“I’m Susan.”
He studied her hand, then looked at me.
“Is she the fake wife?”
Susan never blinked.
“Temporary role,” she said. “Low budget. Emotionally demanding.”
Liam stared another moment before shaking her hand.
“Okay.”
Susan sat again.
“You want to ask me anything?” she said.
He shrugged.
“Can you act like you like my dad?”
She smiled.
“I don’t think that part will be hard.”
Ten years earlier, Monica had told me I could never fix being myself.
Susan had somehow made it sound as though there was never anything broken.
She watched Liam walk away.
“He’s protective of you.”
“He shouldn’t have to be.”
“But he is,” she said softly.
The wedding took place at a country club outside the city, the kind with white stone columns, manicured hedges, and people who decided your worth within five seconds of meeting you.
I nearly turned the truck around in the parking lot.
Susan touched my arm.
“If you leave now, you’ll think about it for years.”
Liam leaned between the front seats.
“Let’s just get it over with.”
So we went inside.
Monica noticed us before we reached the main hall.
She stood near the entrance beside her fiancé and several relatives, already dressed for the ceremony, already wearing that polished smile she used whenever she wanted something. Then she noticed Susan.
Her smile changed.
She approached us, kissed the air near Liam’s head without actually touching him, then looked directly at Susan.
“My God,” she said loudly. “Daniel, how did you manage to land someone that gorgeous? Do you still take her to McDonald’s for dates and drive her around in that old pickup truck of yours?”
Several people nearby laughed.
I felt Liam become completely still beside me.
I should have responded. I should have said something. But suddenly I was back in that hallway ten years earlier, holding a baby while Monica looked at me like I was something dirty beneath her shoe.
Then Susan reached for my hand.
She did it gently, yet there was nothing hesitant about it.
“Actually,” she said, smiling at Monica, “I’ve always found reliability attractive.”
Monica’s expression tightened.
Then Susan tilted her head slightly.
“Still performing, Monica?”
Monica’s smile disappeared for a moment.
And suddenly I realized Susan knew much more than she had admitted.
The ceremony took place in a garden behind the club. White chairs. String music. Far too many flowers. Liam sat beside me with his hands twisted together so tightly I could see the tension in his fingers.
Monica never looked at him during the vows.
Afterward, during photographs, Monica motioned him over.
“Come stand with me, sweetheart.”
Liam stayed where he was.
“You don’t call me that,” he said.
Her smile froze before returning for the cameras.
Dinner followed, and later the DJ announced that guests were welcome to give toasts.
Susan stood.
My stomach dropped.
We had never discussed this.
I lightly touched her wrist.
“What are you doing?”
She looked down at me.
