Ruined Crown (Broken Kings #1)

When Soren Drakemire told me I’d “never be good enough” for his brother, it felt like the ultimate betrayal—the final rejection from a family I was desperate to belong to. But six years later, abandoned and broke with a daughter to raise alone, I finally he wasn’t trying to destroy me. He was trying to save me.

Now I’m counting pennies for dollar store cupcakes while my six-year-old deserves so much more. The life I’ve built is honest, independent, and nothing like the gilded cage I escaped.

Until the day my doorbell rings—and there he stands. Soren. The man whose warning I ignored. Holding the reins to a pink pony, with a truck full of birthday decorations behind him.

He wants to give my daughter the magical celebration I can’t afford. And I hate that he can offer her everything while I can give her only love.

Accepting his help means more than swallowing my pride. It means facing the truth I’ve spent years running maybe the brother I fell for was never the one meant to catch me when I fell.

Some second chances come with conditions. Others come with everything you never knew you needed.