“I was just telling the other moms,” I continued, projecting my voice like a stage actress in a tragedy, “about how you and my husband have been sleeping together for the past four months.” The silence that followed was absolute. Even the industrial hum of the bounce house blower seemed to hold its breath. Chelsea’s…
Declan and I had met two years ago in a way that felt written by a screenwriter. It was a volunteer day at a community garden in North Portland. I was there with my class, trying to teach eight-year-olds the value of growing their own food. Declan was the landscape architect donating his time to redesign…
To an outsider, I must have looked like a statue, frozen in shock. But inside, my mind was racing back to the night before, to the whisper I had heard before this scream. Because the truth was, I wasn’t entirely surprised. The universe had been testing me all week, and unlike the naive girl I…
“Before we begin,” I interrupted, my voice cutting through the hushed silence of the chapel. It wasn’t loud, but it carried. The officiant blinked, confused. Callum squeezed my hand, a silent warning. “Nora, honey, not yet,” he whispered through his teeth. I pulled my hand away. The loss of contact felt like removing a shackle….
I stepped onto the platform. The height gave me a vantage point over the two hundred guests. Callum reached out his hand, trying to look calm, but I saw the micro-tremor in his fingers. His hazel eyes flicked over my face, scanning for adoration, checking whether something was off. He was used to managing perception,…
As the priest began the closing prayer, the heavy doors at the back of the chapel suddenly creaked open. Heads turned. A young Black boy, barefoot and wearing a tattered hoodie, stumbled inside. His breathing was labored, as if he had been running for miles. “Stop him!” an usher shouted, but the boy darted past,…
The room temperature seemed to drop ten degrees. Guests were exchanging glances. The silence was deafening, broken only by the hum of the ventilation system. “He deserves a real woman who can give him a fresh start,” Dolores said, her voice sharpening into a blade. “Not someone who comes with another man’s mistakes as luggage….
A cold dread coiled in my gut, replacing the butterflies that had been there since the ceremony. I looked down at Ivy, who was sitting between Marcus and me. She was busy coloring on her kids’ menu, oblivious to the guillotine blade hanging over her mother’s neck. She looked like an angel in her pale…
I got updates in passing. The cake would be from an exclusive bakery that required orders six months in advance. The flowers—imported orchids and white roses—would cost more than I made in a month. Everything was the best, the most expensive, the most exclusive. The furniture shopping trip happened on a Saturday. I had the…
I felt the familiar ache in my chest, the one that had been my constant companion since childhood. Jasmine was the daughter. I was just the eldest, the rehearsal child, the one who existed in the background. I was the one who learned early on that love in our household came with conditions I could never quite…