Page 1 of Torch

Prologue

BRITTNEY

As I sat across from my boyfriend of five years, I had to ask myself—how the hell did I get here? He placed a beautiful engagement ring in front of me. I’m sure the size of this thing would make any woman jump for joy. But for me?

I was sick to my stomach.

Julian wasn’t abusive or anything. He was also easy on the eyes, with his tan complexion, muscular physique, and big, beautiful brown eyes. He just wasn’t the man for me. There were no sparks. No love. No connection. Just a bunch of nothing.

I’m sure you’re wondering how the hell I ended up with a man I didn’t love for five years.

Easy. What started as a simple matchup between our parents ended up taking on a life of its own. From the very first date, I could tell I had no interest in this man. He was snooty. Condescending. Arrogant. And very judgmental. He was everything I wasn’t.

Even down to this moment. Instead of asking me for my hand in marriage, he placed the ring on the table and told me it was time to plan our engagement party. I was so shocked that all I could do was stare at him with wide eyes. I guess he took my silence as me being happily stunned.

Now he was rambling about colors, themes, locations, our honeymoon, and so on.

It’s like I was stuck on a train wreck. All I wanted to do was get off!

No matter how many times I told my parents I didn’t want this, they wouldn’t listen. My father was only interested in moving up at Julian’s father’s marketing firm, where he worked.

That’s how all of this began. One day I went to take my father lunch at his job, and Julian saw me. He tried asking me out then, but, as I said, there were never any sparks between us, so I politely declined. That night my father came home and told me he wanted to set me up on a blind date with his boss’s son. At first, I started to decline, but my father said it would be disrespectful not to show up since he had already accepted on my behalf.

The guilt trip worked, and I accepted like a fool. Imagine my surprise when I showed up for the date, and it was Julian. He sat there with a smug expression and said, “I’m a man who always gets what he wants.”

Thoughts of walking right back out the door entered my mind, but I didn’t want to cause any problems for my father at work. I sat through that dreadful date while Julian did nothing but talk about himself. When I got home, my father was excited to hear about my date. After I told him I had no intention of seeing Julian again, he basically told me I didn’t have a choice.

Apparently, we were in a financial bind, and my being with the boss’s son could help him climb the ladder at his job. Still, I didn’t budge. But then my father started telling me just how much in debt we were. We were about to lose our home, all our cars, and everything else we owned.

My father told me he had made some poor investments that pretty much wiped out our accounts. And now he was clinging to Julian’s new, profound attraction to me to drag us out of that hole.

As much as I didn’t want to date Julian, I also didn’t want my family to lose everything, so I relented.

My father’s assumptions were spot-on. Three months into our relationship, he got promoted to Digital Marketing Manager at the firm. That earned him a hefty salary boost and bonuses.

A year into our relationship, my father was doing very well again. The bonuses he received over time put us back in a great place. I thought it would be enough, but apparently not. After seeing what it was like for me to be with Julian, both of my parents were now hounding me to stick it out. Next thing I knew, four years had coasted by.

And now he was talking about marriage?

Absolutely not!

“Julian, just wait a second, please,” I cut off his rambling.

His face twisted up in confusion. “Wait for what? It’s been five years, Brit. It’s time for us to take the next step.” He paused to take a swig of his Old Fashioned before continuing. “Now, as I was saying, I think we should keep the groomsmen and bridesmaids' numbers low. I’m thinking three each should do. We don’t want too man⁠—”

“I don’t love you!” I blurted out.

Julian’s face morphed from shock to anger. Like he told me on our first date, he was a man who always got what he wanted, so he didn’t like being told no.

I knew I was about to blow my entire life up, but this had to be done. I didn’t want to be in a loveless marriage that felt like a business transaction.

Call me a hopeless romantic, but I wanted to experience genuine love. Like the love stories I used to watch on television growing up. I knew it was all fiction, but love like that really did exist. I watched it between my grandmother and grandfather my entire life.

If I were going to have that, I knew I couldn’t waste any more years on a man I knew wasn’t made for me.

This had to end. No matter what the consequences were.

“What do you mean you don’t love me?” Julian hissed.