We threw her the birthday in the warm place, the way she'd ordered, among the paintings, with everyone who'd picked her — and we did it knowing that in the morning a court would decide whether it was the last one she'd have in this family. That is a specific kind of love, throwing a perfect party on the edge of a cliff. You learn it, I think, from mothers. Iris threw me a birthday three weeks before she died and never let me see the edge she was standing on. I understood, finally, what that...

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