Chapter 1: The Night Everything Fell Apart

The ink on our engagement contract was barely dry when Evan Palmer convinced me to break my promise to wait until marriage.

I remember the way he looked at me that night—his touch warm, his words gentle, the sort of tenderness that, for a moment, made me believe in forever. But forever turned out to be nothing but a night I’d regret.

The next day, still aching and raw, I went searching for him—only to see him fling my bra onto the living room carpet in front of my dad and announce:

"I’m not marrying a girl who doesn’t know how to behave."

Dad’s face went red as a stop sign, his jaw clenched so tight I thought he’d break a tooth. For a second, the world went dead silent except for the hum of the old fridge in the hall.

"If the engagement can’t be broken, then have your younger daughter from your second wife marry me instead."

So it turned out, the woman he truly loved was my half-sister, Willa, the daughter Dad had with his second wife.

It felt like the air had been punched out of me. My hands shook so badly I had to tuck them behind my back. In the living room, my stepmom’s portrait hung over the brick fireplace, next to the faded high school football photo of Dad in his glory days. Her smile seemed to mock me now.

Later, Evan cornered me. "When you become my side piece, don’t go acting all high and mighty in front of your half-sister—the real wife."

His words landed like a slap, sharp and humiliating. My cheeks burned, the feel of the carpet rough beneath my toes, and all I wanted was to disappear. I could almost hear my mother’s voice in my head, warning me about boys like him, but I just stood there, numb.

I said nothing. He didn’t know.

After this, Dad had already set me up to marry into a family in Savannah, far from Chicago.

I pictured sprawling oaks, the sticky sweetness of magnolia blooms, and porch swings creaking in the humid dusk. The idea of Savannah was so different from the city. I wondered if I’d ever belong there, or if I was just being shipped off like an inconvenient package.