DEMETRIA

Wedding Day…

It was finally here. My wedding day is in the last week of January. It felt like a dream someone dipped in gold.

The morning had been a swirl of makeup brushes, hairpins, perfume, and nonstop giddy squealing from my bridesmaids. At some point, Anastasia had shown me the breaking news alert about Paula’s death splashed across every media outlet.

I’d only blinked, nodded, and whispered, “I already knew.” And I was at peace. Nothing—absolutely nothing—was ...