Twenty-Six receipts of betrayal Novel novel Chapter 56

After seven years, my boyfriend, Sean Winters finally divorced his arranged–marriage wife.

I stood outside his office, clutching a thermos of chicken soup I’d simmered for five hours.

My pregnancy test report was carefully folded in my inner pocket.

As I reached his door, his best friend’s voice carried through the gap.

“Sean, enough. Seven years of this drama–when are you actually gonna sign the divorce papers?”

“Lanie was only 20 when she was with you! She gave you everything–three years as your girlfriend, seven more in the shadows while you played house with Charlotte. She’s almost thirty, man. If you don’t love Charlotte, end it already. Give Lanie what she deserves.”

I felt a smile starting to break across my face–until Sean’s next words stopped me cold.

“Charlotte’s pregnant.”

His friend’s voice exploded with disbelief.

“Again? Your first kid’s already five, and you don’t even dare to tell Lanie!”

“You’re finally getting divorced and now–a baby number two?! What are you gonna do?”

The silence that followed felt endless.

“She’s keeping it. That was one of Charlotte’s conditions for divorce–I never have children with anyone else.”

My fingers clenched around the thermos so hard the scalding metal edge nearly broke skin.

So this was what heartbreak felt like–every inch of my chest burning with pain.

I pulled out my phone and dialed a number I hadn’t called in years.

“Aunt Annie, I’m coming with you to Africa.”

I hung up and flagged down a cab.

Outside the window, the city blurred past–just like the absurd decade I’d wasted on Sean Winters.

In the beginning, I was his legitimate girlfriend.

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Twenty–Six Receipts of Betrayal: My Silence Was the Countdown to His Eternal Regret

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Chapter 1

But then he said, “Lanie, we’re from different worlds. My mother would never approve.”

He said, “Lanie, it’s just a business arrangement. There’s nothing between Charlotte and me. You have to trust me.”

On their wedding day, he even brought me face–to–face with his ‘wife‘ to reassure me of my place in his life.

That stunning heiress swirled her wine glass and smiled at me.

“Don’t feel bad, Miss Brooke.”

“I have someone I love too. Sean and I are just business partners.”

“We’ll divorce when the timing’s right. Just be patient.”

SEVEN YEARS.

That’s how long I’d been “patient.”

Looking back now, they’d had countless opportunities to divorce.

Maybe it wasn’t that they *couldn’t*. Maybe they just didn’t *want* to.

I dug my nails into the soft flesh of my thigh, but the pain didn’t register. Tears slid silently down my face.

The driver glanced at me in the rearview mirror and passed back a tissue.

“Hey, sweetheart. As long as you’re breathing, nothing’s impossible to get through. Don’t give up on yourself.”

“You’re still so young. You should get out there and see the world!”

I stared out the window, repeating his words in my mind.

*Yeah. As long as you’re alive, you can survive anything.*

*Lanie Brooke, it’s time to find yourself again.*

–

Back at the apartment, I heard water running in the bathroom–Sean was in the shower.

I turned on the TV. Aunt Annie was doing a live broadcast from Africa, the great wildebeest migration thundering

behind her.

It was the first time I’d watched her work since graduating college.

Seven years ago, Aunt Annie had asked me to study abroad and travel the world with her as her photography assistant.

Hie Eternal Regret

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Chapter 1

I’d been tempted. God, I’d been SO tempted.

But I couldn’t leave Sean.

He’d clung to me and cried the entire night. Then he tattooed my name over his heart.

The Winters family had strict rules–no one in the family was allowed to get tattoos. Ever.

But he’d broken that rule for me.

That’s why I loved Sean so recklessly, so completely.

One gesture from him, and I’d fall apart all over again.

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