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SUSAN
The door slammed shut.
Noah didn't kiss me. He just stared — chest heaving, tie already gone, top buttons ripped open sometime between the last dance and the elevator. His eyes dragged down my body like he was undressing me with his teeth.
"You have no idea," he said, voice wrecked, "how many times I almost took you tonight."
My back hit the wall.
His mouth was on my neck, my jaw, my collarbone — hot and open and desperate. His hands gripped my hips and pulled me flush against him, and I felt everything. Every inch of him, hard and straining through his dress pants.
"I've been hard since the ceremony," he muttered against my skin. "Standing at that altar. Watching you walk toward me. Knowing what I was going to do to you tonight."
My fingers fisted in his shirt. "Noah—"
"Shh." His teeth grazed my earlobe. "Let me talk."
He pulled back just enough to look at me. Eyes black. Jaw tight. A muscle ticking in his cheek like he was holding himself back by a thread.
"I'm going to ruin this dress," he said.
"It's just a dress."
"It cost ten thousand dollars."
"Then ruin it faster."
Something snapped behind his eyes.
He spun me around, yanked the zipper down, and the dress hit the floor in a whisper of silk. I stood there in lace and heels, back to him, breath caught in my throat.
His hands found my waist. His lips found my shoulder.
"Turn around."
I did.
He looked at me — really looked — and something shifted in his face. The hunger was still there, but underneath it, something softer. Something that made my chest ache.
"You're my wife," he said, like he was testing the word.
"Your wife," I repeated.
He kissed me. Slow this time. Deep. His hands slid up my back, unhooked my bra with one flick, and let it fall.
"I'm going to take my time with you," he said against my mouth. "Every inch. Every sound. I want to hear all of it."
He walked me backward until my knees hit the bed. I sat. He knelt.
His hands slid up my thighs, pushing them apart. His breath was warm against my skin. His eyes never left mine.
"Tell me you want this."
"You know I do."
"Say it."
"I want this. I want you. I've wanted you since the first time I saw you."
His mouth curved. "Good."
His hands caressed the wetness that had pooled between my thighs — hot and sticky.
When he finally entered me, he thrust so hard I forgot to breathe.
He pounded into me until my mind went numb. All I could remember was Daddy calling me a good girl — but right now, I don't think I could still defend that title.
He grabbed my hips, positioning me upward, my legs raised.
I cried out in pleasure, my fingers digging into his skin as I bit my lip, the sensation quieting down my busy mind.
Then his phone rang.
He ignored it, still thrusting harder. I couldn't see who was calling — blurs and tears filled my eyes.
The phone rang again. This time the sound was louder than my moans.
He aggressively lifted off the phone.
"Who's there?" I asked.
His expression shifted from hunter to prey.
He gnashed his teeth together while his hands loosened on my neck.
He quickly flipped the phone face-down on the nightstand. Forced a smile. "It's nothing. Come here."
But I saw it. Just for a second before he turned it over.
The name on the screen.
Joana.
---
To be continued…
SUSAN The door swung open."What's taking you so long?" Noah filled the doorway, shoulder against the frame, arms crossed. "I've been waiting for hours."Rachel hissed. "Hours, my ass. It's been fifteen minutes.""Fifteen minutes is hours when you're standing in a hallway full of relatives asking me when we're having kids.""Then maybe you should have some.""We're working on it.""Noah.""What? You brought it up."Rachel rolled her eyes so hard I thought they'd stick. "Here she is. Take her away. You're not the only one who's married."Noah crossed the room in four steps and took my hand.I felt his fingers lace through mine. Warm. Easy. Familiar. He didn't notice that my palm was damp. He didn't notice that I was holding on too tight, that my knuckles had gone white around the photo still pressed between my thigh and my dress, that I hadn't blinked in thirty seconds."Come on," he said. "Mom's asking about the seating.""She's always asking about the seating.""Because you always si
SUSAN Rachel flipped the switch and the room exploded with light.I threw a hand up over my eyes. "Jesus, Rachel.""Sorry." She laughed, already moving past me. "Noah's always saying I overdo it. He's not wrong."The brightness settled. I blinked twice and looked around.It wasn't a nursery.Not yet, anyway. The crib was there, pushed against the far wall, still wrapped in plastic. The changing table was in pieces on the floor. The walls were painted a soft gray, but the shelves were empty and the closet door hung open with nothing inside but hangers.Rachel caught me looking."It's not done," she said. "I keep telling everyone it's not done. My mother-in-law keeps asking when I'm going to finish it like I'm building a house." She rolled her eyes. "It's a baby. He's not going to care if the shelves are empty.""It looks beautiful.""It looks like a storage unit." She crossed to the window and pulled the curtains open. "But that's not what I wanted to show you."She pointed at the floo
SUSAN The hall was packed.Round tables draped in white linen, gold-rimmed plates, centerpieces of pale pink roses that must have cost more than my first car. Fairy lights strung across the ceiling like a net of stars. A banner in cursive across the far wall — A Little Reed Is On The Way — with blue and pink balloons clustered at each corner.Two hundred people, easy. Maybe more.Noah's hand rested on my waist as we walked in. Not guiding. Just there. Possessive in the way he always was at family things — like he wanted every person in the room to know exactly whose wife I was."Breathe," he murmured against my ear."I am breathing.""You're scanning.""I'm not scanning.""You're scanning. You just counted the exits."I bit the inside of my cheek. He wasn't wrong."Relax," he said. His thumb traced a slow circle against my hip. "Nobody here is going to hurt you.""You don't know that.""I know I won't let them."His mouth brushed my earlobe. Quiet enough that no one else could hear.
SUSAN Nonso came back at four with a hard drive.He set it on the coffee table next to the folder and the photo, and he didn't say anything until Noah had closed the blinds and we'd all sat down. Me on the couch with my knees up. Noah beside me, close enough that our shoulders touched. Nonso in the chair."Your photographer," Nonso said. "Four thousand images. I asked him for the raw files, not the edited ones. He sent everything. Every frame, every misfire, every one nobody was supposed to see.""Why the raw ones?" Noah asked."Because edited galleries get culled. The photographer pulls out the bad shots. The ones with someone blinking, or someone in the background who wasn't supposed to be there." Nonso tapped the drive. "If someone wanted to be at your wedding without being seen, they'd make sure they got cut."I looked at the drive.Four thousand photographs of the best day of my life."Where do we start?" I asked."Reception," Nonso said. "That's where the crowd is. Ceremony's t
SUSAN Noah slept until noon.I let him. I lay beside him with my phone under the pillow and my eyes on the ceiling, and I let him sleep, because the alternative was waking him up and telling him what I'd done while he was unconscious. Which I wasn't going to do.Not yet.He woke slowly. Blinked at the light. Turned his head and found me already looking at him."How long?" he asked."Two hours.""Two—" He sat up fast. "Susan, you were supposed to—""You needed it.""I told you—""You were snoring."He stopped. Rubbed his face with both hands. When he looked up again, his eyes were clearer than they'd been in two days."Anything happen?" he asked.The phone burned under my pillow."No," I said.He nodded. Stood. Walked to the bathroom, and a minute later I heard the shower start. I lay there and listened to the water run and told myself I'd tell him tonight. Tomorrow. Soon.His phone rang at two.I was in the living room with a cup of tea when it went off — that flat buzz against the c
SUSAN I made it to the edge of the bed without waking him.His arm slid off my waist and landed on the mattress with a soft thump. He didn't stir. Didn't even twitch. I stood there for a second with my heart in my throat, watching his chest rise and fall, and then I grabbed my robe off the chair and slipped out of the room.My phone was in my hand.I didn't remember deciding to pick it up.The hallway was quiet. The living room smelled like smoke again — or maybe it never stopped. I walked past the couch, past the folded blanket, past the coffee table where Nonso had left a business card face-up with nothing but a phone number on it.The kitchen was still gutted. Panels open. Wires hanging. That red thing gone now, bagged and taken, but the ghost of it still there under the burner housing where nobody would ever have looked.I sat down at the kitchen table.Poured a glass of water I didn't drink.Stared at the phone.Then I opened the call log and tapped the number.Unknown.Of cours







