t o

and filled with a

as in a hotel suite, the kind reserved f

ace pale under the makeup, her wedding dr

me, Ethan? I

ind was spinning. This was

hone on the nightsta

r 12th

oat. This was our wedding

he screech of tires on wet pavement, the blind

d holding her, the warmth of her blood seeping throu

... liv

r had slapped me, her voice shaking with grief. "You ruined

that question. I had forced her into a loveless marriage because of

eart, Mark Johnson. Page after page, year after year, it was always him. She never loved

ld something that mattered, but it was all meaningless. Then I found the antique shop, the strange old

hing with every part of my soul to go

w I wa

oice hoarse. "Let' s..

ing in disbelief. "What are you

e to do this. We can tell our

g. "The guests are downstairs. My parents would k

ut us. It was a merger, seale

phone, her thumb swiping across the screen. The lock screen lit up, s

a pain I had lived with for ten years in my pa

on for the marriage certificate. It was

desk. Sarah didn' t even look at me, her attentio

ificate. Ethan Mille

d at Sarah' s back, at the way her shoulders slumped in def

, I drew a thick l

e, I wrote a new