The Perfect Guy: A Romance Novel Read online

  I lowered my gaze guiltily.

  “This is exactly why she needs to go, Charles. It’s obvious that we weren’t able to raise her in the right way if this is how she acts toward her own parents.” Only toward you. “Now that George so kindly agreed to take her back on the condition that she goes through the program, it’s a necessity.”

  “Are you suggesting that no other guy will ever want me if I don’t go through with it?” I challenged.

  “With the way you’re acting it’s not a suggestion, it’s a premonition,” she replied with a cold voice. That wasn’t even the worst she could have said. She was restraining herself for the sake of my dad. Had he not been in the same room, she wouldn’t have hesitated to tell what was really on her mind.

  “Renée, that’s ridiculous. Jenn’s an attractive young woman that any guy would be lucky to be with.” Mother recoiled from Dad’s words as if he’d slapped her. Good!

  I gave her a smug smile. She couldn’t make me do anything as long as Dad was on my side.

  “All of this doesn’t matter anyway,” I said, “because I’m not going.”

  Mother turned to me with fire in her eyes. “Oh yes, Jennifer, you are.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “As if you could make me. I’m twenty-six, and you have no say whatsoever when it comes to my decisions.”

  Mother gave me that same bone-chilling smile from before, and I felt a flutter of nerves in my stomach. What did she know that I didn’t?

  “Maybe I don’t, but the law certainly does.” Her words made Dad straighten up and the hair raise on my arms.

  “Whatever do you mean by that, Renée?” Dad asked sharply. He took his job as the Chief of Police very seriously.

  Mother’s smile widened. “By sending a filled-in in application bearing the applicant’s signature, you agree to attend the program in case you get accepted. It’s legally binding and unbreakable.”

  “I haven’t signed anything,” I said but somehow knew that it didn’t matter.

  Once again, she made a paper appear from nowhere and she offered it to Dad as he was the person of authority in this room. “That is a copy of the application. As you can see, it bears Jennifer’s signature.”

  I quickly rose from my chair and stood behind Dad to see what she was talking about. Sure enough, at the bottom of the paper was a perfect forgery of my signature. It could have fooled me had I not been positive that I hadn’t signed that paper.

  Dad placed the paper down on the table and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.

  “Dad, I didn’t sign that,” I said in a whisper.

  Dad sighed tiredly. “I know that, honey, but it can’t be proven that you didn’t. My hands are tied. There’s nothing I can do.”

  There was nothing he could do? Nothing at all? I felt my heart drop when I understood that I had no choice but to attend that stupid program in the fall. Mother had thought of everything when she decided to send me there.

  I closed my eyes in defeat and felt my tears burn behind my lids. I had promised myself at a young age that I would never let my mother see me cry, but this was by far the worst thing she’d done yet. I never, in my wildest imagination, thought she’d go to such lengths in her obsession to transform me from being the disappointment I was in her eyes. No matter what I felt for my mother, that fact hurt like no other.

  I looked up at the woman that I’d never really known, even though she gave birth to me, with eyes blank with unshed tears. Her smiled faltered and fell, but she didn’t drop her cold look.

  All I felt was sadness. I couldn’t even take pleasure in knowing that my mother couldn’t enjoy her little scheme as much when it was obvious that I wasn’t able to fight her and forfeited almost immediately.

  “I guess that’s it,” I said with a shrug. My voice was thick with suppressed sobs. “You win. By sending me to this…this school, you will finally have succeeded in transforming me into the emotionless robot you always wanted me to be. Congratulations.”

  A few tears escaped and I quickly wiped them away. Dad watched me with a pained expression. It destroyed him to see me like this, but there really wasn’t anything he could do, no matter how much he wanted it.

  I didn’t blame him. It wasn’t his fault. Had the application on the table been the only copy, we could have burned it and forgot all about it—he would have done that for me without hesitating—but there was another copy, probably residing in an office at the school.

  “It was nice seeing you, Dad, but I’ve got to go.” I leaned down and kissed his cheek, completely ignoring my mother’s protests at my sudden decision to leave before the brunch was over.

  I didn’t even spare her a glance when I passed her on my way to the front door.

  “She did what?!”

  “She forged my fucking signature, that’s what she did! I have no choice but to go to the academy of the Stepford Wives now.”

  “That bitch!” Rebecca exclaimed. “Don’t worry, darling. When the authorities comes looking for you for breaking a legal agreement, you can hide in Solomon’s and my basement. I know he won’t mind.”

  “As much as I would love to take you up on that offer, Sissy, I can’t be on the run for the rest of my life.”

  “Says who? We could fix you an entirely new identity. It would give you an excellent out from that worthless place you call a job.”

  I chuckled at that. I was working as a receptionist at a stockbroker office downtown. The pay was decent, but all I did during the days was answering the phone and scheduling meetings with the owners. Not very mentally stimulating if you ask me.

  “I’m going to have to quit anyway since I’ll be gone for a year,” I muttered to myself.

  “Sister from another mister said what? A year? You’re kidding me, right?”

  I sighed when I thought of it. “I’m afraid not. According to their webpage, the program is like a boarding-school where you live in rooms that are shared by either two or three students. The term starts on August twenty-fourth and ends on August twenty-third next year. They even keep you during the summer!”

  The research I’d done hadn’t exactly made me more sympathetic toward the program. Apparently, while attending the school, you were paired up with a volunteer who was supposed to act as your boyfriend or girlfriend. These volunteers were the ones you were supposed to test your new knowledge on.

  It made me nervous, thinking about me being paired up with a stranger who I was supposed to pretend was my boyfriend. The thought was just wrong and made me sick to my core.

  “Aw, hell no! So you’re saying that we won’t see each other for an entire year?”

  “They do allow visitors and I will be able to go into town whenever I want. They’re not very strict. All they demand is that you are inside school grounds after midnight, as that is when the gates close, and that you attend all of the classes.”

  “Even if they do allow visitors, it’s not like we can see each other every week. The freaking school is in fudging Ohio for fuck’s sake! That’s almost two thousand five hundred miles from here.”

  “I know, Sissy, and it sucks, but there really isn’t anything I can do.”

  Becca groaned. “I guess we’ll just have to make this summer worthwhile then.”

  “Definitely! Starting tomorrow. I’m going to seize the day and give my boss my two weeks’ notice. That way, we’ll have the entire summer before our hands.”

  “Sounds like a plan, darling.”

  It was the only plan I got.

  CHAPTER 3

  THE ARRIVAL

  August

  “You’ll have to call me every night, babe, do you hear me? I won’t accept anything else,” Becca said into my hair while hugging me goodbye.

  It was two days before the start of the term at The PPP and I was preparing to drive my ass to Ohio. We were currently outside my parents’ house where I’d been living for the past two weeks since I’d terminated the lease on my apartment. No use in paying
rent for an apartment I wouldn’t live in for a year, no matter how much I loved the place.

  During those two weeks, I’d kept to myself and as far away from my mother as possible. Our relationship hadn’t exactly improved since that fateful Sunday when she burned her last bridge. It had only gotten worse. She didn’t even try to hide her disappointment in me around my dad anymore. Whenever she got the chance, she would mention something she didn’t like about me.

  “I promise, Sissy. And if I don’t call, you’ll know that it’s because the man with my remote control won’t allow me to,” I said, trying to make a joke to lighten the mood. But it fell flat when Becca pulled away from our embrace and looked at me seriously.

  “Whatever happens, don’t let them change you too much, okay? Always remember that there are people back home who love you exactly as you are.”

  I watched as her eyes became blank with unshed tears, and I could feel my own waterworks begin. “No, Sissy, don’t cry. You’ll only get me started,” I said through a sob.

  The truth was that I was terrified of what would happen once I arrived at the school. I had no idea what to really expect as you couldn’t always rely on the internet. For all I knew, their webpage could be a fraud. The school might in actuality look more like a concentration camp with underground labs where they installed robotic chips into the students’ brains.

  Okay, so I knew that was probably just a tiny bit exaggerated, but still.

  I turned away from Becca and looked at Dad with sad eyes. He met my gaze with equally sad eyes and enveloped me in a tight, warm hug. This pained him just as much as it pained me, if not even more. This whole ordeal had opened his eyes to Mother’s behavior and real persona, so he was going through a kind of crisis at the moment. He needed to re-evaluate his ability to judge a character correctly, he’d told me. He didn’t like that someone he thought he knew had been able to fool him for such a long time.

  He’d always known that Mother’s and my relationship was strained, but he’d never meddled because he believed strongly in each individual minding their own business, and as long as we didn’t ask for him to get involved, he’d stay out of it.

  “I’m going to miss you, Doll. You have no idea how much,” he whispered and the tears that I so far had been able to keep at bay started to fall freely.

  “I’m going to miss you, too, Papa,” I whispered back. I used to call him that all the time when I was little. My first words were Pa-Pa instead of Da-Da, and so it automatically became my name for him. It wasn’t until I got into puberty that I started to call him Dad. Papa was reserved for moments between just him and me now, just like Doll—which became my nickname shortly after I was born since Dad thought I looked like a little dolly when I was a baby.

  The nickname caused him to tighten his hold on me for a second before releasing me and placing his hands on my cheeks while gazing into my tear-filled eyes. He gently leaned in and tenderly kissed my forehead.

  “Take care of yourself, honey.” He let me go, and I climbed into my car. I didn’t even spare Mother a glance, even though she was with us on the driveway.

  I ignited the engine, but before I drove off, I gave both Becca and Dad the promise that I would call when I checked in at the motel tonight and again as soon as I arrived in Ohio. I blew a kiss their way through my open window, and then I was off.

  I let out an impressed whistle when I lay my eyes on the school building as I drove up to the gates. Well, it definitely didn’t look like a concentration camp that was for sure. Unless this was just a front and all the barracks and torture equipment were in the backyard.

  The building looked like a freaking castle, with a gigantic green lawn in front of the entrance and huge oak trees that framed everything so that it looked like a picture from a story book.

  I drove up to the gates, but they stayed closed. I frowned in confusion. I’d called the school last week to announce that I would arrive today, so they were expecting me.

  The sound of static crackling made me whip my head around and I spotted an intercom nestled in the perfectly trimmed bushes that surrounded the driveway.

  Instinctively, I leaned out of my open window to get closer to the speaker when a male voice greeted me.

  “How can I help you, Miss?”

  I studied the intercom to see if there was a button I was supposed to press for him to hear me back. I couldn’t see one, so I leaned even closer in case he would hear me better.

  “Hi, my name’s Jennifer Braun. I’m one of the students for the new term.”

  “Can you hold up a valid identification for the camera, please?”

  Wow, tight security for a school. I reached for my purse on the passenger seat and dug around until I found my driver’s license, then wondered where the camera was placed. I couldn’t spot one anywhere, and I was sure I looked stupid as I scanned my surroundings.

  I was obviously not the first one to hesitate with the identification because after only a few seconds, the man told me to hold it up in front of the speaker in an amused voice.

  I did as he told and the gates almost immediately opened with a buzz.

  “Thank you. Welcome to the PPP Academy, Miss Braun.”

  “Thank you,” I replied politely and drove inside the school grounds.

  When I closed in on the main building, I saw a black-haired man dressed in a dark blue shirt and black pants. He was young—younger than me—and he appeared to be waiting for me.

  For a second, I feared that this was the volunteer that was to act as my boyfriend and my hold on the wheel tightened. I did have a small tendency to judge before getting to know someone, a personality trait I had acquired by being my mother’s daughter, and this was a boy. I’d at least expected someone my own age.

  The boy walked around the car and opened my door for me before offering me his hand to help me climb out. I hesitated in taking it. I could climb out of my car by myself, thank you very much.

  I did, however, accept his offered hand, but only until I was straightened out. Then I withdrew my hand quickly. The boy smiled widely.

  “Hi, Miss Braun,” he greeted me formally. “My name’s Seth Williams. Would it be okay for you if I drove your car into the garage?”

  I frowned. Was that how a “boyfriend” should act? Was that a part of the program?

  “Uh…yeah, sure,” I said after a second and handed Seth my car keys.

  “Thank you, Miss. I promise that no harm will come to your car.”

  I shrugged at that. It wasn’t exactly an expensive car or a new model of any kind. It was just a car, so if there happened to be scratch on it later, I wouldn’t exactly throw a bitch fit.

  When Seth drove off, I stood awkwardly outside the building and looked around for several minutes. Was I supposed to just go inside or should I wait for someone to come get me?

  I took a tentative step up the small stone stairs, and when nothing happened, I took another one.

  I was right outside the door, reaching out to turn the handle, when it was opened noisily and I startled.

  A woman in her late forties or early fifties came outside and looked at me with strangely youthful eyes. She had a heart-shaped face and caramel hair that fell down in natural waves. The only thing that indicated her age was the barely noticeable wrinkles by her eyes.

  Her face was open and kind, and once I got my heart to calm down, I exhaled in relief.

  “My dear, what are you doing out here? Everyone’s waiting for you inside,” she said with a bewildered expression.

  I raised my eyebrows in shock. “They are?” I asked.

  “Well, of course. You’re Jennifer Braun, correct?”

  I nodded mutely. It was a bit scary that this woman already knew who I was when I clearly had no idea who she was.

  When I didn’t say anything else, understanding lit the woman’s brown eyes. “Seth forgot to tell you to come straight inside, didn’t he? That boy! When he’s close to cars, everything else flies out the window, I
swear!”

  I was speechless as the woman gently, but firmly, grabbed my hand and led me inside. “I am Mrs. Esme Kellen, by the way. The headmistress and co-founder of The PPP, and I would like to give you a personal welcome to my school.”

  I wanted to hate her like I hated my mother, since she was the founder of such an unnatural institution, I really did, but I found it impossible. This woman was the complete opposite of my mother. She was open and warm, and this was something I was able to determine after being in her presence for less than five minutes.

  Mrs. Kellen looked at me expectantly and I realized she was waiting for a response from me. “Thank you,” I said belatedly.

  She gave me a small smile and gestured with her hand that I should follow her. “Everyone is gathered in the auditorium, which is classroom number one-hundred. Most of them arrived yesterday. Only a few came here this morning like you. You were the last one, but that was also expected since you had the farthest way to drive.”

  I only nodded. There really wasn’t a way for me to respond to that.

  “What was it that made you choose our school?” Mrs. Kellen continued.

  I opened my mouth to answer, but stopped myself in the last second. For all she knew, I was the one that applied. Not that my mother forced me. I was pretty sure she wouldn’t take that news very well.

  “My ex-boyfriend broke up with me because he thought I couldn’t act as a girlfriend. I’d heard about your school before, so I applied. I never thought I would actually get in.”

  It wasn’t a complete lie at least. I took some comfort in that.

  “Your application interested me. You seem to be a person who knows who she is and whom she wants to be, but still, here you are. Most applicants are people who’ve lost their way, people who needs a change in their lives.”

  “And you’re able to provide them with that change?”

  Mrs. Kellen smiled at me. “I like to believe that I am. So far, I haven’t had one student that didn’t gain something from their experience at my school.”

  I was intrigued. This wasn’t at all how I imagined the headmistress of The PPP to be like. I’d expected someone like the woman in Stepford Wives, the one married to Christopher Walken and the leader of all the robots. But Mrs. Kellen wasn’t like that at all.