I was about to text back that I'd handle it myself when a message from Eileen came through.
I looked at the photo she sent, and everything inside me went still.
"Lorraine, don't tell me you actually believed him. The marriage certificate for you, the wedding for me?"
"He registered our marriage back when I was pregnant. As for that paper of yours, it's fake."
I stared at the photo of the marriage certificate Eileen had sent, my hand shaking around the phone.
So the certificate he'd given me was a fake too. Nathaniel, you've gone too far.
The tears spilled over and I couldn't wipe them away no matter how I tried. Not because I still loved him. Because of the woman who'd swallowed six years of grief.
Six years at his side, and I couldn't earn a single shred of sincerity. How laughable.
I sent the man a message. "You don't need to handle the divorce papers. He and I were never married."
"Let's set our wedding for one week from now."
I'd said one week, so one week it would be. I'd only changed the groom.
Once he agreed, I started to pack.
A few clothes, toiletries, my documents, all of it crammed into a suitcase.
As for the things Nathaniel and I had shared, the matching mugs, the matching pajamas, the matching throw pillows, I threw every one of them into the trash.
When I finished, I dragged my suitcase toward the door. That was when it flew open under a kick, and Nathaniel charged in, fury rolling off him, and slapped me across the face.
"Lorraine, I never imagined you could be this vicious. You said you wouldn't begrudge Eileen and me our wedding, and behind my back you drugged my child."
"He's barely a month old. How could you be so cruel?"
Eileen, eyes red, dropped to her knees and seized my wrist, her voice pitiful. "Cousin, I know you hate me. Punish me any way you want. I'm begging you, don't hurt my baby. He's innocent."
That expression was so familiar. It was the same one she wore every time she set me up. I shoved her away. "I didn't. She's framing me. I didn't do anything."
"You've envied Eileen since you were children, picked on her at every turn. Who else could it be but you?"
My mother came in and yanked a fistful of my hair, malice in her eyes. "How did I give birth to a cold-blooded creature like you? What a curse."
My father strode over and cracked me across the face twice. "Of all the guests here today, you're the only one who hates Eileen. Who else would have drugged the baby?"
A familiar coppery sweetness filled the corner of my mouth. That old feeling was back. Every time before had been exactly like this. No matter how I defended myself, it never mattered. They would never believe me.
I turned my eyes to Nathaniel. "And you? Do you believe me?"
He scoffed. "Your own parents have said it. What is there for me to believe?"
I shut my eyes, drained of every last hope. No matter how I argued, no one would believe me.
"Think whatever you want."
"So you admit it. Today I'm going to teach you a proper lesson."
My father pulled off his belt and lashed it across my body. I clenched my teeth and didn't make a sound, until he tired himself out and stopped.
"Pah. What a worthless wretch."
"Lorraine, you brought this on yourself."
The whole pack of them swept out. I touched my back, already a raw and bloody mess, and pulled out my phone to call that man. "Come get me."
Then everything went dark.
On the day of the wedding, after the ceremony was over, Nathaniel looked at Eileen's blissful face and thought of me, and all at once felt he'd wronged me.
So he took out his phone and sent me his first message of the entire week. "Lorraine, I'll come home and keep you company today."
No reply came, and the longer the silence stretched, the more restless he grew.
"Nathaniel, looks like Mr. Floyd from next door—the big client—is holding his wedding too. Aren't you going to raise a toast?"
A colleague's voice cut through his thoughts.
With Eileen on his arm, he walked uneasily into the reception next door. And then his eyes met mine.
He froze where he stood, staring at me, eyes going wide. "Lorraine, what are you doing here?"
