When I heard the news, I laughed until I cried. “Samuel, do you think God would accept a gilded statue from someone like him?”
Samuel said nothing, but I already knew the answer. We had long since fallen out of God’s protection. Our lives were meant to be lived in shadow and blood.
He did so much for Judy, but I pretended not to see it.
Then one day, she sent a taunting message from Marcus’s phone.
[So what if you can kill? You still can’t keep a man. Melody, you lost. Completely.]
I showed the message to Samuel. “Funny, isn’t it?” I said. “Once this is over, I’ll get myself a dog too.”
He handed me wedding invitations. “You haven’t divorced yet, and he's already planning a wedding with that— that tramp. Miss, you’re too patient.”
“No.” I waved a finger. “I’ve been waiting for their wedding.”
The ceremony was packed. The same faces who’d sat through my wedding with Marcus were there tonight. On the screen, they played his montage about how he and Judy met, how they fell in love, and at the end, three ultrasound reports. His face glowed with the joy of a first-time father.