Page 70 of Be My Bride

Hansley’s mother will probably want to kill me.

He studies me. “Why do you care anyway? I thought the pressure was off because this isn’t real?”

“I want to make a good impression on your family.” My head begins to ache as I realize this is only a part of the truth.

I want Hansley’s parents to like me because…

Goodness. Why is this so important?

“Overachiever.” He slants me a teasing grin. “Stop stressing. When you meet them, you’ll realize you wasted all this energy over nothing.”

I chew on my bottom lip. “What if I say the wrong thing?”

Hansley rolls his head back against the seat rest. “You won’t.”

“What if she hates me on sight?” I panic.

“Never,” he mumbles, his eyes closed.

“How do you know that?”

“Because she’s the most loving, giving person I know.”

“You don’t understand mothers. They still see their sons as these precious babies they carried for nine months and—”

“She didn’t.”

I pause. “What?”

“Mom didn’t carry me for nine months.”

“It was a surrogate?”

His lips twitch. “No.”

“So then…?”

“I’m adopted.”

My body levitates straight out of my chair.

“Hansley, I—”

“Didn’t know?” He smirks and shakes his head. “Because I don’t advertise it.”

“How old were you when you went to live with them?”

“Five.”

“And your birth parents?”

He shrugs.

My heart aches for him. “I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t be. I was fortunate enough to get adopted by the world’s best couple.”

I study his face intently. There’s something in his voice. Some darkness that I can’t touch, but that I can feel. It’s the same brokenness I sensed when we first met at Make It Marriage.

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