“Bullshit.” My pulse increases, ringing in my ears, pulsing in my fingertips. I run my tongue along the backs of my teeth, feeling the ridges.
The look on Regina’s face is wild, like flames consuming a forest. My insides flare, and my cheeks start to prickle.
“Oh, you don’t believe me?”
“Of course not,” I reply firmly. If Chris was married, I would know about it. I would have met her. He would have told me by now.
There’s just no way.
I’ve had enough of this conversation. I move to step past her, but she quickly reaches into her purse and pulls out her phone. She holds it out to me, and what I see nearly causes me to vomit.
A photo of Chris and another woman. Agorgeouswoman with fiery red curls and flawless skin.
She’s wearing…a bridal gown…and he’s in a tux, and they’re holding each other, smiling like they own the world, as people spray champagne and cheer.
My heart shrivels as I realize what I’m seeing.
“A…wedding…”
A chill runs through my chest like my soul leaving my body. I stare, frozen as Regina swipes through photo after photo, each like a knife stabbing me all over.
I might actually throw up.
“Found them on his wife’s Instagram,” she tells me, not hiding the pride in her voice. “It’s private, but I made a fake account and told her I was a photographer and asked if she wanted to model for me.” Laughing, she puts away her phone. “Would have thought the love of your life would tell you about that, no?”
My vision tunnels, and I just sort of zone out, staring at the ground in front of me.
No…it can’t be…
I hear Regina laughing, but I can’t focus. All I see are those wedding photos, a poisonous slideshow raking away at my mind and spirit.
Regina’s voice is a dull thrum from somewhere nearby. “Just have some dignity and leave now. Don’t make yourself look more pathetic than you already have.”
I’m conscious of her walking away and somehow manage to stay upright until she’s gone. That’s when my legs go out, and Ifall to my knees. Coarse sand and stones grind into my skin, but I barely feel it.
No. It can’t be…
Chris told me he loved me. So many times. He came inside of me. Talked about getting me pregnant… Why would he do that if he was married?
No. Reginamustbe lying. But if she is, how could she have those photos?
I realize I haven’t been breathing and collapse forward onto my hands, gasping for breath.
I have to find out the truth.
Summoning every ounce of strength I have in me, I rush over to my car and drive home, fighting back tears as they pool in my eyes. The world feels like it’s collapsing around me, but I manage to make it to the house without crashing.
On the verge of a heart attack, I race upstairs to my laptop and type Chris’s name into Google. His faculty page at Pine Hills comes up, along with some old articles from when he used to play football—
And then beneath it. A headline that nearly levels me.
Chris Davis to wed Jacquelin Connors…
And like that, I crumble.
Tears pour from my face. I slide off my chair onto the floor into a twisted heap, my lungs burning as I gasp for the slightest breath between my sobs.
The world feels black. Nothing but a frozen void.
