Not Another Fake Marriage (Not Another Romance) Read online

  NOT ANOTHER FAKE MARRIAGE

  Not Another Romance Novel

  R.L. KENDERSON

  Contents

  Not Another Fake Marriage

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Epilogue

  Also by R.L. Kenderson

  About the Author

  Not Another Fake Marriage

  Copyright © 2022 by R.L. Kenderson

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN-13: 978-1-950918-39-3

  Editor: Jovana Shirley, Unforeseen Editing, www.unforeseenediting.com

  Cover image:

  Photographer: Wander Aguiar, Wander Book Club, www.wanderbookclub.com

  Model: Ródiney Santiago

  Designer: R.L. Kenderson at R.L. Cover Designs, www.rlcoverdesigns.com

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Not Another Fake Marriage

  Not Another Fake Marriage

  When she helps her ex’s brother and gets her revenge, he’ll show her that love can be better than vengeance.

  After my husband and I split, he ignored our divorce decree and hasn’t paid me a single dime owed to me. But when my former brother-in-law tells me he needs a fake wife to get his inheritance and save the family business from my ex’s hands, I can’t volunteer fast enough.

  Getting even is the only motive I need, but Trevor also offers to help me get my money, and it’s almost too good to be real. I can finally pay off my bills and move on with my life.

  But when it comes time for us to get our own divorce, Trevor decides he’s not going to let me go as easily as his brother did.

  Chapter One

  ALEXIS

  “Paisley, I’m so happy for you,” I said to one of my closest friends. “I’m sorry I was so cynical about Colin.”

  Paisley had recently begun dating, and when it’d started to get serious, I hadn’t been the most supportive. Probably because of my own failed marriage. But at least I recognized that and was able to apologize.

  “It’s okay. I know your heart was in the right place.” She picked up her menu.

  It was my monthly dinner with my friends from high school. We’d all met in choir and stayed close, even after all the years we’d been out of school.

  A few months ago, we had decided to turn our monthly dinners into a club because we’d all been single and sick of men. We’d even come up with the most ridiculous name—United She-Woman Single Ladies with Our Vibrators So We Never Have Another Bad Date or Experience Romance Again Because Men Suck Club—but it always made me smile. However, the hate was running low with my friends, seeing as one was married, one was engaged, one was seeing someone, and one was starting a new relationship. But I still was nowhere near ready to date again.

  “So, what is everyone having?” Paisley asked.

  “Oh my God,” Tessa said.

  “Oh shit,” Bree said.

  Paisley jerked her head up to see what our friends were looking at, and I could already tell by the look on her face that it wasn’t good.

  “Alexis,” she warned, but by now, I was turning in my seat to see what Tessa and Bree were talking about.

  As soon as my eyes landed on what they were all freaking out about, the blood drained from my face.

  It was my ex-husband with another woman. She was young and pregnant.

  A rock formed in my stomach.

  “That motherfucker,” Pru hissed. “He won’t give you the money for your half of the house, and now, we know why.”

  Kevin was supposed to sell the house we’d bought when we got married and then give me half the proceeds. It was in our divorce decree, but he’d been putting it off, knowing I couldn’t afford to take him to court again. Meanwhile, I’d been living in a small apartment, trying to save money for the café and bakery Tessa and I had just opened.

  I was pinching pennies, and he was living happily with a new woman.

  The lady shifted, and I caught a better look at her face.

  I spun back around to my friends. “I think I’m going to be sick. That woman—” I covered my mouth. I couldn’t say the words out loud.

  “Honey, we saw,” Bree said. “She’s pregnant.”

  “And by the looks of that belly, she was pregnant before they were divorced,” Pru said, crossing her arms and shaking her head.

  “It’s not that. I mean, it is, but…” I said.

  My ex and I had tried for several years to have a baby, but we’d been unsuccessful. While I was now glad since I didn’t have to co-parent with Kevin, it hurt to see he was getting something I wanted very badly. It made me feel like I was half a woman.

  “What?” Paisley asked gently.

  “That’s Candace,” I said.

  My friends exchanged glances, but they had blank looks on their faces.

  “Who’s Candace?” Paisley asked.

  Thankfully, before I had to answer, Tessa gasped. “Oh my God, Candace? She was your exchange student.”

  The last year of our marriage, we’d opened a home to an exchange student since we still hadn’t gotten pregnant. It seemed that while I had been baking to ease the pain of an unhappy marriage, Kevin had been fucking the young woman and knocking her up. We’d been married for four years but together since college, and it had come down to this.

  I nodded to confirm Tessa was right, and someone gasped.

  Pru slammed her fist against the table. “Let’s turn him in.”

  God, I wish.

  “She was nineteen when she came to live with us. She’s probably twenty now.” I shook my head in defeat. It isn’t fair.

  “Dammit,” Pru said.

  “Are you going to be okay?” Paisley asked me.

  I pushed my chair back and stood up. “I need a minute.”

  “Do you want one of us to come with you?” Tessa asked.

  Shaking my head, I said, “No. I’ll be right back.”

  I made my way to the back of the restaurant, where the restrooms were, and went inside the ladies’ room. I started to pace back and forth in front of the sink.

  It didn’t really surprise me that my ex was with someone now, but I was shocked with whom. Her parents had trusted us to take care of her, and Kevin had preyed on her. And I didn’t know if I was any better since it seemed to have happened under my nose.

  I slapped a hand over my mouth as bile rose in my throat. I spun around and w
ent into a stall. Waiting, I counted the seconds until my stomach settled before I walked out again.

  But just as I was exiting my stall, the door opened, and Candace came in. We both froze, and my eyes traveled down to her protruding belly.

  I was hit with so many thoughts at once.

  My ex was not the perfect man and left a lot to be desired, but I’d never thought he was the kind of guy to sleep with someone so young, especially someone like our exchange student. I didn’t understand how I’d judged someone so poorly and how I had been married to him.

  It was apparent that all those fertility tests I’d done were for nothing. My doctor had told me that they couldn’t find anything wrong, and since Kevin had refused to get tested, I had assumed it was him. The big pregnant abdomen staring at me said my physician had been wrong. It was me.

  I couldn’t be there a moment longer to process the rest of my thoughts.

  “Excuse me,” I said, stepping around Candace.

  “Please, let me explain,” she said.

  I glared at her. “I don’t want to hear any of your excuses. I brought you into my home and cared for you. Not once did you say a word to me about sleeping with my then husband, much less having his baby.”

  “It’s not what you think. Please, Alexis.”

  I looked down and scoffed. “Oh, but I think it is. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll get away from him before it’s too late.”

  Quickly, I left before she could say another word to me because part of me empathized with her. I, too, had been enchanted by Kevin’s charm at one time. But I couldn’t be around Candace. I knew it wouldn’t be good for my mental health.

  When I got back to the table, Tessa asked, “Are you going to be all right?”

  “As soon as I figure out how to get my money from Kevin, I will be.” I couldn’t fix the past, but I could at least get what he owed me. “I’m sick of that asshole jerking me around.” I looked up at my friends, determination flooding me. “I know our little club is mostly a fun joke, but I’m so grateful for it and the six of you because I am never getting married again. That bastard has ruined me forever.”

  Chapter Two

  TREVOR

  “Hello, Nana.” I gave my grandmother a kiss on her cheek and took my usual seat next to her at her dining room table.

  She put her hand on top of mine. “Hello, dear.”

  I studied her. I knew my grandma loved me. Without any hesitation, she and my grandfather had taken in my brother and me after our parents died in a car accident, but she didn’t always hand out affection.

  “Are you doing okay, Nana?”

  “Yes. Of course,” she said as she slipped her hand away from mine without making eye contact with me. Something was definitely going on with her, but before I could pry, she asked, “Where do you think your brother is?”

  I snorted. “Who cares?”

  “Trevor,” she scolded me.

  “Sorry. But honestly, I have no idea.”

  What Kevin wanted, Kevin did. He didn’t care about anyone else, including our grandparents. When our grandfather had passed away last year, he had come late to the funeral.

  Five minutes later, the front door opened.

  “I’m here,” Kevin shouted.

  “Wonderful,” Nana said. My brother walked into the dining room, and she smiled at him. “I’m so glad you could make it.”

  “I wouldn’t have missed it, Nana.” Kevin looked at me. “Hey, Trevor.”

  “Hey.”

  “Sit down, Kevin,” Nana said. “And start dishing up.”

  I picked up the mashed potatoes in front of me. My Nana made the best mashed potatoes. After putting two large spoonfuls on my plate, I turned to her. “Do you want some?”

  “Yes, please, but only a little.”

  I frowned in concern. This didn’t seem like her, but I scooped up some potatoes for her and put them on her plate. “Kevin?”

  My brother took the bowl from my hand as he shoved the plate of meatloaf at our grandmother.

  “Nana, do you want me to help you with that?” I asked her in a tone directed toward my brother to hint that he was unhelpful.

  “Trevor, I’m old, not incapable.”

  Kevin smirked at me.

  I ignored him and finished packing my plate with my grandmother’s home cooking.

  As Kevin and I stuffed our mouths, Nana picked at her food. When she caught me looking, she shoved a bite in her mouth.

  Kevin and I didn’t meet up for dinner at her home very often, so I’d had a feeling she wanted to talk about something important. But seeing her now, I was sure of it. What had her so nervous that she couldn’t even eat was the big question though.

  Because she was obviously anxious, I didn’t press her about anything. But as we neared the end of our meal, only making small talk, I began to worry it was something serious and Nana wasn’t going to say it.

  “Nana, I have someone I’d like you to meet,” Kevin said.

  “Oh. Have you started dating again?”

  He smiled. “Something like that.”

  “I’m happy for you. You deserve a nice woman.”

  My brother had already had a nice woman, but he’d thrown his ex-wife, Alexis, away like she was nothing. Last I’d heard, he still owed her money.

  And my poor grandmother had no idea how Kevin had treated his ex, and if she wasn’t so elderly, I would let her know. But she didn’t have that many years left, and I figured it was nicer to keep her in bliss before she passed than to live with being disappointed in someone she’d helped raise.

  Nana turned to me. “What about you, Trevor? Anyone new in your life?”

  I shook my head. “Not since Lorraine.”

  “That was two years ago.”

  “It was?” I quickly did the math in my head. “I guess you’re right.” I shrugged.

  “Trevor, I wish you’d find someone.”

  I smiled. “Nana, why are you asking me this? You never bother me about my dating life.”

  With a sigh, my grandmother sat back in her chair, looking defeated.

  “Nana?” I said.

  I looked at Kevin. Even he seemed concerned.

  “Boys, I need to tell you something.”

  Uh-oh.

  “I went to the doctor today, a specialist. He told me I have ovarian cancer. It’s stage four.”

  The food in my throat felt like a lump of nothing, and I forced it down. “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “It means, I likely have only a month or two to live.”

  My heart sank into my stomach. I wasn’t ready to lose her.

  I twirled the alcohol in my glass and took a long drink before I went to find my brother.

  He was in our grandfather’s study.

  “Where’s Nana?” he asked.

  “I left her in the family room.” I closed the door. “You and I need to talk.”

  “About what?”

  “You know what.”

  “You mean, the pharmacy?” Kevin asked as he sat behind the large mahogany desk.

  “Yes,” I said as I reluctantly took one of the two chairs across from him.

  My grandparents had both been pharmacists, and in the ’60s, they’d opened their own independent pharmacy in their small town. They’d only had one child—our father, who passed away when we were kids, leaving my brother and me to inherit the business.

  “We need to figure out what’s going to happen when the will goes into effect,” I said.

  Our father had also been a pharmacist and the one who was supposed to take over Nelson Pharmacy when my grandparents retired, but that plan had ended the minute my father died. My grandfather had told Kevin and me our whole lives that it was our job to grow up and run it one day, but that hadn’t happened.

  Kevin never had any intention of following in our family’s footsteps. He’d left our small town the day after he graduated, only coming home to visit about once a year for the first five years he was g
one. Not that I really blamed him.

  I had tried the pharmacy thing. I went to college and worked hard to get into the program, but it wasn’t for me. I had no interest in the profession, and I had no desire to live in the small town I had grown up in either. I broke it to my grandparents that I was switching my major to land surveying. It was what I had really wanted to do since high school after working for a land surveying company. Nana was disappointed, but she understood. Our grandfather was furious.

  He was so mad that in his will, he wrote that to inherit the business, Kevin and I either had to become pharmacists or be married. Apparently, he’d felt this was his only way of making us show a serious commitment to something. If neither of us fulfilled his expectations, the pharmacy would go to some third cousin, twice removed, we’d never met and who probably didn’t even know about the will.

  But that had been twenty years ago. We, including my grandmother, thought it had been a joke or a temporary will that he would exchange for a new one once he got over his anger. But when he’d died last year, we’d all found out the will was real. He had left my grandmother in charge until one of us came to our senses. And because the business had opened in the ’60s, my grandmother’s name wasn’t on any of the paperwork. She didn’t own a dime of that place. I guessed we were lucky my grandfather had made sure she would get the house and was taken care of. The old bastard had loved his wife, but he had been sexist as hell.