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Refusing Financial Dependence.

Author: Pr3shy V.
last update publish date: 2026-08-08 05:22:26

~ Ivy ~

I wiped a streak of dried black paint off my thumb with a wet napkin. The paper towel torn off the roll on my small kitchen counter was already gray and crumpled. My brushes sat in a tall glass jar filled with cloudy water, resting right beside my sketchbook.

Two quick knocks rattled the front door.

I set the napkin down and walked across the wooden floor. I unlocked the deadbolt and pulled the door open. Ethan stood on the porch holding two heavy brown paper grocery bags. He wore his b
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  • The Plus-Sized Bride No One Wanted: Too Fat to Love    The Static He Can't Ignore.

    ~ Julian ~My chief lawyer, Bradley Vance, did not knock before stepping through the heavy oak door of my top-floor office. He carried a single red folder under his arm, his gray brows drawn tight across his forehead. "Julian," Bradley said, closing the door firmly behind him. "We have a critical problem."I leaned back in my leather chair, tapping my silver pen against the mahogany surface. "The municipal transit deal? The city council was supposed to sign off on the funding this morning.""No," Bradley said, setting the red folder squarely in front of me. "This is not about the transit contract. It is from the Ashbourne County District Attorney’s office. A grand jury records subpoena landed on my desk forty minutes ago."I set the pen down. "A subpoena? For what?""For building security logs, private surveillance feeds, and internal guest incident reports from the annual charity gala eighteen months ago," Bradley answered. His voice dropped lower. "Specifically, an ongoing criminal

  • The Plus-Sized Bride No One Wanted: Too Fat to Love    Static On the Line.

    ~ Ivy ~ The studio was quiet, except for the soft sound of my palette knife scraping against the wood. I was mixing a deep shade of blue for a large canvas near the front window. Outside, the morning light hit the street, and everything felt calm. For the first time in months, my hands were not shaking. Then, my mobile phone began to buzz on the wooden workbench. The screen flashed with a number I had never seen before. I wiped a smear of paint off my fingers onto a dry cloth and picked it up. "Hello?" I said. "Is this Ivy Monroe?" a brisk, clear voice asked on the other end. "Yes," I answered slowly. "Who is calling?" "My name is Rebecca Sloane," the woman said. "I am an investigative reporter with the Ashbourne Tribune. I am looking into some irregular financial records connected to Vance Global and your father, Arthur Monroe." My stomach instantly dropped into a cold, heavy pit. Hearing my father's name spoken aloud made my chest go tight, exactly the way it used to when I

  • The Plus-Sized Bride No One Wanted: Too Fat to Love    The Weight of a Pattern.

    ~ Ethan ~"Ethan, it isn’t just an accident anymore," Marcus Webb said. He dropped a thick manila folder onto the metal table, the sound flat and heavy in the cramped room.The county records basement smelled like decaying paper and burned breakroom coffee. Overhead, a dying fluorescent tube hummed a shrill, uneven note that had been drilling into my temples for twenty minutes. I sat with my hands locked together on the scratched laminate, surgical scrubs still smelling faintly of antiseptic. I hadn’t slept more than three hours in the last two days, and behind my eyes was a steady, thrumming ache."What did you dig up?" I asked.Webb tapped the edge of the folder. "Ohio. Five years back. College town outside Columbus. A kid named Miller was walking back from a campus bar when Chloe Bennett plowed her sports car onto the sidewalk. Shattered both his femurs. Three months in traction.""And not a mark on her record.""Her old man wrote a seven-figure check before the ink was dry on the

  • The Plus-Sized Bride No One Wanted: Too Fat to Love    What Fear Feels Like Now.

    ~ Ivy ~My fingers twisted the worn leather strap of my purse into knots. I sank deeper into the gray tweed couch in Dr. Wells’ office, digging the heels of my boots hard into the rug just to ground myself. On the wall, the round wooden clock clicked off the seconds. Usually that rhythm helped pull the air back into my lungs. Today, it sounded like a hammer tapping thin glass.Dr. Wells set her legal pad on the coffee table. She folded her hands over her knees, watching me with that patient, unblinking stillness that had saved my sanity more than once."You’re wound tight today, Ivy," she said softly. "Shoulders up, knuckles white. Talk to me.""My head won't stop spinning," I said, my throat catching on the words. "Ethan and I sat with Marcus Webb at the DA's office yesterday. Ethan brought in the full packet before sunrise this morning. It’s officially out of our hands, Dr. Wells. The detectives are pulling the surveillance feeds. They have Grace's sworn statement and the paramedic

  • The Plus-Sized Bride No One Wanted: Too Fat to Love    Building the Second Case.

    ~ Ethan ~"Drink this before it gets cold," Dad said, setting a ceramic mug of black coffee right on top of my open medical chart.I blinked against the harsh fluorescent glare of my desk lamp, rubbing the dull ache behind my eyes. "What time is it?""Past two in the morning," Richard replied, pulling up a visitor's chair and sitting down heavily. He looked at the paperwork scattered across my desk. "You performed two back-to-back craniotomies today, Ethan. You haven't left Northgate Medical Campus in eighteen hours, and now you are playing detective instead of sleeping.""I can't sleep," I said, sliding the medical files aside to reveal the manila folder beneath them. "The Assistant District Attorney, Marcus Webb, made it very clear this morning. He told us that Ivy's statement, the delayed 911 call, and the grainy security footage from the gala hallway are a great start, but they aren't bulletproof. Julian Vance's legal team will spin it as a tragic accident between two women who tr

  • The Plus-Sized Bride No One Wanted: Too Fat to Love    The Room Nobody Warned Her About.

    ~ Ivy ~ "Ms. Monroe, why report this now, over a year later?" Assistant District Attorney Marcus Webb asked. He did not look up from the open manila folder right away. He was an older man with short, graying hair, sharp brown eyes, and a gray suit that looked like it had seen ten hours of work today. His desk was stacked with tall piles of paper. I sat in a stiff wooden chair across from him. Ethan sat in the chair next to mine. Ethan did not interrupt. He simply placed his hand flat on the armrest of his chair, keeping his shoulder close to mine so I knew I was not alone. The question hung in the air. A year ago, a question like that would have made me shrink until my chin hit my collarbone. I would have thought he was blaming me. I would have thought he was saying, You waited too long, so it must be your fault. I swallowed the dry lump in my throat, straightened my spine, and looked right into his eyes. "Because for a year, I didn't have proof," I said, my voice coming out cle

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