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About this story:
He proposed to the wrong woman. His ex wants him back. And somebody’s been keeping a secret far more dangerous than a fake engagement.
Author’s Notes
Honestly, I was pretty afraid to write this first chapter. Kam has been running around in my head for a while, and I didn’t know if I could do her justice, but then I threw a little bit of me… the old me – the one I fight against every day as a married woman.
Afraid of getting hurt and putting up walls to block the pain.
It was hard, and it brought back old times.
We’re off and running. Chapters one through three will be free, and then you have to get the password file.
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- Her Name is Mine (WIP)
- Desire Me (WIP – Windfall Brother Series Book Three)
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Read as the Author Writes
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Chapter 1 – Worst Birthday Ever
“Excuse me, Miss… Would you marry me?”
If someone had told her in less than forty-eight hours someone was going to say those words to her, she would have called them a bald-faced liar and then cackled maniacally because, as she lay in the hospital, pain racking every cell to her bone marrow, Kamryn Edwards was ready to not feel anything.
“I haven’t seen her cry once,” a nurse had whispered when they thought Kam was sleeping.
Of course Kam wouldn’t cry. She never cried. Being raised in foster care taught her that tears got her nowhere but slaps to the face.
She was between sleep and wakefulness when she heard the nurse come in to check her vitals. As her head pounded like a sledgehammer dancing on every side of her skull, even her eyelids hurt to move as she lay in the bed. The machines beside the bed beeped steadily like a countdown to the inevitable, which Kam hoped was death.
So much pain all over – nonstop.
The nurse didn’t leave immediately, and Kam reluctantly acknowledged the woman standing beside her bed.
Focusing her eyes hurt, but she reluctantly did so to see what the nurse was holding. Even without the wrapper, Kam knew it was a stale vending-machine muffin with a tiny pink candle stuck in the middle. Had the woman chosen pink because she knew it was Kam’s favorite color? She had been wearing the lovely new summer collection of the latest designer from Paris when they brought her in. The dress had been especially created for her. No one else had pink in that designer’s collection. She’d ordered it personally just last week. She’d only worn it once, and now it was probably stuffed in a bag, covered in blood and dirt.
The sourness of losing the dress made her forget her pain for a moment, but then eveyrthing returned as she focused on the nurse’s other hand, which held a lighter.
“I looked at the chart when I came in for my shift,” the nurse cooed happily. “And I saw it was your birthday at midnight. You were born somewhere and then brought to this hospital with your umbilical cord still attached and even some of the placenta stuck on your foot. I had to sneak down in records to find everything, but good thing my ex works down there and granted me a favor for a looksie.” The short-haired young black nurse chuckled wickedly, but more to herself. “But it was worth the look.” She gave Kam a quick wink with her doe-brown eyes, dimples showing on both sides of her face.
Kam’s eyes lit up for a moment, then darkened. In all her thirty-six years, no one had ever told her that. She’d never made an attempt to look into her birth past, but always clocked when someone said something about how she came into the world. Perhaps that feeling of never being a part of any family always felt strange to her. As if she was floating in a large pool, but nowhere to anchor.
It took a moment to gather the strength to speak, and although her vocal cords screamed out being used, she still pushed out the words. “How did you know?” She had to quickly lick her dry, cracked lips, tasting the metallic blood still caught in the crevices.
“When you came in, they couldn’t find your ID, and we took your handprint, ran it through our computer network, and found you were a part of an abandoned baby log.”
Kam knew she had been abandoned, but she had never known it was at this hospital. Those records were sealed. Even her birth certificate only showed the City of Detroit as her place of birth, but no parents were listed on the certificate. Her name? Was a misspelling, and her last name came from the street she’d been found on, swaddled in a trash bag in the middle of winter.
Her birthday?
That meant she’d been in the hospital for a week.
Today would have been the big day.
This was the worst birthday ever.
She had really messed things up this time, and not just for herself.
Who sleeps with their fiancé’s brother, gets pregnant by said brother, and then pushes their fiancé to insanity to deliberately drive into a cement wall, flip the car over, and get into the worst car accident.
Had he killed someone else? She had been unconscious this past week, so she couldn’t remember.
You decided to tell him eveyrthing while he was driving, thinking he’d just accept the cheating like he had accepted all the other things about you. You were only trying to push him away, as you’d done with everyone else. You wanted him to leave. You needed him to leave.
They were supposed to be on their way home to get ready for the wedding rehearsal when that side of crazy came out in him.
He was just supposed to swallow the shame and get over it. Just like all the other times.
The car accident not only killed her fiancé but also the baby she was carrying.
It wasn’t as if you really planned on keeping it.
That voice in her head was her own. The old Kamryn. The one before the accident who enjoyed hurting people and seeing how far she could push them. Her fiancé had been the longest one. She thought he enjoyed the torture. Love him, but only if he took the scraps of affection she offered.
Even his brother laughed with her as they would fuck. He loved seeing his ‘perfect’ little brother being tortured by the heart.
Kam took comfort in knowing she was setting up her life with this man she barely liked, and she would take what she wanted, do whatever she wanted, and then give him crumbs of affection every once in a while.
And the son of a bitch brother had the nerve to be upset. The same man who had been blowing her back out, laughing with her about how her fiancé was crying about loving her so much, had just that morning burst into her hospital room, raging about what a selfish, evil whore she was.
Security had to drag him out as he yelled, ‘If I see your face again, I’ll kill you!’
The police arrived shortly, not because of the vicious threats the brother had made, but because the house they had planned to move into after the wedding had mysteriously burned to the ground.
She was homeless in two days because she had given up the lease on her apartment, but for now she was at the hospital wishing herself a happy birthday with a dried-out muffin.
The nurse placed the sad, dried-out muffin on the table in front of Kam and lit the candle. The smoke burned her eyes, nose, and throat.
It was the worst birthday in the world.
Happy birthday to me, you selfish evil whore!
Again, that was her voice in her head, but she kept her face unemotional while everything inside her fell apart.
This wasn’t the first time she had messed up. Stealing friends’ husbands, causing emotional chaos by revealing people’s business, and ruining events in a purposeful drunken rage, Kam was already on the path to never having another friend.
And she thought once she married, she wouldn’t need anyone.
Marriage would secure her future with benefits and stability, something she secretly longed for but never told anyone. All her life, she had been left alone, never depending on anyone, but always wanting a home, a family, a life where someone needed her, desired her, wanted her around.
Foolish dream. This was her present thought because it had always been the truth, and she’d fallen for it so many times when she was younger; she hated herself for falling for it again. You know that will require sacrifices you aren’t willing to give. Not ever. Protecting herself was what had made her so strong. She’d seen other girls in foster care give and give, hoping for the same things she desired and then getting hurt, pushed to the brink of misery. And now… She’d gone the other way, protected herself and still ended up hurting an innocent.
Since they weren’t married yet, all his assets went to his mother, including his business, which she had helped build from the ground up. For her, since they’d never made any contract, his brother took ownership of the home they had planned to move into, and the brother’s name was the co-signer on the lease of the apartment she had been living in. She would receive nothing.
The brother hurled a bag of belongings from the car: her Chanel purse, ruined with blood and skid stains; one Christian Louboutin shoe; her matching makeup bag; and the marriage certificate.
All her credit cards that had been on her fiancé’s accounts were cut in half, and all her accounts were closed, but that was because they were all his, and she utilized the bank cards, which were destroyed – on purpose.
The only thing of real significance was a key to the apartment, but she had a feeling that whatever was left there, she wouldn’t like.
She wasn’t at the bottom of the bucket; Kam was underneath the bucket because she owned absolutely nothing.
A stupid move on her part, but she’d planned to open accounts after she changed her name after marriage. Until then, she had figured adding her money to his bank accounts would be fine – almost two hundred thousand in savings. Her fiancé was a weak man, and there was nothing he would do to take her money away.
The brother was another problem. Now that he was the only brother, he decided to step up to that wicked witch of the east mother and act like he cared that his brother was dead because of her.
His actions had left Kam destitute. No reason to go on and start all over – with what? Nothing.
An associate degree in literature from a community college means nothing in the workforce.
And it wasn’t really about starting over. She had lost a baby, and her careless, selfish actions had killed a son, brother, and friend.
He’d been taking a chance on her, and she’d been greedy… selfish… stupid.
The nurse’s voice broke her thoughts. “Well, make a wish before we set off the sensitive fire alarm.”
Closing her eyes, Kam made a wish.
I wish to stop the pain.
Just as she blew out the candle, someone else came into the room. Kam didn’t bother to adjust her eyes, which still hurt, and was a little grateful the nurse took care of the other occupant.
“She needs to sign and get all this extra shit out of here,” she heard the other person say, forcefully shoving a thick clipboard into the nurse’s hands.
“Ms. Edwards, the billing department determined you’re not covered after midnight.” As the nurse spoke, she began to unhook Kam from the various machines. “Unless you can sign a promissory payment waiver. It’s the only way you can stay, but we’re going to have to move you to the lower floors.”
Her voice didn’t sound promising as she moved the muffin aside and set the clipboard in front of Kam.
Looking at the waiver the nurse placed in front of her, Kam asked, “I had coverage until the end of the month.”
“According to your insurance, your coverage was terminated immediately by your recent new employer.”
The nurse had been there when her ex’s brother had come to the hospital, and Kam could see the misery in the woman’s eyes.
‘You’re fucking fired, you selfish evil ho!’
Kam, knowing she had nowhere to go and she couldn’t possibly walk the streets in her condition, she picked up the pen to sign.
The nurse sharply cleared her throat. “It’ll be almost three grand a night if you sign this,” she warned. “And that’s not considering the medical expenses. Are you sure you want to do this, Ms. Edwards?”
“I don’t have any place else to go.”
“Are you sure? Three grand a day is no joke.”
Mentally, Kam’s common sense agreed; spiritually, she was destitute. “How long do I have to stay here?”
“If you don’t sign this, less than three hours. If you do, a couple of days max, depending on how you work it. It’s not worth it. I can pack you enough medical supplies to help you out.”
Or Kam could have two days lying in bed doing nothing while wallowing in her misery and pain.
Just holding the pen was killing the whole side of her body. In irritation, Kam snipped, “What gives you the right to tell me what to do?”
The nurse looked briefly hurt, then shrugged. “Do you then?” she responded, dumped the dry muffin in the trash, and continued turning off machines and disconnecting Kam from everything.
Reluctantly, Kam pushed the clipboard away and set the pen down, wincing as the nurse pulled out the IV and started wheeling machines away from the bed.
Making sure the nurse kept her promise, Kam reminded her, “If you could bring me that stuff you promised, I will need it before you all kick me out.”
Again, the nurse shrugged, but Kam could see the woman regretted promising to help her out. Kam always seemed to rub people the wrong way. It was her nature, which was why she was having the worst birthday ever.
Since Kam’s clothes were destroyed, the nurse gave her two pairs of medical pajamas, socks, and some used shoes from lost and found. The nurse also found an old backpack where several medical items were stuffed in there – enough for two days.
As much as it hurt to move, Kam knew her time there was ending. The hour to leave was fast approaching, and the nurse seemed ready for her to get out. Kam gathered what she had, forcing herself not to shed a single painful tear or wince any louder than a whisper.
She didn’t want this nurse’s pity. Pity was for the weak, and Kam refused to garner any.
Kam had had bad days before, but this was the worst birthday ever.
___ *** ___
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Marry Me (c) 2026 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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