{"id":869,"date":"2024-01-22T13:03:28","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T13:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/penelopewardauthor.com\/?post_type=books&#038;p=869"},"modified":"2024-03-09T16:22:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T16:22:13","slug":"the-surrogate","status":"publish","type":"books","link":"https:\/\/penelopewardauthor.com\/clds-staging\/books\/the-surrogate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Surrogate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>ABBY:<\/strong><br>I\u2019m falling for the father of the baby I\u2019m carrying.<br>The problem is: it\u2019s not my baby.<br>And the broody widower is not looking for a long-term partner.<br>As a surrogate, the deal was that I\u2019d only be in England long enough to give birth.<br>At first, the man seemed as pretentious as his name: Sigmund Benedictus.<br>He and I butted heads.<br>Sig challenged my intentions, accused me of just wanting to do this for the money.<br>Gradually, he learned to trust me.<br>He even became protective.<br>Over time, our heated animosity turned into fiery chemistry.<br>I was falling in love with him.<br>But my time here had a limit.<br>I needed to protect my heart from the devastatingly gorgeous older man who\u2019d end up breaking it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>SIG:<\/strong><br>When my in-laws told me they wanted to use my dead wife\u2019s eggs to conceive a grandchild, I wasn\u2019t immediately on board.<br>They swore that on her deathbed Britney told them it was what she wanted\u2014but only if I fathered the baby. Her parents insisted they would be the ones to raise it.<br>Against my better judgment, I agreed.<br>I vowed to keep my heart out of it, though.<br>I\u2019d continue to pretend it wasn\u2019t happening and live the empty, single life I\u2019d become accustomed to the past five years since Britney died.<br>And despite the fact that a certain younger American named Abby Knickerbocker had awakened things inside me that I thought were long dead\u2026<br>I most certainly wouldn\u2019t fall in love with the surrogate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":871,"template":"","format":[21,19,20,22,41],"meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"series":[73],"trope":[65],"writtenby":[16],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"series":[{"value":73,"label":"Interconnected Standalone Series \u2013 The Aristocrat"}],"trope":[{"value":65,"label":"Age Gap"}],"format":[{"value":21,"label":"Ebook"},{"value":19,"label":"Audiobook"},{"value":20,"label":"Paperback"},{"value":22,"label":"Hardcover"},{"value":41,"label":"Alternate Cover"}],"writtenby":[{"value":16,"label":"Penelope Ward"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/penelopewardauthor.com\/clds-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/EBOOK-MED-636x1024.jpg",636,1024,true],"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penelopewardauthor.com\/clds-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/books\/869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penelopewardauthor.com\/clds-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/books"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penelopewardauthor.com\/clds-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/books"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penelopewardauthor.com\/clds-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penelopewardauthor.com\/clds-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penelopewardauthor.com\/clds-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=869"},{"taxonomy":"trope","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penelopewardauthor.com\/clds-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trope?post=869"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penelopewardauthor.com\/clds-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/format?post=869"},{"taxonomy":"writtenby","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penelopewardauthor.com\/clds-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writtenby?post=869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}