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For twenty-seven days, I sat hoping by my mother' s hospital bed, begging Olivia, the woman I' d loved for six years, to marry me.
Her excuses flowed like water-"Swamped with work," "Bad timing," "Next week, honey."
Then, a text. And a picture. Olivia, radiant in a wedding dress, arm-in-arm with Brandon, her childhood friend. The marriage certificate read: twenty-seven days ago. The very day my dying mother had entered the hospital and I' d first proposed.
The world shattered. My phone buzzed again, an apology from Olivia: she couldn' t make our courthouse wedding, Brandon wasn' t feeling well. Another lie.
That same evening, the nurse grimly told me Mom had passed away. Olivia' s deceit had poisoned her last wish.
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