The Night Before We Got Married novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The White Dress

I didn't wear the white dress.

I wore my own black one, the one I bought for an audition eight years ago and never got to use.

It had thin straps. Nothing on the arms. Nothing at the neck.

Goldie took it in at the waist that afternoon with pins in her mouth.

"If he touches you," she said around the pins, "you bite."

"He won't touch me."

"Then bite anyway. On principle."

Briggs drove me.

He didn't ask if I wanted him to. He was just parked outside Goldie's at seven with the engine running and the wipers going.

"I'll be at the curb," he said. "If you're not down in an hour, I'm coming up."

"There's a doorman."

"I've carried bigger things than a doorman."

The penthouse table was set for two. Candles. Linen. The good plates his mother had left him.

The candles were electric. He'd remembered that much.

Desmond stood up when I came in.

He looked at my dress, at my arm, at my bare neck.

For the first time in seven years, he looked straight at the scars.

"You didn't wear it," he said.

"I didn't."

"Sit down, Romy."

I sat.

There was no sign of Delphine. Her wineglasses were gone. The apartment smelled of lemon and nothing else.

"I made a mistake," Desmond said. "With the detective."

"You lied to her."

"I panicked." His thumb moved over the beads on his wrist. "I've never panicked in my life."

"Here's what I'm offering," he said. "We go to city hall on Monday, as planned. Nine-thirty. You sign. Afterward, I give you the ring. You give it to your fire investigator. I'll tell the police whatever you want me to tell them."

"Host," said the System. "Target 4 affection: 64."

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