She studies me once more, her expression no longer adversarial. “Yours should too. Go to her. Make this right.”
“I’ve been trying to find her. But she’s avoiding me.”
“When you find her, put your pride aside,” she says quietly. “Put your hurt aside. The longer you take, the longer it will be before you can be a father to your boys and a partner to the woman you love.”
The music pulses against the walls. Glassware clinks. Somewhere near the bar, someone laughs too loudly. The reception continues, oblivious to the recalibration happening in a quiet corridor just beyond its center.
I study her for a moment. This is not the same woman I married. There’s no calculation behind her words. Just a tired kind of clarity. It leaves me wondering. “You really think she loves me?”
Amber exhales through her nose, almost amused. “She risked everything to tell you at the worst possible time. That’s not manipulation. That’s someone who couldn’t carry a heavy load by herself anymore.”
My anger has not evaporated. It sits in me, sharp and unresolved. But layered beneath it now is something heavier and more pressing.
My sons.
Amber’s voice cuts through my hesitation one last time. “Now go be happy.”
“Thanks for this, Amber.” I never knew how complicated my ex-wife is until now. I wish I’d understood her sooner.
She smiles, and it’s refreshingly pleasant. Not her usual smile. It’s the real one. “You’re welcome, Damian.”
I turn on my heel and start the hunt all over again.
27
PERRY
I don’t get morethan fifteen minutes alone. The way the day is going, I’m surprised I get that much.
I’m standing in the bridal suite, trying to breathe, trying to figure out how to reassemble myself into something functional, when Jason comes barreling toward me like he’s been launched.
“Where is she?” he demands.
I blink at him. “Where is who?”
“Faith,” he snaps. “I can’t find her. She was doing just fine in the reception hall, and then she shook her head, said she couldn’t do this anymore. She couldn’t, and I quote, ‘live a lie,’ whatever the fuck that means. She stormed off because of you.”
Of course it’s because of me. “She heardyou,” I say evenly. “So how is that because of me?”
“She shouldn’t have,” he fires back. “You should have told me she was standing there. That’s why it’s your fault.”
The audacity of that almost makes me laugh. “You want me to protect you from the consequences of your own mouth?”
He throws his hands up. “You knew she was there!”
“I was a little busy defending myself from you propositioning me at your own wedding.”
He scoffs. “You’re twisting it.”
“Am I? Do you remember propositioning me, or are you claiming a champagne memory?”
His face is flushed now, not from champagne but from anger. He looks less like a groom and more like the boy I used to fight with over nothing. “You always do this. You light a match and then stand back and act like you’re innocent while you watch the flames. You have always been a drama queen, Per, and you’re ruining my life because of it!”
“I didn’t do anything wrong. You did. Don’t blame me for your bullshit, Jason.”
He steps closer. His words come out slower. Not slurred this time. He’s sobered up. “You could have said something.”
“Like what? Hey, your bride is behind you while you ask me to find a room?”
