“I have a little news that I didn’t want you to hear through the grapevine.”

“What’s that?” Paul asked, wondering what could’ve happened that counted as news in the one day he’d been away.

“Jenny and I got married this afternoon.”

“You-you what?”

“Remember the other day when I asked you if she seemed off?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“I figured out why. She and Toby were right about where we are now when he was killed. She’s been stressing out about something happening to me before our wedding, so I got the big idea this morning to surprise her by moving up the date. I’m so sorry it happened when you and Mom weren’t here, but the minute I had the idea, I knew I needed to do this for her right away. I hoped you’d understand.”

“I do. Of course I do. I can’t believe you’re actually married.”

“I know,” he said with a laugh. “It’s awesome.”

“What about the wedding?”

“It’s going on as planned. Today was a formality to ease her mind.”

“You did a really nice thing for her. She must’ve loved it.”

“Cried her eyes out. It was quite a day.”

“And you’ve got a seven-year-old underfoot on your wedding night.”

“He’s no trouble, and he goes to bed early. We’ll have plenty of time to celebrate later.”

“I’m so sorry I’m not home for that,” Paul said dryly.

Alex laughed. “We’ll miss you.”

“Don’t do anything to traumatize the kid for life, you hear?”

“We’ll see if we can control ourselves. Have you heard anything from the hospital about Mom?”

“Not yet.”

“How’d the drop-off go?”

“Not so great.” He told her about Marion slapping Hope.

“Jesus, Paul. She actually hit her?”

“Yep. And she hit her hard. Hope’s face is bruised, but she says she’s fine and it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“But still…”

“Yeah, I was a fucking wreck over it earlier, not to mention fucking furious.”

“I can imagine. I never told you why Jenny and I split for that short time when we were first together, did I?”

“No, you didn’t want to talk about it. What happened?”

“Mom basically implied—in front of Jenny’s parents the first time I met them—that Jenny was a whore for seducing me.”

“Oh my God. She did not.”

“Yes, she did, and that broke me, man. That she would say such a thing about the woman I love… I know it’s the disease, but you couldn’t tell me that then. I decided it would be easier to push Jenny away than it would be to subject her to that kind of shit.”

“And we all know how that went.”