After 138 Broken Promises, I Married His Better Match

For years, Stella Ward has lived under the Sterling roof, waiting for Julian to keep a promise. She has counted every broken word: one hundred and thirty-eight. Then, carrying a cup of hot tea to his study, she overhears him tell a friend the truth—she is only a stand-in who resembles Camilla Frost, a stray with nowhere else to go. He knows she is hurting, and he is in no hurry.

Behind a locked door he called junk, Stella finds a wall of photographs of Camilla and bank statements totaling $4,370,000 spent on her. She understands what she has been to him: a cheap placeholder. So she accepts the arranged marriage her family set up in New York and tells Aunt Clara she will never return to San Francisco.

When Julian comes home, he murmurs that the New York gossip means nothing. Stella only says okay. She will not confront him. She will simply leave, and this time she will not wait.