Read No Happily Ever After (The Fairytale Diaries #1) for Free Online Page A

wondering about the bad winter weather.
    Nathalie Pure chuckled.  "Oh you know they will.  They wouldn't miss your father's sweet potato casserole for anything," she imparted.  Mention of her dad brought a shadow to Cailyn's face and her mood darkened slightly.
    Soon he joined them in the kitchen and the three of them worked together preparing the meal, quiet with their own thoughts.
    ***
    By eleven in the morning, the extended family had begun to arrive.  First, Great Uncle Huntsman, her mother's uncle.  He was a serious brooding fellow.  Though Cailyn didn't know him well, and he generally seemed humorless and even hard to get along with, she'd always heard tales of him lingering quietly in the background of the family, watching and protecting.
    Another slew of aunts, uncles, and grandparents trickled in but finally it was time for Cailyn's most anticipated guests to arrive.  Her father's brother and his wife, and their whopping total of seven sons.  They were the Pure family's claim to fame.  Two sets of twins and one set of triplets had been born to the couple over a short period.  Everybody joked and teased the couple for their apparent superhuman baby making abilities.  The entire family worked together to help support the huge bunch, and the boys were the darlings of every occasion.
    The oldest set of twins was seven and was comprised of Jordan, the serious, sometimes grumpy brother; and Marvin, the exceptionally smart, leader of the pack.  Next came five year old twins, Jake and Kyle.  Jake being the brother who was always bubbly and in a great mood, and Kyle the silly flibbertigibbet who was forgetful and silly.  Finally came the triplets, three year olds.  Frank who was painfully shy and always peered up at Cailyn with a silly smile and bashful eyes.  Caleb who had terrible allergies and sneezed eighty six thousand times a day, poor kid.  And Albert who always seemed in the middle of a growth spurt and needed naps constantly.
    Cailyn spent the day helping and playing with the boys and remembering how very much she adored her entire family.  How very much she just wanted everything to be OK.  She watched her small cousins and contemplated how much things would change if her father and mother split up.  She couldn't stand the thought of it.
    But eventually the day wore down and the family began to trickle out just as they'd arrived until Cailyn was once again left alone with her parents. 
    In the stillness that followed the lively party, she realized, no matter how much she hated the idea of her family breaking up, the threat was real.
    ***
    Cailyn clung to her dad.  Her mother misinterpreted it as a rekindling of their father daughter bond, and was delighted.  Her blissful ignorance only served to further depress Cailyn.  And in late hours of the night, Mr. Pure would steal into her room to update her about communications from Aliah.
    Her father informed her that his office was plagued with hang up phone calls.  His inbox was flooded with vulgarity.  No more threats or even mentions of Cailyn.  Mostly just senseless, profane ramblings.  Or sometimes Aliah would forward his own old emails back to him.  Emails where he'd promised her the sun and moon.  These sorts of messages she'd send over and over, up to one hundred times in a row.
    He also reported seeing her outside his office frequently.  Mr. Pure told Cailyn that he'd be heading out the front door of his firm and stop dead in his tracks when he spotted Aliah standing across the street.  Her black hair whipped around her face in the frigid winter wind.  She wore big black sunglasses, despite the grey, sunless days.  They covered most of her face, but of course Quinton knew that it was her.  He revealed to Cailyn that every time he saw her, she was dressed all in black, which wasn't her usual.  And she'd be wearing black leather gloves and smoking long skinny cigarettes. 
    "I never knew her to smoke in the past," Quinton