a woman she hadn’t even met, and dismissed all of this as merely annoying?

      “You want an answer right now?” Rox asked him.

      “I am hungry for it! I am hungry for you. Marcellina means nothing to me. I will marry her, yes, of course, because, you understand, it is what I owe my family, but you will always be—”

      “Okay, here’s my answer. Go take a flying leap! Is that enough of a decision for you?”

      “Rowena…?”

      “Go take a flying flip at the moon, Francesco Di Bartoli. Clear now?”

      With a tingling, light-headed sense of satisfaction, Roxanna slammed down the phone.