Too Late For His Desperate Proposal

For seventeen years, I loved my best friend, Holden King. I was the quiet girl who always had a bandage for his scraped knees, secretly believing we were meant to be.

But he shattered my world with six words: "She's my sister. That's all." He fell for the cruel and glamorous Fabiola, even taking her to our secret meadow.

Her jealousy was a poison. She faked a pregnancy to trap him, then hired a man to attack me in an alley. The trauma ruptured an aneurysm in my brain, and I went blind.

Through it all, Holden defended her. He refused to believe she was capable of such evil, choosing the monster he'd known for months over the girl he'd known his whole life.

My savior, a kind doctor named Jace, offered me a future, and we planned a fake wedding to give my terrified parents hope.

But as I stood blind at the altar, Holden crashed the ceremony. He fell to his knees, a diamond ring in his hand.

"I love you, Chloe," he cried. "Marry me."