Marrying the Manhattan Millionaire. Jackie Braun

      “Your father has made you jump through hoops your entire life for the scraps of his affection. I thought you were finally finished with that.”

      “This is different.” It was. It had to be.

      But Michael shook his head. “No, it isn’t, Sam. It’s just a bigger hoop with better scraps. I love you and I want to marry you more than anything in the world. But if you stay here now, I have a bad feeling that isn’t going to happen.”

      She hurried to Michael, wrapped her arms around him and held on tightly, maybe because part of her already knew she was losing him. “Don’t say that!”

      He sighed and rested his forehead against hers. “Believe me. I don’t want to say it. But I need to be honest.”

      She appreciated his honesty, but she also wanted his support. “It’s just till Sonya is on her feet again and able to return to work, I promise.”

      She broke that promise, though not intentionally. After Sonya suffered a major setback, she called Michael in tears.

      “I have bad news,” she began and started to cry.

      “You’re staying in Manhattan, aren’t you?”

      “Yes. I have to. Sonya—”

      “I knew it, Sam,” Michael said before she could tell him about the unexpected aneurism that had burst in Sonya’s brain and the doctors’ subsequent grim prognosis.

      “Please, listen,” she cried. “You don’t understand.”

      “I don’t understand what? That you’ve decided our wedding isn’t going to happen after all. I think I figured that out on my own.”

      “No. I love you, Michael. I was hoping you would come back to New York,” she said. “You’ll have no trouble finding a job here. We can still get married.”

      “Why would I move back, Sam? You’ve made it pretty clear where I fall on your list of priorities. You’ve picked trying to please your father over having a life with me.”

      She sank down on the bed they hadn’t shared since his last trip to Manhattan more than a month earlier. Even then, things had been strained. “That isn’t fair.”