Chapter 18: Every Photograph

Maddie's POV

I woke at six to a bed that was still warm on his side.

My phone was buzzing its way across the nightstand.

There were dozens of missed calls.

The first text was from Lena.

Don't look at anything. I'm coming. Put on shoes.

I looked at everything.

They were on every site I opened, in rows, with the same headline over each one.

THE WEEK THE RUNAWAY BRIDE DISAPPEARED.

There I was on the pier, and on the sailboat, and on the dock with my sandals in my hand.

There was one of me at the market with a pineapple, laughing.

There was one from the rocks outside the sea cave, with his back to the lens, and my head thrown back, and my legs around him.

The photographer had been good. He had been patient. He had been paid.

I sat on the edge of the bed with a hand over my mouth.

My phone buzzed again. A text from a number saved as MOM.

Saw all of it. Not a single thing in there I haven't done. Proud of you. Eat something.

I laughed so hard I started to cry.

When I could breathe again I washed my face in Brody's sink.

Then I put on the black suit I'd hung in his closet the night before.

I could hear Lena shouting in the lobby of his building before the elevator finished opening.

She stood in a yellow raincoat with a paper bag in one hand and two coffees in the other.

She was arguing with a doorman.

"She's my best friend and she's expected," she said. "If you make me call my cousin the lawyer, you will enjoy it less than I will."

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