The Wrong Groom

ds Marlowe Reyes let herself just feel it. The ache in her body. The weight of

ore she even o

father's monthly medication, promising forever to a man she barely knew but had convinced herself she could learn to

uzzed on th

osed, thumb finding the screen on instinct. Adrian's name lit u

ey

d that comes from sitting on an airport floor all night. "The storm grounded everythi

er, confusion working its way through the fog o

e. Too

o board now." Another pause, shorter this time, like he was choosing his next words caref

in the air like something foreign, something she had to

brot

e went

out smaller than she me

the first time she had ever heard that name in her life. "I called him last night when I knew I wasn't getting

already moved past the phone, past her own h

still aslee

she'd noticed at the altar and assumed was just one more detail about her husband she hadn't known yet. Same hands. The same hands that had t

ng

Wrong man

now, like it was coming from somewhere far away even thou

arely made it out.

e? Can you

nd falling slow and even, completely unaware that her entire

strangest part of all of it. Like some instinct deeper than panic had already take

when they're not actually amused. "Tell him I said thanks when he w

rible wi

ream. She genuinely couldn't tell

here by this afternoon. I love you. I'm sorry again,

said. "Lov

The screen went

gh to land on any single thought for longer than a second. She looked at her own hand like it belonged to someone else. She looked at the rumpled sheets, at the discarded

g until her skin felt like hers again. Calling Maddie

er, waiting for her body to decide what to do without her per

en his ey

ling, no panic, nothing close to the reaction she expected from a man who had apparently spent the night pretending to be his own b

xpected a guilty man to. He just watched her, calm in a way that made the hair on h

, stated low and even, like he already knew exactly

mething, anything, a question, an accusation, a d

ng ca

e a man who had already decided how this conve

, one she didn't have a name for yet and didn't want one for. Because the man looking back

tion of leaving quie