Page 24 of Bitter Arrangement

I’m about to tell her everything will be okay when I feel something at her hip. It’s round and hard, about the size of my palm. “What do you have here?” I ask.

She brightens slightly, pulling back to grin at me. “Can you keep a secret?”

“You’re my wife now. I’ll die before I betray you.”

Her smile falters. “That was a little intense.”

I shrug and pull her against me again. “What’s the secret?”

“I brought a little talisman. Call it something borrowed.” She wriggles against me as she laughs. “I stole a watch.”

My heartrate slows. We keep dancing, but I feel the hairs on my spine stand up. “Really? And you brought it to your wedding?”

“I wanted it as a reminder, you know? Even though I’m doing this, that doesn’t mean it’ll change who I am.”

“Who did you steal it from?”

“This guy named Jeremy Fong. Some uptight cybersecurity consultant that came over for dinner one night to talk business. I lifted it from him right in front of my dad. It was honestly perfect?—”

She’s still talking, but I can’t hear anymore. My heart’s hammering now and blood rushes to my head.

This can’t be happening. There’s no way this is happening right now.

I pull away but grab onto her hand. I pull her along, dragging her from the dance floor. “We need to talk,” I snarl, hurrying away from the reception. I know it’s making a scene, but fuck, fuck,fuck.

I have to be wrong.

“What are you doing?” she says, looking back over her shoulder with a frown.

Tigran starts coming toward us, but I wave him off. I take her down a back hall and toward the bathrooms, and once we’re alone, I spin around to face her.

“Show me,” I command, holding out my palm.

She stares at me like I’ve lost my mind.

And honestly, I’m about to. I’m vibrating from head to toe, ringing with horror.

“Are you joking right now?”

“Please. I need to see it.”

“You just dragged me from our wedding because I stole a watch? I knew you were crazy?—”

“I don’t give a shit that you stole something,” I say, and maybe it’s the desperation in my voice because her face softens with surprise. “Please, Riley. Let me see it.”

“I don’t know why this is such a big deal,” she says, awkwardly reaching down into her dress. She fishes around at her hip before pulling it back out, wriggling to get her arm back through the sleeve. “It’s just some crappy old thing. Do you know Fong or something?”

She dangles it by the chain.

I touch it gently. The watch spins, catching the light.

Burnished brass. Made to look old, although I know it was made only a few years ago. I weigh it on my palm. “It’s heavier than I thought it’d be,” I say quietly, mostly to myself.

“You really know this thing?”

My stomach is an empty black pit. A deep, existential bleakness fills me as the gravity of our situation becomes horribly clear.

“I was hired to find this,” I tell her, letting it go. I touch her cheek, and she stares at me with confusion. “I’ve been looking for you for a couple of weeks now.”

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