
On Valentine's Day, Gabriella Watson spent 24 hours straight inside Fred W. Symmes Chapel, sitting in the same pew, clutching her rosary, whispering prayers until her voice went hoarse and her body ached. She did it because her husband, Daniel Durke, and their son, Jerome Durke, claimed they weren't feeling well. They swore if she prayed hard enough, they'd start to feel better. Exhausted, she caught a red-eye flight home. Midway through, her phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number. "Your husband's marrying his stepsister today. Your son's the ring bearer." Gabriella rolled her eyes at the cruel prank and typed back, "Impossible. My husband and son love me." But when she finally pulled up to the estate, she saw it with her own eyes—Daniel, in a tux, sliding a ring onto his stepsister's finger as she stood radiant in a wedding dress. Jerome clapped and grinned. "Thia, now you're my real mom! I don't have to live with that naggy woman anymore!" Gabriella felt the world tilt. The rosary slipped from her hand and scattered across the ground.
Chapter 1
On Valentine's Day, Gabriella Watson spent 24 hours straight inside Fred W. Symmes Chapel, sitting in the same pew, clutching her rosary, whispering prayers until her voice went hoarse and her body ached.
She did it because her husband, Daniel Durke, and their son, Jerome Durke, claimed they weren't feeling well. They swore if she prayed hard enough, they'd start to feel better.
Exhausted, she caught a red-eye flight home. Midway through, her phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number. "Your husband's marrying his stepsister today. Your son's the ring bearer."
Gabriella rolled her eyes at the cruel prank and typed back, "Impossible. My husband and son love me."
But when she finally pulled up to the estate, she saw it with her own eyes—Daniel, in a tux, sliding a ring onto his stepsister's finger as she stood radiant in a wedding dress.
Jerome clapped and grinned. "Thia, now you're my real mom! I don't have to live with that naggy woman anymore!"
Gabriella felt
