My Fiancé Left the Phone Line Open One Day Before Our Wedding, and I Heard Him Tell His Mother He Planned to Take My House, My Savings, and Then Get Rid of Me. So I Changed a Few Details About the Ceremony—and When the Final Wedding Gift Appeared on the Screen, Nathan Learned He Had Never Been the One Running the Con.

Despite everything, I laughed.

Grace covered her mouth.

I continued.

First, don’t get dramatic. You know I hate when you get dramatic.

I laughed and cried at the same time.

Second, if you raised Lily and Grace, I know exactly what you told everyone—that they were never a burden.

I know.

But love still costs things.

It costs sleep.

It costs time.

It costs careers and vacations and quiet mornings and parts of yourself you never get back.

You would give those things without asking for repayment.

That is exactly why I want you to have something.

My vision blurred.

I kept reading.

Not because you were their guardian.

Because you were my sister.

Because if there was one person in this world I knew would choose my girls even when it hurt, it was you.

There is a separate trust.

I stopped.

“No.”

Grace squeezed my hand.