I think people expect that part when I tell this story.
We did not start getting coffee every week or laughing about how terrible our shared ex was.
Our connection was too painful for that.
But three months after the wedding, she mailed me a small box.
Inside was the red ribbon she had worn around her neck.
There was a note.
“You believed me before I had perfect proof. I wish someone had done that for me.”
I cried harder over that sentence than I did when my marriage ended.
I still think about how angry I was when Vanessa first walked toward me.
I saw an unstable ex.
A jealous woman.
A threat to my perfect wedding.
Exactly what Evan had trained me to see.
And she knew that.
That was why she wore the red dress.
She did not come quietly because quiet women are easy to remove.
