CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 2
“Apologize to my mother,” Jake said.
I looked up at him.
The man I had married three days ago stood over me in pajama pants and a dark T-shirt, pointing at me like I was a child who had misbehaved.
“Sarah,” he warned.
My skin was burning beneath the stew. My robe clung to my legs. The apartment smelled like beef, onions, coffee, and humiliation.
Linda sighed.
“She’s always been dramatic.”
That word did something to me.
Dramatic.
That was what Jake called me when I asked why his mother had demanded a key before the wedding.
Dramatic.
That was what he called me when Linda told our florist that white roses were “too plain for a Reynolds bride.”
Dramatic.
That was what he called me when I hesitated before letting him move into my apartment.
I slowly pushed myself up against the cabinet.
“I need cold water.”
Jake’s eyes narrowed.
“You need to apologize first.”
I laughed.
It came out broken and breathless.
“You’re serious.”
Linda crossed her arms.
“A good wife knows when she has upset the family.”
The family.
Not me.
Not my home.
Not the body burning on the floor.
The family.
I reached for the counter and pulled myself to my feet. Pain shot through my legs, but I stayed standing.
Jake stepped closer.
“Don’t walk away from me.”
I looked at him.
“Move.”
His face hardened.
“Excuse me?”
“Move, Jake.”
For the first time since I had known him, he hesitated.
Maybe it was my voice.
Maybe it was the fact that I was not crying anymore.
I limped past him, went straight to my desk, and unlocked the drawer with the small key hidden under the lamp.
Linda scoffed.
“What are you doing now?”
I pulled out a blue folder.
Jake’s expression changed the second he saw it.
Not fear yet.
Recognition.
“Sarah,” he said carefully. “Put that away.”
Linda looked between us.
“What is that?”
I opened the folder and removed the notarized agreement Jake had signed six weeks before our wedding.
The one my attorney insisted on after Linda started calling my apartment “Jake’s future home.”
May you like
I held it up.
“This is the reason neither of you owns one inch of this place.”
