Page 108 of Be My Wife

“What?” I ask.

“Brogan chose a fighter, I see.”

“No, it’s just—”

“It’s a compliment, Elizabeth.” She leans her head back. “Lana hurt him deeply. I was afraid he’d never trust anyone again. He was so adamant—” She stops. Shakes her head. “I realize now he wasn’t trying to convince me. He was trying to convince himself.”

“I don’t understand.”

She gives me a side-hug. “Just know that my son loves you very much.”

I hide my face in her shoulder, glad that she can’t see me cringe.

Gwen is wrong.

Brogan doesn’t love me.

And he definitely doesn’t trust me.

Not yet.

Not completely.

He wanted me to meet Lana because he wanted to prove something. He wanted me to stay out—out of his personal life, out of his business, out of his heart.

My connection to Brogan is getting more intense, but I have to be smart about this. Maybe he’s not like the guys who only chased me so they could have sex, but he is only after me for one thing—his inheritance.

I can’t mistake his attention as anything more than that.

Once he gets what he wants, he’ll leave too.

I swallow hard. “Gwen?”

“Yes.”

“No matter what happens, I’d like us to keep being friends.”

“What are you talking about, honey?”

“Can you promise me that?”

“Of course.” She looks perplexed. “But why?”

My phone rings.

I glance down.

Make It Marriage.

“I should get this,” I whisper.

She nods.

“Hello?” I say into the phone.

“She’s alive!” Venus’s cheerful voice rings through the line. “We were starting to think you were dead. I’m glad we were wrong.” She chuckles. “How are you, Elizabeth?”

“Good.”

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