The house truly was like a storybook mansion. Marble columns and ivy. Wrought-iron balconies and licks of dark green crawling up the sides of it.

There was even a large bride and groom—either plastic characters or inflatables, I couldn’t tell which. And brilliant décor stretched all the way over the front of the house, like a great big birthday present just for me.

“You deserve it. This weekend is all about you. And your marriage to Asher, of course,” Mara said.

I looked around at the others, who were gathering their bags from the trunk. I watched Elizabeth slip the driver a five-dollar bill. Cheapskate.

But even she looked impressed as she turned toward the house, eyes crawling up the columns and beams, taking it all in.

This place truly is magnificent, I thought.

“I can’t wait to see what the inside looks like,” Georgia said, shimmying up beside me, graceful as a gazelle. She slipped an arm around my shoulders, and instantly my whole body tensed. I didn’t trust her. Never had. And now I knew why… Asher had been attending her gym regularly, spending time alone with her, since last August. If it was simply platonic, why didn’t he invite me along, or at the very least, tell me about it?!

Beyond the house, the sun was just starting to fall below the horizon.

“I hope Tinsley’s here, but I didn’t see her car.” And just like that, as though she could hear my words—as she had always been able to, in that psychic way of hers, since we were kids— Tinsley’s face appeared at a window on the second level.

She was ghostly pale, long white-blond hair draped around her gaunt face like wispy drapes. She wasn’t smiling. One palm was flattened against the glass, and she was staring straight at me. I waved at my cousin, relieved to see her. When Mara had made that dramatic statement in the airport bathroom about her not coming, I’d been crushed. But then, learning she was driving instead, I felt less annoyed. At least she’s here, I thought. That was all that mattered.

“Jesus, look at that ghoul. Are we sure that’s a real-life person? Perhaps this place is haunted?” Elizabeth sniffed from behind me, following my gaze to the shape of Tinsley in the window.

I whipped my head around and bared my teeth at her, forgetting for a moment that I was supposed to be kind and courteous to my future husband’s mom. My possibly cheating future husband…

“That’s my cousin, Tinsley, and she’s beautiful,” I said, sharply.

Elizabeth gave me a startled look, as though she were seeing me for the first time.