I didn't answer Pip's question. I want that on the record, because I've told you the whole truth of this year, the brave parts and the cowardly ones, and this was one of the cowardly ones: my daughter asked me why I'd keep her forever but not the man I loved, and I said, "That's a grown-up thing, sweetheart, I'm still working it out," which is the precise sentence my mother would have used, the warm deflection, the kind lie that closes a door instead of walking through it. Pip accepted it,...

Paper Vows is a serialized fake-marriage billionaire romance audiobook, written by Mia. New episodes daily.