Page 127 of Be My Wife

My heart can’t handle another fake out.

There’s a knock on the door.

Levy enters, smiling. “Morning, Brogan.”

“What do you want?” I snap.

“Whoa.” He holds a hand to his chest. “You woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”

No.

I woke up to Elizabeth trying to grind on me.

I woke up on the best possible side.

The side I want to wake up on every morning.

“I just wanted to tell you that the liquidation process is going smoothly. You might even have the money in five days instead of seven.”

I don’t respond.

“Is… that your happy face? I can’t tell.”

“That’s great, Levy.”

“You can save the girl. She can have her surgery…” He dips his head, a confused look on his face when I don’t respond in the way he expects. “Is something wrong?”

“No.”

Levy glances in Elizabeth’s direction. “Oh.” He runs a hand over his shorn hair. “I see.”

“You see what?”

“When the girl receives the surgery, she’ll live, but your marriage will—”

“It won’t.”

“Brogan…”

“You don’t know anything.”

“I know that you and Elizabeth were total strangers before all this.”

I glare at him.

“Hey,” he lifts both hands, “I’m on your side here, remember?”

I smooth my palm over my face, feeling out-of-sorts and so freaking uneasy. “I know. I’m sorry. I’m just…there’s a lot going on.”

“The girl—is she okay?”

“The doctors are doing everything they can.”

“I hope it works out. You deserve a break, Brogan.”

Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t.

I’ve never wanted much.

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