I stared at him, unable to believe these words had come out of the mouth of the man I'd loved for years.

But then I remembered—he was already Claudia Simmons' husband.

Then again, nothing he said or did could surprise me anymore.

I was leaving anyway. Might as well grant him this one last favor.

"Fine."

Maybe it was how easily I agreed that finally snapped Harrison out of his blindness.

He noticed, at last, that the shattered thing on the floor was our wedding photo.

And that the top of my foot was slick with blood.

His eyes went red in an instant. He rushed back to the bridal suite to grab the first aid kit.

The moment he was gone, Claudia lifted her chin and sneered at me.

"Tilda, you really are pathetic. You already know I'm Harrison's wife, and you still thought you could go through with the wedding?"

"So what if his mother doesn't like me? She can fight it all she wants. Harrison still married me."

"Tomorrow's wedding? It'll be mine. And Harrison will only ever be my man."

"You're going to be the homewrecker everyone spits on."

"And don't bother dreaming that he'll divorce me and marry you in three years, because..."

She placed a hand on her stomach, her smile dripping with triumph.

"This baby is his flesh and blood."

I lowered my eyes to hide the tears that surged up without warning.

So Harrison really had betrayed me.

And he'd treated me like a fool, telling me to wait another three years.

I did the math. The baby in Claudia's belly would have been conceived the night Harrison didn't come home.

That was the first time he'd ever forgotten my birthday. He said he was out entertaining clients.

The next morning, he came back full of apologies.

And proposed to me.

Said he wanted to give me a fairy-tale wedding.

I'd waited eight years for that moment.

The joy crushed every last shred of unease in my heart.

But that night, he forgot to lock the bathroom door. When I walked in, I saw the scratches across his back.

Fresh scratches. I demanded to know what happened.

He answered without missing a beat. Said a cat scratched him.

Even pulled up his rabies vaccination record as proof.

I forced myself to believe it.

But a woman's intuition is a stubborn thing. Even while I was planning our wedding, none of it felt real.

A voice in the back of my mind kept whispering: He finally agreed to marry you because he's trying to make up for something he did.