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I kept my $17,500 monthly salary a secret from my fiancé. To him, I was just a girl living simply with a baby. I wanted to see how he treats a poor single mom, so I pretended to be broke and naive. He invited me to the family dinner, but as soon as I walked through the door…
Let’s see how much pressure this relationship could take before it cracked.
Nana June found me again before we left. She pressed a piece of paper into my hand.
“My phone number,” she said. “In case you ever need an ally in this family.”
I must have looked surprised because she laughed. “Patricia has been insufferable since 1987, dear. Don’t take it personally. She’s insufferable to everyone equally. Very democratic about it.”
For the first time that night, I genuinely smiled.
Maybe I did have an ally—an unexpected one—in the last place I would have looked.
As Graham drove me home, my mind was racing. The test wasn’t over. If anything, it was just beginning. Patricia would escalate. Meredith would circle. Sloan would scheme.
But Graham had defended me. Nana June had reached out. And I had more fight left in me than any of them realized.
The question was: when the real truth came out, would any of it matter?
A week passed after the party. A week of Graham being extra attentive, extra apologetic, extra everything. He brought me flowers. He brought Rosie a stuffed elephant she immediately tried to eat. He took us to the park, to dinner, to anywhere that wasn’t his family’s mansion.
He was trying so hard. And I was running out of reasons to doubt him.
But I needed one more test—one final push to see what he was really made of.
If Graham could handle me at my absolute lowest—not just poor, but desperate—then I would know for certain. I would tell him everything, and we’d build something real together. If he couldn’t, well, better to find out now than after I’d given him my whole heart.
So I created a crisis.
We were sitting on my couch, Rosie playing on a blanket between us, when I took a deep breath and started the performance of my life.
“Graham, I need to tell you something.” I made my voice shake—not hard to do when you’re about to test the man you love. “I’m in trouble.”
His face immediately shifted to concern. “What kind of trouble?”
“Financial trouble. Rosie’s dad… he stopped sending money completely. He blocked my number. I tried calling from a different phone and he hung up.”
I let my eyes fill with tears—real tears, actually, because the stress of this whole situation was getting to me.
“I don’t know how I’m going to make rent next month. I’ve been doing the math over and over, and it just doesn’t work.”
Graham didn’t hesitate—not even for a second.
“Move in with me.”
I blinked. “What?”
Continued on the next page
