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Author’s Notes

If you are a premium reader, the first coupon for the companionship story, “She Works Hard for the Money,” has been added to your tier. Enjoy and add it to your Literary World of Sylvia Hubbard library immediately. As we proceed, other companionship books will be added to the collection as well.

Oh, I like this tier system, and I want to thank @suprina for her idea. Additionally, I appreciate that Gumroad provides me with numerous opportunities to offer my readers a delightful experience.

Check out the reader tier program now for this story by clicking here! There are only five slots available for the engagement tier, so secure your spot early to avoid disappointment, as all slots may fill up quickly.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me as soon as possible.

Now Enjoy… As you find out the many secrets before Tori was even born… whew chile. Trigger warning… yeah… I’m not going into detail, but you have been warned.

Happy Reading. Your author, Sylvia Hubbard

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Chapter 17 – Dear Tori

The circumstances of your conception will never deter my love for you. I started this journal when you were six years old. It’s the day after your swimming accident, and I’m sitting in the emergency room by your bedside, listening to you occasionally cough and gasp for air. They said there was still some water in your lungs, and I know this will make an indelible impact on your life.

I bought this thick journal from the gift shop. Most likely for someone dying and wanting to put the last of their memories inside. But this, I will use to put the first of my memories, so when you discover the truth, you will understand why I kept my promise to love and dedicate myself to you until the day I die, even though my heart belongs to others.

Tori was flabbergasted by her father’s words. Did Malea know about this? Was this why her sister wanted these boxes?

At that moment, Malea called her phone, and despite her rule to never answer her phone during bathtime, Tori decided to answer her sister’s call.

“Did you talk with Scott yet?” Malea demanded to know.

“Why would you need to call me and ask me that, when you can ask your husband?”

“I wanted to speak with you first before I spoke with him, Tori.”

“To get your lies straight?”

“Tori, don’t be like that,” Malea pleaded. “I’m out of town. I was sent to a hospital conference. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you to ask you for a couple more days before you open your big mouth to my husband.”

Her sister hadn’t called her out on her big mouth since they were little, when Tori often told on Malea when her sister did something wrong. “Or you accepted this out-of-town trip to put off the inevitable?” Tori surmised, rubbing her hand lovingly over her father’s journal.

“I had no choice but to leave out of town. It’s my job, Tori,” her sister implored. “I just need you to give me time, and I promise to tell Scott the truth.”

Until she finished her father’s journals, Tori decided not to confront her sister about her father’s confessions in them. Still, for the current situation with Malea cheating on her husband, Tori decided, “I will if you swear to me you’ve stopped seeing Norman.”

Malea hiccuped and huffed. “Yes! It’s over. I can’t see him anymore!”

Satisfied, Tori said, “Good. I’ll keep my mouth closed until you return.”

“Are you going to the dinner with Shawn?”

“Yes.”

“Have his brothers been bothering you?”

A secret smile graced her lips, and again Tori was glad they weren’t on a video call. “Not bothering me. Kevin just came over and changed my tires.”

“Kevin?” her sister asked, stunned.

“I got a flat around that property I told you I was interested in near your house, and I teased Shawn that I needed help in changing it, so Kevin came over and changed all my tires.”

“Kevin?” her sister asked again. “Why would Kevin do that?”

“Maybe Shawn told him to do it.”

“Kevin doesn’t do shit for anyone unless he wants to.”

“How would you know what Kevin would and wouldn’t do?”

Malea made that strange hiccup and cough again, but Tori also heard a strange sucking noise in the background.

“Where are you?” Tori pressed.

The sucking noise stopped suddenly. “I told you! A hospital conference. I came to my room for a moment. And I know Kevin because, unlike you, I actually paid attention to them when they were younger, and a guy like that never changes.”

“That’s neither here nor there for me.”

“Because it’s always about you, Tori,” her sister sneered.

“I’m not like that anymore, Malea.” She was already tired of talking to her sister and regretted answering the phone during her bath time. “When you get back in town, you’d better make a beeline to tell Scott the truth or you’ll be sorry.”

Tori hung up the phone and cursed under her breath. Getting out of the bathtub, she took the headphones and journals to bed. She needed to get back into them, find out what her father confessed in death that he couldn’t confess to her in life.

The following entry started: Let me start at the beginning…

Kimberly and Sherrie had been best friends since childhood. Kimberly was well taken care of by her family, coming from a lot of money, but Sherrie had come from a poor neighborhood, and they’d met at a camp. Sherrie had only been there on scholarship, but Kimmie’s family paid for her and had even donated a boat dock for the camp. Kimmie had a crush on Tori’s father, Keir Dawson Snow, from the moment she saw him, but didn’t know that Sherrie and her father had known each other since they’d come from the same neighborhood.

Kimmie openly pursued him, but unbeknownst to her, her father had already lost his heart to Sherrie. Yet, Keir wanted to change his circumstances and openly dated Kimmie. With her influence, he was able to advance in the world of business and real estate, while keeping his secret love hidden. When Sherrie became pregnant with Kevin, she found a mechanic, Amos Carter, when Kimmie started suspecting.

Tori stopped reading to gather herself and then reread her father’s words.

When Sherrie gave birth to Kevin, I knew my love for her would never die, and I needed to find a way to be with the woman who would forever have my heart.

Keir was Kevin’s father? That meant… And all the brothers were different versions of each other, which meant…

She ran to the toilet and threw up. Had she slept with her brothers?

Oh Gawd!

Tori crawled out of the bathroom to the journal, where she dropped it and started reading again hurriedly, trying not to throw up again.

For a year, I fought my desire and stayed away from Sherrie, but I slipped into a deep depression, where I ignored my wife and my new daughter until I couldn’t take it anymore, and I started to sleep with Sherrie again.

Kimmie decided instead of confronting Keir, she slept with Amos and deliberately got pregnant at the same time as Sherrie. Keir knew the baby his wife carried was not his because they had little to no sex life.

But I was so wrapped up in my love for Sherrie and my son’s, I didn’t really care and was just on autopilot in my marriage, and barely acknowledged Malea.

Tori wanted to chuck the journal across the room, but instead ran to the bathroom again to throw up once more. Her conception? Was that what her father meant when he said The circumstances of her conception wouldn’t deter his love for her? Because she wasn’t his?!

Cleaning her mouth, Tori trudged over to the journal, sitting in the middle of her bedroom floor, and started reading again.

On the day of Tori’s birth, Kimmie confronted Keir about his cheating ways with her best friend.

The last straw for Kimmie was when she realized what Sherrie named her youngest son and knew all of Sherrie’s children were mine. And that was when she revealed who the birth father of the daughter she had just given birth to was, and I would have the responsibility of naming the child.

If Keir wanted to continue using her financially and leveraging her network, he had to swear to love and spoil their youngest daughter above all else.

I had to swear that if, for any reason, I didn’t make this baby feel my undying selfless love, I’d lose everything, and Kimmie would make sure the whole world knew about what I had done.

Looking down into your innocent eyes, I was ashamed of my sins, but I wasn’t sorry for what I had done, yet, this baby – you – didn’t deserve being left behind because of me. I needed to pay for my insatiable lust for Sherrie by putting you first in my life above all things. I knew Amos would throw you away because he had sworn he never wanted daughters, and he’d threatened Sherrie that if she had any, he’d get rid of them.

The knowledge that Keir wasn’t her real father left her still sick to her stomach, yet perhaps not only had she learned his business acumen from him, but she could have also gotten her own lustful tendencies from him, even though they were not related by blood. From reading about Keir’s deep love of Sherrie, and how he felt he couldn’t get enough of having sex with her, perhaps Tori had learned something, and now she was becoming addicted to Keir’s sons.

She was also relieved they were not her brothers.

That didn’t mean she should be okay with continuing to have sex with them. This first journal should make her never want to see them ever again.

Yet, her mind said one thing and her body said another. Tori could understand Keir’s addiction fully because she didn’t want to stop seeing any one of the Carter Brothers, even after knowing the truth.

___ *** ___

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Her Substitute Husband… His Brothers (c) 2025 Sylvia Hubbard All Rights Reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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