Chapter 1 - THE MORNING THEY EXPECTED ME TO LAUGH
At 5:30 the morning after my wedding, a bucket of ice water hit me full in the face.
I came awake choking.
For two or three seconds, I couldn't understand why my sheets were soaked or why chunks of ice were sliding down the front of my white satin sleep shirt. Then I saw my mother-in-law standing beside the bed with an empty red utility bucket.
Mary Davis was smiling.
Not nervously. Not apologetically.
Proudly.
“There,” she said. “Now you're properly welcomed into the Davis family.”
Near the doorway, my new sister-in-law, Susan, covered her mouth to hide a laugh.
And beside her stood Michael.
My husband of less than twenty-four hours.
He had his phone pointed at me.
Recording.
I stared at him.
“Michael?”
He smiled behind the phone.
“Come on, Rebecca. It's funny.”
Mary planted one hand on her hip.
“Every new Davis bride gets her outsider pride washed off.”
That sentence was so absurd that for a moment I thought I had misunderstood her.
Then Susan laughed.
“Mom, look at her face.”
Michael moved the phone closer.
Something in me snapped.
I climbed off the bed, crossed the few feet between us, and slapped Mary hard enough to turn her head.
Susan gasped.
Michael lowered the phone.
“What the hell?”
I slapped him too.
His expression changed instantly.
Not from guilt.
From satisfaction.
It lasted less than a second, but I saw it.
Then he looked down at his phone.
“Jesus, Rebecca.”
Mary pressed a hand against her cheek.
“You hit my son?”
“You came into my bedroom and dumped ice water on me while I was sleeping.”
“Our bedroom,” Michael said.
The correction landed strangely.
The townhouse had been mine for four years before I'd met him.
He'd moved in seven months earlier.
Mary started yelling about respect. Susan called me crazy. Michael kept looking at his screen.
I grabbed my robe and walked into the bathroom.
Before locking the door, I glanced back.
Michael was no longer looking angry.
He was reviewing the video.
May you like
And that was when I noticed something that chilled me more than the water had.
The timer on his recording wasn't at thirty seconds.
