A soft knock came at the door.
“Babe?”
Liam sounded careful now. Gentle. Almost afraid.
“Can I come in?”
I took a breath.
“Is she gone?”
There was a pause that told me everything before he even answered.
“No. She’s… she’s resting in the guest room. She was really upset.”
Fresh anger shot through me.
The guest room.
The room my parents were supposed to use tomorrow night.
“Get out, Liam.”
“Honey, please. Just let me explain. We can work this out. I told her it isn’t permanent. I told her she needs to start looking for a place first thing next week.”
“Noon tomorrow,” I said through the door. “That was the deal. There is nothing to work out.”
I heard him exhale in defeat.
Then his footsteps moved away.
I locked the bedroom door, slid down to the floor, and finally let myself cry.
I cried for the joy she had taken from me, for the man I thought I was marrying, for the way a beautiful future could start falling apart in a single afternoon.
At some point I must have drifted off against the bed because I woke at dawn with a sore back, swollen eyes, and that foggy disorientation that lasts only a second before memory comes rushing back.
When I crept out into the living room, the house was quiet.
But the boxes were still there.
All fifteen of them.
The flamenco lamp stood where she had put it, ridiculous and smug in the thin morning light.
A tight knot formed in my stomach.
He had not done it.
He had not gotten her out.
I walked into the kitchen.
On the counter sat a single mug of coffee gone cold and a note in Liam’s handwriting.
Gone to talk to my uncle. He might have a room for her. Please don’t do anything drastic. I love you. We’ll fix this.
Underneath that, in a different, spidery hand, was a postscript.
P.S. We’re out of milk. Could you pick some up, Brenda?
I stared at it.
The nerve of it nearly took my breath away.
She was still somewhere in my house and somehow still felt entitled enough to leave behind a grocery reminder like this was already a shared household.
I crushed the note in my fist.
No.
This would not be my life.
My maid of honor, Chloe, was due at ten to help with the final dress fitting and pick up the favors. My parents were driving in from out of state and would be there around eleven. Liam’s deadline was noon. In a matter of hours, the house would fill with the people who loved me most, all of them coming to celebrate a wedding that, at this rate, might not happen.
The next few hours passed in a blur.