His Broken Promise, My New Beginning

His Broken Promise, My New Beginning

Puffin

5.0
Comment(s)
9.7K
View
10
Chapters

I gave my brother my kidney. In return, he promised to finally bring me home. For eight years, I waited on the sidelines of his life, only to overhear him giving my "Welcome Home" party to our adopted sister. He called me a ghost he didn't know where to put, confident I'd show up and smile while she took my place. He was wrong. I didn't cry or scream; I just turned off my phone and walked away forever.

His Broken Promise, My New Beginning Chapter 1

I gave my brother my kidney. In return, he promised to finally bring me home.

For eight years, I waited on the sidelines of his life, only to overhear him giving my "Welcome Home" party to our adopted sister. He called me a ghost he didn't know where to put, confident I'd show up and smile while she took my place.

He was wrong. I didn't cry or scream; I just turned off my phone and walked away forever.

Chapter 1

Kingston Koch POV:

The party that was supposed to welcome my sister home was never really for her. I knew it, my business partner Finn knew it, and somewhere deep down, under layers of champagne-fueled excitement, even my adopted sister Everly probably knew it.

"You're making a mistake, Kingston," Finn said, his voice tight. He stood across from my mahogany desk, his arms crossed over his chest, looking more like a disapproving father than the COO of my tech empire. The late afternoon sun slanted through the floor-to-ceiling windows of my office, catching the dust motes dancing in the air between us.

I leaned back in my leather chair, steepling my fingers. "It's not a mistake. It's a strategic adjustment."

"A strategic adjustment?" He let out a short, sharp laugh that held no humor. "You promised Hope a 'Welcome Home' party. A formal introduction to the world as a Koch, as your co-heir. Now, three days before the event, you're changing the banners to 'Happy 21st Birthday, Everly'?"

"Everly was feeling insecure," I said, the excuse tasting like ash in my mouth even as I said it. "She felt like Hope's arrival was overshadowing her big milestone. You know how sensitive she is."

"I know she's a master manipulator and you let her get away with it," Finn shot back, his gaze unwavering. "This isn't about Everly's birthday, and you know it. This is about you. You're terrified of what Hope represents."

"That's ridiculous."

"Is it? Hope is your past, Kingston. She's the hurricane, the foster homes, the years you spent trying to forget. Everly is the perfect, polished daughter you and your parents chose to build a new life with. Hope is a ghost you finally caught, and now you don't know where to put her."

His words were too close to the truth, and a muscle in my jaw tightened. "I know exactly where to put her. Beside me."

"Then why are you shoving her into the corner to make room for Everly's five-tier cake and ice sculpture?" Finn stepped closer to the desk, leaning his hands on it. "She's waited eight years for this, Kingston. Eight years since you 'found' her, living in that tiny apartment, working a dead-end job, all while you promised that one day, you'd bring her home. Properly."

"And I will."

"When? When Everly gets married? When she has a baby? When will it ever be Hope's turn?" He shook his head, a look of profound disappointment on his face. "She's your blood, man. Your actual, biological sister."

"Don't you think I know that?" I snapped, the guilt a familiar, coiling serpent in my gut.

"Then act like it! You're going to lose her. You keep treating her like she's endlessly patient, endlessly forgiving, and one day you're going to push her too far, and she'll just... walk away."

A cold certainty settled over me, a confidence born from years of her unwavering devotion. I thought of her, lying in a hospital bed next to mine, pale and weak but smiling because she had saved me. "No, she won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"She gave me a kidney, Finn," I said, my voice low. The memory was my trump card, the ultimate proof of her loyalty. "When I was dying, she didn't hesitate. She wouldn't leave me. Ever. She needs me."

I saw the flicker of pity in his eyes, and it angered me. He didn't understand the bond we had, the debt she felt she owed me for finding her, for giving her a connection to the family she'd lost.

He sighed, pushing himself off the desk. "So what's the plan? How are you going to tell her you've hijacked her homecoming for a sweet sixteen on steroids?"

"I'll just tell her we're merging the events," I said, affecting a casual tone. "A joint celebration. She's practical. She'll understand it's more efficient."

"Efficient," Finn repeated, the word dripping with sarcasm.

"She won't make a scene. That's not who she is," I continued, more to convince myself than him. "She'll show up, probably with some thoughtful, handmade gift for Everly, and she'll smile and pretend she's happy to share the spotlight." I envisioned it perfectly: Hope, in a simple, off-the-rack dress, standing quietly in the corner while Everly, glittering in couture, held court. The image brought a strange, unsettling mix of relief and shame. "She'll do it for me."

Finn just stared at me for a long moment. "I hope you're right," he said finally, his voice heavy with doubt. "Because if you're wrong, you're not just losing a sister. You're losing the only piece of your soul you have left."

He turned and walked out, the click of the closing door echoing in the cavernous office. I stared out at the city skyline, the setting sun painting the glass towers in hues of gold and blood orange. He was wrong. Hope would never leave me. She couldn't.

After all I'd done for her, she owed me her loyalty. She would stand by and watch Everly blow out the candles on a cake that should have been hers. She would clap, she would smile, and she would understand.

She always did.

"She has to," I whispered to the empty room, the confidence I'd projected for Finn now fraying at the edges, leaving me with a chilling, unfamiliar sense of dread.

---

Continue Reading

Other books by Puffin

More
Rejected for the Omega: The Alpha's Regret

Rejected for the Omega: The Alpha's Regret

Werewolf

5.0

To the outside world, I was the envy of every she-wolf as the fiancée of Alpha Kael. But inside the gilded cage of his pack house, I was a ghost. I molded myself into perfection for him, wearing the colors he liked and suppressing my own voice. Until I walked past his study and saw him with Lyra—the orphan he called his "sister." His hand rested intimately on her thigh as he laughed, telling her, "Elara is just a political necessity. You are the moon in my sky." My heart shattered, but the physical blow came days later. During a training exercise, the safety cable snapped. I fell twenty feet, shattering my leg. Lying in the dirt, gasping through the pain, I watched my Fated Mate run. Not to me. He ran to Lyra, who was burying her face in his chest, feigning terror. He comforted her while I bled. Later, in the infirmary, I heard him whisper to her, "She won't die. It will just teach her who the real Luna is." He knew. He knew she had sabotaged the rope with silver, and he was protecting her attempted murder. The final thread of my love incinerated into ash. The next morning, I walked into the Council Hall, threw a thick file on the table, and looked the Elders in the eye. "I am dissolving the engagement," I stated coldly. "And I am withdrawing my family's silver supply. I will starve this Pack until you beg." Kael laughed, thinking I was bluffing. He didn't notice the lethal Beta from the rival pack standing in the shadows behind me, ready to help me burn Kael's kingdom to the ground.

You'll also like

While I Was Bleeding Out, He Lit Lanterns For Her

While I Was Bleeding Out, He Lit Lanterns For Her

Katie Oettgen

As I lay on the floor of our manor, bleeding out from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, I used my last ounce of strength to call my husband, Cole. I begged him for help, my vision blurring. But the only thing I heard was the clinking of champagne glasses and his mistress's giggle in the background. "Stop the drama, June," Cole snapped, his voice cold. "We're about to go on stage. Don't call again." He hung up, leaving me to die alone on the Persian rug while he accepted an award with another woman on his arm. I woke up in the hospital days later. My baby was gone. They had removed my fallopian tube. Cole finally arrived, smelling of expensive scotch and his mistress's perfume. He didn't hug me. He didn't cry. Instead, he leaned over my hospital bed, pressing his knee into the mattress until my fresh stitches tore open and bled. "You embarrassed me by calling an ambulance," he hissed. "My mistress, Alycia, says you're faking it. Clean yourself up." He left me bleeding again to go announce a $10 million donation to Alycia's "groundbreaking" medical research. I stared at the TV screen, numb. The research Alycia was taking credit for? It was mine. I wrote that patent years ago under a pseudonym. They thought I was just a poor, orphan housewife who needed Cole's money to survive. They had no idea I was actually a billionaire scientist hiding my identity. I pulled the IV needle out of my arm. A drop of blood fell onto the divorce papers I had been hiding. I didn't wipe it off. I signed my name right over it. Then I walked into the bank, reactivated my dormant account with $128 million, and bought the penthouse directly overlooking Cole's house. The mourning widow is dead. The avenger is born.

No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return

No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return

Xiao Xiaosu

I went to the City Clerk’s office for a routine copy of my marriage license to finalize a trust fund audit. I expected a simple piece of paper, but the clerk’s pitying look told me my entire life was a lie. "The license was never finalized, Ms. Oliver. In the eyes of the state, you are single." The three-hundred-guest wedding at the Plaza and the Vogue features meant nothing. My husband, Gray Cooley, had intentionally filed the documents with a "procedural defect" so he could discard me without a legal divorce. Moments later, an iCloud invite titled "Our Little Secret" popped up on my screen. It was a photo of my best friend, Brylee, holding a positive pregnancy test at our Hamptons estate. Gray’s text to her was the final blow: "Happy anniversary, babe. This baby is the best gift. Once the trust unlocks today, we’re done with the charade." I soon discovered they were even stealing my career, reassigning my architectural masterpiece to Brylee while preparing my eviction notice. Gray's mother called me a "barren mule" in a leaked recording, mocking the infertility I suffered after saving Gray’s life in a construction accident. I wasn't a wife; I was a three-year placeholder used to secure his inheritance. How could the man I bled for treat me like a disposable prop? How could my best friend carry his child while pretending to comfort me through my darkest moments? The betrayal burned until it turned into a cold, hard stone of fury. I didn't cry. Instead, I walked into the penthouse of the Barretts, the Cooleys' most powerful rivals. I signed a marriage contract with Kane Barrett, the man the tabloids called the "Beast of Wall Street." "I want a wedding," I told his father, my voice steady and lethal. "Bigger than the one I had with Gray." If they wanted me gone, they would have to watch me become the woman who owns their world.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
His Broken Promise, My New Beginning His Broken Promise, My New Beginning Puffin Romance
“I gave my brother my kidney. In return, he promised to finally bring me home. For eight years, I waited on the sidelines of his life, only to overhear him giving my "Welcome Home" party to our adopted sister. He called me a ghost he didn't know where to put, confident I'd show up and smile while she took my place. He was wrong. I didn't cry or scream; I just turned off my phone and walked away forever.”
1

Chapter 1

30/09/2025

2

Chapter 2

30/09/2025

3

Chapter 3

30/09/2025

4

Chapter 4

30/09/2025

5

Chapter 5

30/09/2025

6

Chapter 6

30/09/2025

7

Chapter 7

30/09/2025

8

Chapter 8

30/09/2025

9

Chapter 9

30/09/2025

10

Chapter 10

30/09/2025