Substitute Bride: My Mysterious Loser Husband

RY

entirely. When are you fin

half-open bedroom door, accompanied by a s

Avery right now," the man groa

In our house, even the dogs have a higher status than she does. What's so good about her? She won't even let

thrust harder, drawing a loud, triumphant moan fr

ery single word. The exhaustion in my eyes hardened in

ah, the nanny who had raised me and the only real mother I had e

my days caring for Hannah at the hospital and my nights scrubbing greasy plates in a diner kitchen until d

f three years was insid

went comp

x slipped f

h

box burst open, and the carefully crafted blue and whi

ing in the bedro

was yan

hair a sweaty mess. Behind him, emerg

e hockey world, this was the ultimate symbol of a player claiming his girl. Yet, in our three years together, he had never let me wear it once. He used to look at me with disguised disgust, claim

panic when he saw me. "Avery!

. She leaned against his bare chest, her eyes raking over my faded jeans and tired face with absolute

there, feeling a strange, icy detachment,

ntly reek of cheap hospital disinfectant and poverty. You walk around looking like a miserable old woman! You dump all your energy into that half-dead nanny of yours. Have you even acted like a girlfriend lately? I'm

ble monster. Pure, unadulterated rage twisted in my gut like a rusty knife, making my

et, violently interrupting

Massachusetts G

s. Hayes? Regarding Hannah Miller's treatment plan. We must remind you that the $50,000 sur

ed the doorframe tight

eard the voice on the other end.

or's chest. "Avery, you can't even feed yourself, how are you supposed to save anyone else? Or better yet,

's enough," he muttered, trying to salvage a shred of h

he icy air filling my l

, peeling hand, and slapped Trevor across his hypocr

AC

t living room. His head snapped to the side, a br

d expression and Sie

hem as if they were rats in a gutter, my voice eerily calm. "You